In this outstanding and controversial biography, written despite the wishes of Ted Hughes, Linda Wagner-Martin traces Plath's childhood in Massachusetts, her brilliant academic career, her aggressive ambition to excel both socially and in her writing and the deep anxiety that plagued her all her life and led to her first suicide attempt at the age of twenty. Linda Wagner-Martin draws on unpublished letters and journals and over two hundred interviews to explore every aspect of Sylvia Plath's life and brings new understanding to her development as a writer.