Anne Sexton

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Anne Sexton (born November 9, 1928 in Newton , Massachusetts as Anne Gray Harvey ; † October 4, 1974 in Weston , Massachusetts) was an American poet who is counted among the representatives of " Confessional Poetry ".

life and work

Anne Sexton attended a girls' school in Lowell , Massachusetts and the Garland School in Boston ; during this time his first poems were written. In 1948 she married Alfred Muller Sexton II. She worked as a model, fashion seller and bookseller.

In 1953 their first daughter Linda Gray was born, and two years later their second daughter Joyce Ladd. In 1956 she received psychiatric treatment for the first time, and on November 8th of that year she made her first suicide attempt . Her attending doctor, Martin T. Orne, encouraged her to write poetry; In 1957 her first poem was published. Based on her hospital stay, she wrote her first volume of poetry, To Bedlam and Part Way Back , which was published in 1960. In the meantime, Sexton attended a poetry seminar by Robert Lowell , where she met Sylvia Plath , another representative of Confessional Poetry . A series of sponsorship awards enabled her to travel to Europe and Africa, and she was repeatedly given teaching positions at American universities. In 1962 she was undergoing psychiatric treatment again, followed by another suicide attempt in 1966. In 1967 she received the Pulitzer Prize for Live Or Die . In 1969 the volume of poetry Love Poems was published , in 1971 it published Transformations , a modern, socially critical adaptation of the Grimm brothers' fairy tales .

In 1973 Anne Sexton divorced her husband. In 1974 the last volume of poetry, the publication of which she saw herself, was published, The Death Notebooks . In October 1974, she committed suicide by poisoning with carbon monoxide . The books of poetry The Awful Rowing Toward God and 45 Mercy Street appeared posthumously . Her literary estate is administered by her daughter, Linda Gray Sexton.

bibliography

  • To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960)
  • The Starry Night (1961)
  • All My Pretty Ones (dt. All my friends, 1962)
  • Live or Die (Eng. Live or Die, 1966)
  • Love Poems (German love poems, 1969)
  • Mercy Street (play, 1969)
  • Transformations (German metamorphoses, 1971)
  • The Book of Folly (German book of folly, 1972)
  • The Death Notebooks (1974)
  • The Awful Rowing Toward God (dt. The awesome rowing toward God, 1975)
  • 45 Mercy Street (1976)
  • Words for Dr. Y. (1978)

Awards (selection)

Aftermath

Peter Gabriel dedicated the song Mercy Street from his album So to Anne Sexton in 1986 , the lyrics of which are inspired by her work.

In 1998 the audio book Metamorphoses was published, read by Hannelore Elsner , and in 2000 I am like a living stone, an audio book read by Corinna Harfouch .

Helmut Oehring and Iris ter Schiphorst composed “LIVE (from: Androgyn)” - 18 songs based on texts by Anne Sexton for solo voice, ensemble, live electronics (1997) and “Requiem” for three counter tenors, 12 instruments and live electronics based on the 9 Psalms: “O Ye Tongues” from “The Death Notebooks” by Anne Sexton (1998).

Moritz Eggert composed the song cycle wide unclasp (2002) based on poems from her collection of poems The Awful Rowing Toward God .

Catherine Kontz-Växby composed the short opera A Certain Sense of Order (2017) for two female voices and two keyboard instrument players (reed organs, piano, percussion), based on the poem For John, Who Begs Me Not to Inquire Further .

Secondary literature

  • Steven E. Colburn (Ed.): No Evil Star: Selected Essays, Interviews and Prose, The University of Michigan Press, 1985
  • Anne Sexton: Self-Portrait in Letters, S. Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 1997
  • Linda Gray Sexton: Looking for my mother, Anne Sexton, Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 1997
  • Diane Wood Middlebrook: Between Therapy and Death. The life of the poet Anne Sexton, Die Arche, Hamburg 1993. [New edition under the title Magic and Signs. The life of the poet Anne Sexton, Munich 1995.]
  • Claudia Reinhardt (Ed.): Killing Me Softly - Todesarten, Aviva, Berlin 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Anne Sexton: All my loves / Live or die, S. Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 1996, ISBN 978-3100725103 , p. 384 ff.
  2. ↑ Anne Sexton Dies; Pulitzer Poet, 45, New York Times article, Oct. 6, 1974, p. 65; Anne Sexton Ruled Suicide, New York Times, October 9, 1974, p. 46.
  3. ↑ Linda Gray Sexton's website , accessed July 7, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Sexton, Anne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American poet and Pulitzer Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Newton , Massachusetts (USA)
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1974
Place of death Weston , Massachusetts