Ted Hughes : The Life of a Poet

by Elaine Feinstein

"In this biography Elaine Feinstein for the first time tells the story of Hughes' life as he experienced it, rather than presenting him as a figure in the perception of others. Many people have held his adultery responsible for Plath's death, since it was her discovery of his affair with the glamorous Assia Wevill that led her to order Hughes out of their Devon home. Feinstein explores an altogether more complex situation, which includes Plath's fragility throughout the marriage and Hughes' own confused intentions in the last few weeks of her life. In the process, Feinstein throws new light on his relationship with Assia Wevill, in some ways as vulnerable a figure as Plath herself. Hughes later had a child with Assia, who also killed herself along with their young daughter." Drawing on extensive archive material and her own revealing analysis of Hughes' poems, as well as interviews with childhood friends, fellow undergraduates, poets and critics, Elaine Feinstein, who knew Hughes for nearly thirty years, gives a complex portrait of a man intrigued by the forms of magical experience which preoccupied Shakespeare and Yeats, who was nevertheless a down-to-earth Yorkshire man. His sharp eye for the natural world and his love of the countryside are widely known but equally important to his development were poets from eastern and central Europe such as Miroslav Holub, Vasco Popa and Janos Pilinszky. His whole vision of life was marked by the evidence of human brutality in the twentieth century.

Genres: Biography, Poetry, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, History, Literature, Memoir

Paperback

First published October 22, 2001

About the author

Elaine Feinstein was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge and has been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Leicester. Before becoming a full-time writer, she worked as an editor for Cambridge University Press (1960-62), as Lecturer in English at Bishop's Stortford Training College (1963-6), as Assistant Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Essex (1967-70), and as a journalist.

She has contributed to many periodicals, including the Times Literary Supplement, and was formerly Writer in Residence for the British Council in Singapore and Tromsø, Norway.

Of Russian-Jewish ancestry, she has been influenced by Russian writers, especially Marina Tsvetayeva and Anna Akhmatova.

She is the author of a number of plays for television and radio and several biographies, including singer Bessie Smith, writer D. H. Lawrence, Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and Anna Akhmatova.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh.

To be honest, my expectations for Elaine Feinstein’s biography, Ted Hughes, The Life of a Poet, were, from the start, low. That’s not a knock against Feinstein, but against the familiar formula of cranking out a quick “biography” when someone famous dies. Hughes died October 29, 1998. Feinstein, an acquaintance of Hughes, attended the funeral, and was contacted by W.W. Norton in early November about commissioning a biography. Feinstein started work in February 1999. The book was published in 2001.

On surface, it’s an impressive marshalling of facts, which will no doubt provide future biographers with a good chronological framework from which to work. On top of that, Feinstein writes well. Feinstein is well aware of the controversies surrounding Hughes, and doesn’t, to her credit, duck them. She’s clearly sympathetic to Hughes, but also to Plath, and to a lesser extent the main “other woman,” Assia Weevil. Still, as the book went on, I found myself liking Hughes less and less. "Liking" isn't a necessity here, but since so much of this book is centered on the tragedies of Hughes' life, and not the poetry, it's hard not to hit a wall. Especially so when late in the book Hughes suggests that Assia (and Plath's) suicides were inevitable. Meanwhile Hughes continues to cheat on his current wife. Feinstein at this point gets particularly annoying, because we are constantly reminded of Ted's fine reputation in England. It's as if being a serial adulterer one can still truly exist within a vacuum where no human cost occurs. Feinstein, as the book progresses, skates very lightly over this point.

The book opens traditionally enough with a brief recitation of Hughes' beginnings in small town on the Yorkshire moors (Bronte's moors). It’s a fact that Hughes was well aware of as he, and others, would mention that he was a “Heathcliff” type. Brooding, romantic. etc. Hughes, a middle class product, was soon tagged as gifted and talented, which was quite an accomplishment in class conscious England. However, early on in college (1954-55), Hughes, in a red flag conversation regarding family problems, told a friend:

“You must be cruel,” he said, his voice rising. “One must cultivate the practice of deceit.” He asked if I was the oldest in the family and I said I was. “The eldest in the family must be the executioner . . . You must emulate the actions of the weasel,” he said, leaving me stumped for a reply and wondering what my mother would do if I tried it. (page 37)

Weasel. Indeed. What’s stunning about this (well, there’s a lot things, given what’s to unfold), is that up to this point, Hughes has been, according to Feinstein, some sort of big, easy going lug, who has a love of poetry, and likes to drink and sing in bars. (Weirdly, he would also dabble (and would for the rest of his life) in the occult, astrology, Ouija boards, and Tarot cards.) One can’t help but feel the mask has slipped for a moment, and the real Ted has been revealed. Such “Ted” nuggets are rare early on, but start to accumulate (as do the contradictions) quickly after the death of Plath. To her credit, Feinstein reports them. In an earlier time, when Ted and his bitchy and controlling New Age sister, Olwyn, would no doubt have tried to sanitize such Ted stories ("for the children").

