Sexton, Anne (Harvey), 1928–74, American poet, b. Newton, Mass. Educated at Garland Junior College and at Radcliffe, she worked briefly as a fashion model in Boston. Her "confessional poetry" is highly autobiographical, marked by irony and lyrical emotion, and often dwells on themes of madness and death. Her first work, To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960), deals in personal terms with her efforts to retain her sanity. Other works include Selected Poems (1964, 1988), Live or Die (1966; Pulitzer Prize), Love Poems (1969), Transformations (1971), The Book of Folly (1973), The Death Notebooks (1974), the posthumous The Awful Rowing Toward God (1975), and The Complete Poems (1981). Sexton died at 46, an apparent suicide. Her daughter, Linda Gray Sexton, is a novelist and essayist.

Bibliography

See D. W. Middlebrook, Anne Sexton: A Biography (1991); J. D. McClatchy, ed., Anne Sexton, the Artist and Her Critics (1978); L. G. Sexton, Searching for Mercy Street: My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton (1994).

Sexton, Anne

orig. Anne Gray Harvey

(born Nov. 9, 1928, Newton, Mass., U.S.—died Oct. 4, 1974, Weston, Mass.) U.S. poet. She worked as a model, librarian, and teacher. Her first book of poetry, To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960), examines her mental breakdowns and subsequent recoveries with confessional intensity. She continued probing her personal life in All My Pretty Ones (1962) and Live or Die (1966, Pulitzer Prize). Her other works include the nonfiction collection No Evil Star (1985). She died a suicide. Several volumes of poetry were published posthumously.

Sexton, Anne (b. Harvey) (1928–74) poet; born in Newton, Mass. She studied at Garland Junior College, Boston (1947–48), and was a fashion model (1950–51). Based in Weston, Mass., she married (1948), divorced (1974), and suffered from mental illness. Her autobiographical poetry remains respected and is noted for its highly charged emotional climate, as seen in her first volume, To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960). She committed suicide at the height of her career.