r/OldSchoolCool • u/db7112 • Jul 27 '26

1950s Sylvia Plath in happier times, early 1950s

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26

u/Travelgrrl Jul 28 '26

That was in her college "Blonde Bombshell" era. Later to be replaced by her "Bee Keeping" era, and that's when things went south real fast.

39

u/kingrobin Jul 28 '26

she had a failed suicide attempt in college so I don't know that those were much better times for her

12

u/Travelgrrl Jul 28 '26

No, and I didn't mean to indicate by "Blonde Bombshell" that it was a happy time. She put enormous pressure on herself, the internship for Mademoiselle, and socially at Smith. (Academically of course she was fine.) The bleached hair was part of her struggle to fit in and be a sunny coed.

21

u/WillowgirlIII Jul 28 '26

Tried to be a tradwife but her hubby was a turd.

0

u/PalestPalazzo Jul 28 '26

Or, ..... Truly tried tradwifelife; Ted the Turd turned the knife

3

u/WillowgirlIII Jul 28 '26

You're a poet and don't know it!

-3

u/Travelgrrl Jul 28 '26

Yes, the woman he was with at the time of Plath's death also killed herself in the same way a few years later.

But it's funny, I just finished a biography of George VI and the Queen Mother and they said that Hughes was a great friend of the Queen Mother's in her old age. Which surprised me - but I guess I trust that old dame's intuition.