Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet

Rating:
Summary: A job half- done
Review: Elaine Feinstein writes clearly and with fairness and affection about Ted Hughes. She gives a general idea of his life. She does not however really try to deal with the central moral question about Hughes life and work. And this is the question of his relation to women and why two central relationships in his life ended in disaster.
Feinstein also does not write about Hughes wife of many years, nor really about his children. The picture we then have is very incomplete.
There is a sense of some kind of ' cover-up' and this is increased when it becomes apparent that not only was Feinstein a friend of Hughes she was a quite close friend of Hughes sister who has a major part in the whole Plath controvery .
There too is no deep reading of the poetry.
Nonetheless there is an appreciation of Hughes relation to his parents his brother and his sister, his Yorkshire background. The true biography of Hughes however waits to be written.

Rating:
Summary: Cautious Bio of Hughes Provides General Overview
Review: Elaine Feinstein, a friend of Ted Hughes, has written what amounts to the first full length biography of the former poet laureate. Readers, especially those with a strong interest in his first wife, Sylvia Plath, will feel, I suspect, rather let down by this book, even though the bulk of the biography seems to be about Hughes' relationship with Plath. Feinstein's caution and wish not to offend - Ted's living family, friends, and maybe Ted himself - is evident throughout the book. But more than that, there seems to be little here that readers have not already read before in various sources. Anyone familiar with one or more of the several Plath biographies, or Lucas Myer's recent memoir, 'Crow Steered, Bergs Appeared,' will find the information on Hughes' years in Cambridge, his meeting of Plath and their life together until her death in 1963 completely unsurprising. There are a few 'new' bits of information with regard to Hughes' childhood in Yorkshire but nothing of major interest. There are also some interesting pieces of information regarding his relationship with Assia Wevill and about Assia herself, but again, not much we didn't already know. The relationships he had with Emma Tennant and Jill Barber are better and more thoroughly documented respectively in Tennant's book 'Burnt Diaries' and presumably in Barber's forthcoming memoir. Almost nothing is said about his 2nd wife Carol, or Hughes' children with Plath, seemingly because the biography is unauthorized and Feinstein wishes not to infringe on the personal life of the still living wife and children of her friend Hughes. This restraint for the sake of the living is admirable, but it hardly makes for a well-rounded bio (readers interested in the inherent implications and difficulties of writing biographies would do well to read Janet Malcolm's 'The Silent Woman'.) Indeed, Carol Hughes becomes hardly more than a footnote in her husband's life in this book. In any event, the personal details entailed are certainly not salacious; in fact, I've read quite a few things in Plath bios, on the internet and in the newspapers that are hinted at in this book but never fully explained, or left out altogether, probably because they would be considered too disparaging to the subject. I personally have no problem with this - biography is more than simply gossip and the airing of dirty laundry (at least it should be.) Feinstein is mildly defensive of Hughes when it comes to his personal behaviour in relationships with women, and strikes a balance between that defense and holding Hughes accountable for his actions or non-actions. Feinstein also seems to have a genuine respect and fondness for Hughes, although her use of the first person in some sections in the book throw the reader out of 'biography' and into 'memoir'. I came away with the feeling that biographers should never personally know their subjects, and if personal friends write books about the lives of those friends, the books are more properly called memoirs. The biggest surprise is the fact that Ted's work seems to be discussed hardly at all. Again, since this book is unauthorized I can only assume that Feinstein was unable to get the permission to quote freely from Ted's works. Perhaps I'm wrong, but in any case I was very disappointed at the lack of in-depth discussion of Hughes' work. There are repeated references to Hughes' interest in astrology, hermeticism and neoplatonism, but not much discussion of these influences overall. Basically, I came away from reading this bio no more informed about Ted Hughes than I had been before I read it. For me, Hughes remains a creative, talented, engimatic presence in 20th century literature. I look forward to subsequent biographies that may offer a more psychologically in-depth portrait of the man with a more detailed analysis of his work. Feinstein's book is a general primer for those that want an overview of Hughes' life but not much substance.

