Sylvia Plath was born October 27, 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the first child of Aurelia Schober and Otto Emil Plath. Three years after Sylvia was born, her brother Warren became her parent's second child. In 1936, the Plaths moved to Winthrop, Massachusetts, close to her mother's parents. Winthrop was also close by the Atlantic Ocean and Sylvia was fascinated by it. During this time, her father, Otto, was diagnosed with lung cancer but he refused to go to anymore doctors. Finally, in 1940, Otto died. Also in 1940, Plath's first poem and first drawing published in Boston newspapers. Two years later, when Sylvia was almost 10 years old, the family moved away from the ocean- back inland to Wellesley, Massachusetts. In Wellesley, Plath and her brother started school at Marshall Perrin Grammar School. In 1944, Plath started Alica L. Phillips Junior High School and managed to maintain an "A" average. She also wrote poems for The Phillipian, the school's literary magazine. In 1947, Plath graduated from Phillips, and began her legacy of winning scholarships and awards- she won Honorable Mention in National Scholastic's Literary Contest, and is only student in the school's history to earn a sixth letter, as well as an Achievement Certificate from the Carnegie Institute. In 1947, she also entered high school at Bradford High School. She graduated in 1950, receiving a full scholarship to Smith College. In August of that same year, Seventeen magazine published her short story, "And Summer Will Not Come Again," and The Christian Science Monitor published "Bitter Strawberries, " a poem. In 1953, Plath won the chance to be a guest editor at Mademoiselle magazine in New York. She spent the summer there and upon her return home in late July, she learned that she had been rejected from a writing class at Harvard summer school. She was already depressed and exhausted from New York, and the rejection made it worse. Her mother sought psychiatric help, but all it resulted in was a series of un-professional painful shock treatments. So finally, on August 24, 1953, she tried to commit suicide. She left a note saying she had gone for a walk and preceded to swallow a large number of sleeping pills and then crawled into a small space under her house. She was discovered three days later and rushed to a hospital. To recover, she spent five months at a private hospital called McLean's. This was paid for by Mrs. Olive Higgins Prouty, a generous benefactress of Plath. In 1950, Plath had won a scholarship from the Olive Higgins Prouty Fund and wrote her to express her thanks. Mrs. Prouty responded and continued to be an adviser and friend of Plath throughout college. This period of her life, from New York to the end of her stay in the private hospital, Plath recorded in her book, The Bell Jar. In 1954, Plath won several poetry contests at Smith College and wrote her honor's thesis on 1955 Dostoevsky's use of "doubles" in two of his novels. She graduated summa laude of her class and ended up winning yet another scholarship-this time to Cambridge University, England. At Cambridge, she continued to have great academic success and in March of 1956, she met Ted Hughes, the British poet. Four months later, on June 16, 1956, Hughes and Plath were married. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon at Benidorm, a small fishing village in southern Spain. In 1957, the couple moved to Massachusetts, where Plath taught English at her old college- Smith College. The next year, Sylvia and Ted moved once again-to Boston. Here Plath wrote and attended poetry classes at Boston University, which were taught by Robert Lowell. They stayed in America until 1959, when they returned to London, England. The very next year Plath's first child was born. Her name was Frieda Rebecca Hughes. This same year, Plath published her first major work-a collection of poems called The Colossus and Other Poems. In 1961, Plath got pregnant again, but unfortunately had a miscarriage. After this, the family moved to Devon, England. In 1962, Plath's first son was born- Nicholas Farrar Hughes. Unfortunately, this year was also the beginning of the couple's marital trouble. During the summer of 1962, Sylvia learned of Ted's adultery and they were separated. Plath took the children with her and moved to a flat in London. Here she started to write poems quickly and voluminously. In 1963, The Bell Jar was published under the pseudonym, Victoria Lucas. However, ill health was starting to effect Plath and she said, "I am fighting now, against odds and alone." Although she seemed to be recovering, she even said, "The next five years of my life look heavenly," the "odds" must have overwhelmed her. Sylvia Plath lived just long enough to see The Bell Jar in print and tragically committed suicide on February 11, 1963. However, by reading just one of Sylvia Plath's works, you'll see how brilliant she really was, and why she is considered a legend.