Birthday Letters

Author: Ted Hughes

Stock information

General Fields

  • : 27.99 AUD
  • : 9780571194735
  • : Faber
  • : Faber Poetry
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  • : 0.24494
  • : July 2005
  • : 201mm X 132mm
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  • : 27.99
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  • :
  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Faber Poetry Ser.
  • : very good
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Barcode 9780571194735
9780571194735

Description

Formerly Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II, the late Ted Hughes (1930-98) is recognized as one of the few contemporary poets whose work has mythic scope and power. And few episodes in postwar literature have the legendary stature of Hughes's romance with, and marriage to, the great American poet Sylvia Plath. The poems in Birthday Letters are addressed (with just two exceptions) to Plath, and were written over a period of more than twenty-five years, the first a few years after her suicide in 1963. Some are love letters, others haunted recollections and ruminations. In them, Hughes recalls his and Plath's time together, drawing on the powerful imagery of his work--animal, vegetable, mythological--as well as on Plath's famous verse. Countless books have discussed the subject of this intense relationship from a necessary distance, but this volume--at last--offers us Hughes's own account. Moreover, it is a truly remarkable collection of pems in its own right.

Promotion info

Birthday Letters is Ted Hughes's bestselling collection of poems exploring his marriage to Sylvia Plath.

Awards

Winner of Forward Poetry Prize 1998 and TS Eliot Prize 1999 and Whitbread Prize (Poetry) 1998 and Whitbread Book Awards: Book of the Year 1998 and Forward Poetry Prize: Best Collection 1998 and Whitbread Book Awards: Poetry Category 1998.

Author description

Ted Hughes (1930-1998) was born in Yorkshire. His first book, The Hawk in the Rain, was published in 1957 by Faber & Faber and was followed by many volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children. He received the Whitbread Book of the Year for two consecutive years for his last published collections of poetry, Tales from Ovid (1997) and Birthday Letters (1998). He was Poet Laureate from 1984, and in 1998 he was appointed to the Order of Merit.