Rating:
Summary: A biography of Plath, then Hughes
Review: First of all it deserves 5 stars because it's magnificient entertainment and well written. For some reason the lives of poets make much easier reading than does their work. I have to confess that on my shelves sit well-thumbed biographies of Dylan Thomas, Anne Saxton, George Barker (Fraser's "Chameleon Poet") Coleridge, Shelley and Byron, but not a single volume of their work (except "The Bell-Jar" and "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.")
Ted Hughes was married to Sylvia Plath. She killed herself, possibly because of his affair with Assia Weevill. Assia had his child, Sura, then killed herself and the four-year-old Sura.
Of course he is not to blame for these suicides, but was his conduct good? I am struck in this biography. which is written from a pro-Hughes standpoint, by his behavior towards the children. After their mother's death the nine year old and eleven year old were packed off to boarding schools so that their father could have "more time to think and work." Feinstein does not comment (and perhaps comment is superfluous) on the poignant irony of his Jewish child being gassed ( I only hope and pray that she died before her mother did). Feinstein throws in a suggestion that Sura was brain-damaged but gives no more details. This is all the more relevant because his often-stated reason for withholding material from bioraphers was to protect his children. If he had nothing to hide then why withhold?
From this account it seems that Hughes became rich and famous mostly because of having been married to Sylvia Plath. He might have been a notable poet, which might have made him famous, but even the most notable poet barely makes a living. His poems that were best-sellers were "The Birthday Letters." He was Plath's legal heir and received the royalties fron "The Bell Jar."
Feinstein seems to have had access to some of the medical records on Assia ans Sylvia. Both took anti-depressant medications;it would have been relevant to tell us more about these. Both women died by gas poisoning. Did British household gas supplies still contain carbon monoxide at that time? These are details a biographer should have researched. My next reading stop will be Alvarez's "Jealous God."

Rating:
Summary: Horrible!
Review: It�s a pity my review comes late in the queue, because this book is not as bad as other reviewers make out.

Essentially, this book is a history of Ted Hughes� life. It makes no great claims to interpret his ideas inside the covers. What I liked about this book was its attempt to make a balanced description of what happened with Sylvia Plath and the other significant people in his life. The author avoids the rancor and emotionalism that must certainly have engulfed Ted in the years subsequent to Sylvia�s suicide.

It�s the first account of Ted I have read which suggests that although he had a weakness for beautiful women, he was very patient and kind with Sylvia and tried to help her even after their separation. He continued to support her growing fame after her death. In this book he comes over as a likeable, thoughtful man � a gentle giant amidst circumstances fraught with extremity.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Poor Biography
Review: Superficial, scattered with an odd smattering of references, this is one of the worst biographies that I have ever read. Ted Hughes deserves better.

Rating:
Summary: A fine example of the art of biography
Review: TED HUGHES: THE LIFE OF A POET by Elaine Feinstein was a fabulously engaging read about the "other half" of the famous Sylvia Plath-Suicide Poet story. Hughes, born in Yorkshire, read English, Anthropology and Archeology at Cambridge, and met Plath, the ambitious American while she was on a Fulbright to Cambridge, after he had graduated. Their meeting was violent and dramatic (she bit him on the cheek when they kissed at a party he had brought another date to), and they quickly married. They had two children, and after she discovered his affair with another woman, they separated. During a harsh London winter, Plath killed herself by putting her head in an oven and leaving on the gas, and Hughes suffered the weight of that death for pretty much the rest of his life. That's the short story. The long version, as told in Feinstein's book is fair, multilayered, well and accessibly written, and includes informative critical comments of his work, and follows the path of his career. After Plath's death, Hughes maintained a relationship with the object of his affair, Assia Wevill, and other women. She had a daughter with him, and suffering her own depression, she killed herself AND their daughter within 10 years of Sylvia's death. Hughes was marked by some feminists as a horror of a husband, which was based on Sylvia's own viewpoint in her poems (poems that Hughes published, even though he was horrified at Sylvia's use of personal incidents for public poetry). Later, Hughes married a woman named Carol Orchard, and they were married for nearly 30 years. He also seems to have had numerous affairs in his life, and yet found Carol to be a stabilizing influence. Feinstein's work is important because she gives us a fuller picture of Britain's Poet Laureate Hughes (a work she began after his death in 1998 from cancer). Hughes, in an effort to protect his children with Plath, Freida and Nicholas, liked to maintain privacy about his life with Plath (and also, one suspects, because he just WAS private). When his book of poems about Plath was published in the years before his death, BIRTHDAY LETTERS, positive feeling was overwhelming for him, as people read the beautiful poems that spelled out his love, fear, hurt, empathy and his sense of powerlessness in the face of Plath's need in his relationship with her. This is a book you may read with other books around. I got out Plath's COLLECTED POEMS and Hughes's LUPERCAL and BIRTHDAY LETTERS to refer to. I recommend this biography to anyone. The dramatic events of his life make this compelling to those who have never read a word of his poems, and it stands as well, as fine example of the art of biography alone. Feinstein, who knew Hughes socially after the death of Plath, is sympathetic to him, but fair, I felt. As the quote on the book states, this is a book that needed to be written. It was written well.

