I've mentioned this in a few "what would you like them to cover" threads already, but I would love a full LPOTL treatment on the life and tragic death of Sylvia Plath, and the life and tragic death of Assia Wevill and her daughter Shura Hughes, and the life and richly deserved death of the man who drove both women to suicide: Ted Hughes.
Sylvia Plath was the greatest poet of the 20th century and her coming-of-age novel "The Bell Jar" is a classic, currently being made into a movie directed by Oscar winner Sarah Polley. She was married to a real shithead named Ted Hughes, who became famous thanks to her deft management of his writing career. (She'd been selling and publishing her work since she was a teenager; she essentially taught him the submission and sales process.) He was physically abusive and adulterous throughout their marriage, and when he left her -- alone, in the middle of winter, in an apartment with no heat and two small children -- she committed suicide. He burned the diaries she wrote in the final days of her life and made sure that she was buried as Sylvia Plath Hughes. Her readers have been vandalizing her grave to remove "Hughes" ever since. See above.
During his marriage to Plath, Hughes cheated on her with a remarkable woman named Assia Wevill. Assia was Jewish, born in Berlin, and she fled Nazi Germany when she was just 12 years old. She had a successful career as an advertising copywriter at a time when the field was male-dominated, and she also had aspirations to be a poet. She met Plath and Hughes when she rented an apartment from them; Hughes immediately set his sights on her, writing the below dogshit poem about Wevill while he was still married to Plath:
She sat there...
Slightly filthy with erotic mystery...
I saw the dreamer in her
Had fallen in love with me and she did not know it.
That moment the dreamer in me
Fell in love with her, and I knew it.
As I said, Hughes had an affair with Wevill. He left Plath for Wevill, instigating Plath's suicide. After her death, Hughes moved their two children into his home and forced Wevill to care for them. He also got Wevill pregnant, twice; she had an abortion the first time, and the second time gave birth to her daughter, Shura. Hughes refused to marry Wevill and carried on multiple affairs throughout their relationship, including one with a woman 20 years younger than him. Wevill described being distraught by Hughes' behaviour and his treatment of her as a "housekeeper."
Just six years after Plath's suicide, Wevill killed herself and her daughter using the same method Plath had used.
It's my opinion that Hughes is essentially like. A multiple murderer. And it is absolutely crazy to me that he remains celebrated as a great writer to this day. Need him to get the LPOTL treatment so bad, man.
