Anne Sexton

Jo Gill (University of Glasgow)
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Anne Sexton (1928 to 1974) has been labelled the “mother” and the “high priestess” of the confessional mode of poetry that dominated 1960s American culture (George 90; Phillips 6). In her own lifetime, she won considerable acclaim for her numerous volumes of poetry including her first book, To Bedlam and Part Way Back (1960), her second, All My Pretty Ones (1962), the Pulitzer-Prize winning Live Or Die (1966), and her 1971 reworking of Grimms’ fairytales, Transformations. She maintained a punishing schedule of talks and poetry readings across the United States, wrote the play Mercy Street which ran off-Broadway for almost two months in 1969, held teaching positions at Colgate University and …

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Citation: Gill, Jo. "Anne Sexton". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 October 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4030, accessed 31 October 2024.]

4030 Anne Sexton 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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