Hughes, Ted (Edward James Hughes), 1930–98, English poet, b. Mytholmyroyd, Yorkshire. Hughes's best poetry focuses on the unsentimental within nature. His poems are marked by controlled diction and style, which create a sense of order and meaning in violent or passionate natural events, often in the world of animals. His volumes of poetry include The Hawk in the Rain (1957), Lupercal (1960), Wodwo (1967), Crow (1971), Gaudete (1977), Moortown (1980, 1989), River (1984), and Wolfwatching (1991). From 1984 until his death Hughes was poet laureate of England. He also wrote fiction, plays, stories for children, and essays, e. g., those included in the large collection Winter Pollen (1995). In addition, he edited a number of books and translated such authors as Ovid (1997) and Aeschylus, Euripides, and Racine (all: 1999). Hughes was married (1956–63) to the American poet Sylvia Plath Plath, Sylvia, 1932–63, American poet, b. Boston. Educated at Smith College and Cambridge, Plath published poems even as a child and won many academic and literary awards.
..... Click the link for more information. ; he explored their complex relationship in Birthday Letters (1998), his last book of verse.

Bibliography

See biography by E. Feinstein (2002); J. Malcolm, The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (1994); E. Tennant, Burnt Diaries (2001); E. Wagner, Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and the Story of Birthday Letters (2001); D. Midddlebrook, Her Husband: Hughes and Plath–A Marriage (2003); studies by K. Sagar, ed. (1975, 1983, 1994, and 2000), C. Robinson (1989), A. E. Dyson (1990), N. Bishop (1991), L. M. Scigaj (1992), P. Bentley (1998), and N. Gammage, ed. (1999).

Hughes, Ted

orig. Edward James Hughes

(born Aug. 16, 1930, Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, Eng.—died Oct. 28, 1998, Devon) British poet. The son of shopkeepers, he studied at Cambridge University. He married the American poet Sylvia Plath in 1956. His first volumes of verse were The Hawk in the Rain (1957) and Lupercal (1960). After Plath's 1963 suicide he wrote little for three years, then began publishing prolifically, often in collaboration with illustrators or photographers. His collections include Wodwo (1967), Crow (1970), Cave Birds (1975), Gaudete (1977), and Wolf Watching (1989). His most characteristic work emphasizes the cunning and savagery of animal life in harsh, sometimes disjunctive lines. He wrote many volumes for children (including The Iron Man, 1968) and edited the journal Modern Poetry in Translation. In 1984 he became Britain's poet laureate. Birthday Letters (1998), published shortly before his death, consists of revealing poems about his relationship with Plath.