Rating:
Summary: A fine example of the art of biography
Review: TED HUGHES: THE LIFE OF A POET by Elaine Feinstein was a fabulously engaging read about the "other half" of the famous Sylvia Plath-Suicide Poet story. Hughes, born in Yorkshire, read English, Anthropology and Archeology at Cambridge, and met Plath, the ambitious American while she was on a Fulbright to Cambridge, after he had graduated. Their meeting was violent and dramatic (she bit him on the cheek when they kissed at a party he had brought another date to), and they quickly married. They had two children, and after she discovered his affair with another woman, they separated. During a harsh London winter, Plath killed herself by putting her head in an oven and leaving on the gas, and Hughes suffered the weight of that death for pretty much the rest of his life. That's the short story. The long version, as told in Feinstein's book is fair, multilayered, well and accessibly written, and includes informative critical comments of his work, and follows the path of his career. After Plath's death, Hughes maintained a relationship with the object of his affair, Assia Wevill, and other women. She had a daughter with him, and suffering her own depression, she killed herself AND their daughter within 10 years of Sylvia's death. Hughes was marked by some feminists as a horror of a husband, which was based on Sylvia's own viewpoint in her poems (poems that Hughes published, even though he was horrified at Sylvia's use of personal incidents for public poetry). Later, Hughes married a woman named Carol Orchard, and they were married for nearly 30 years. He also seems to have had numerous affairs in his life, and yet found Carol to be a stabilizing influence. Feinstein's work is important because she gives us a fuller picture of Britain's Poet Laureate Hughes (a work she began after his death in 1998 from cancer). Hughes, in an effort to protect his children with Plath, Freida and Nicholas, liked to maintain privacy about his life with Plath (and also, one suspects, because he just WAS private). When his book of poems about Plath was published in the years before his death, BIRTHDAY LETTERS, positive feeling was overwhelming for him, as people read the beautiful poems that spelled out his love, fear, hurt, empathy and his sense of powerlessness in the face of Plath's need in his relationship with her. This is a book you may read with other books around. I got out Plath's COLLECTED POEMS and Hughes's LUPERCAL and BIRTHDAY LETTERS to refer to. I recommend this biography to anyone. The dramatic events of his life make this compelling to those who have never read a word of his poems, and it stands as well, as fine example of the art of biography alone. Feinstein, who knew Hughes socially after the death of Plath, is sympathetic to him, but fair, I felt. As the quote on the book states, this is a book that needed to be written. It was written well.

Rating:
Summary: A biography of Plath, then Hughes
Review: This book, though well written, contains far too much information on Plath. True, we must understand Plath to get at Hughes, but the book seems to be telling the chapters on Plath from her point of view. I would like to see a biography of Hughes from solely his point of view b/c he deserves that.

Rating:
Summary: Mere Background
Review: This is not a bad book. It is well structured. It is elegantly written.

As background for a curious general reader, it is admirable. But it fails to paint the essential picture of Hughes.

For this and other generations, a large, all-encompasing work, examining Hughs' life, poetry and sources of inspiration, is badly needed to put this major writer of the 20th century in true perspective.