(1932–63)
a US writer who lived in Britain. She is considered an important poet of her generation. Her work is very personal and towards the end of her life she often wrote about death. She was a brilliant student and moved to England to study at Cambridge University . In 1956 she married the British poet Ted Hughes . She suffered from depression, and in 1963 she killed herself. After her death, collections of her poems were published, including Ariel (1965) and Collected Poems (1981), which won the Pulitzer Prize . She also wrote a novel, The Bell Jar (1963) which was based on her own life and personal experiences. In 1998 Ted Hughes published a book of poems, Birthday Letters , about their relationship. A film, Sylvia , was made about the couple in 2003.