The marriage to Plath is given a lot of space, but how can it not? In Feinstein’s hands she comes across as enormously gifted, high strung, but also a good mother. If anything, upon entering marriage with Hughes, she was the more published poet. But she recognized Hughes as a great poet, and did the grunt work as far as typing up his poems and sending them out. This necessary process, which most poets hate, was engineered by Plath. Hughes, in contrast, seems kind of lazy about this end of things. But to do this, Plath had to sacrifice something of her self, her own creative life,– which she did willingly. She also comes across as more dimensional and real than Hughes, who up to now sounds like a collection biographical newspaper clippings. Hughes only really comes to life when the cheating becomes obvious. At one point, while Plath's mother is visiting, Hughes gets a call (which Plath witnesses) from Assia to meet her for a night of champagne and peaches and etc. There is a level of cruel (and arranged?) calculation here on Hughes' part that Feinstein seems unwilling to acknowledge. There is even, later, a suggestion that Ted might (though Feinstein doubts it -- but why?) have told Plath, on the eve of her suicide, that Assia was pregnant.

At this point more and more Ted nuggets start showing up. The loving father, for example, refusing to even touch the baby Nicholas. This is particularly chilling when one considers Nicholas' own suicide in 2009, as well as Hughes' later admission to Plath's mother that he never really wanted children anyway. After Plath's death, Hughes was constantly farming them out to Olywn or boarding school. And then there's Assia, the other woman. Good looking (at least before she got fat), exotic, a home wrecker. The literary critic Al Alvarez, and friend to both Plath and Hughes, pegged her as predatory. It's hard to like her. She even stole part of Plath's journals as a potential nest egg when she sensed things were heading south with Ted. But you can pity her, and her young child Shura. Ted Froze her out and she committed suicide, taking her child with her. What are the odds of that happening anywhere? Twice? With the same guy?

But this cold behavior just didn't extend to the women in Hughes' life, but even to his parents. Once, while attending to his sick mother (this was while he was seeing Assia), he asked his mother "What are you going to do when you're dead?" When it comes to Hughes' family, I felt I was just getting the tip of (appropriately) an iceberg.

Next to come is the management of the (goldmine) Plath estate. Much has been made of Hughes' dedication to the art of poetry, of his willingness to publish Ariel, even though it's poetry that rips him apart. Don't take that but so far. A great number of these poems had already been circulated by Plath, so what was Hughes to do? Sit on them and thus damage his reputation among his poetic peers? What Hughes did do, and I commented on this recently in reviewing the restored version of Ariel, is monkey with Plath's arrangement, and in such a way as to mute the poetic attack on him as well as destroy the intended arc of the collection. If you doubt this, read them and compare. And then read this self serving bullshit interview he gave the Paris Review, back in 1995:

INTERVIEWER: Would you talk about burning Plath's journals?

HUGHES: What I actually destroyed was one journal which covered maybe two or three months, the last months. And it was just sad. I just didn't want her children to see it, no. Particularly her last days.

INTERVIEWER: What about Ariel? Did you reorder the poems there?

HUGHES: Well, nobody in the U.S. wanted to publish the collection as she left it. The one publisher over there who was interested wanted to cut it to twenty poems. The fear seemed to be that the whole lot might provoke some sore of backlash - some revulsion. And at the time, you know, few magazine editors would publish the Ariel poems, few liked them. The qualities weren't so obvious in those days. So right from the start there was a question over just how the book was to be presented. I wanted the book that would display the whole range and variety. I remember writing to the man who suggested cutting it to twenty - a longish intemperate letter, as I recall - and saying I felt that was simply impossible. I was torn between cutting some things out and putting some more things in. I was keen to get some of the last poems in. But the real problem was, as I've said, that the U.S. publishers I approached did not want Sylvia's collection as it stood. Faber in England were happy to publish the book in any form. Finally, it was a compromise - I cut some things out and I put others in. As a result I have been mightily accused of disordering her intentions and even suppressing part of her work. But those charges have evolved twenty, thirty years after the event. They are based on simple ignorance of how it all happened. Within six years of that first publication all her late poems were published in collections - all that she'd put in her own Ariel, and those she'd kept out. It was her growing frame, of course, that made it possible to publish them. And years ago, for anybody who was curious, I published the contents and order of her own typescript - so if anybody wants to see what her Ariel was it's quite easy. On the other hand, how final was her order? She was forever shuffling the poems in her typescripts - looking for different connections, better sequences. She knew there were always new possibilities, all fluid.


Infuriatingly, one good thing Hughes did, in promoting the translations of poets from Eastern Europe, was to muck it up by equating himself with those suffering poets. Facism vs the narrow confines of married monogamy. Right. You see, Ted was a survivor too. Ultimately, what comes out of Feinstein's book is that it was all about Ted. It always was. Even a friendly biographer can't hide that fact.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tactful biography of Ted Hughes, the first written of the distinguished poet more widely known for his troubled personal life. Feinstein, who knew Hughes during the latter part of his life, has done careful research in her efforts to present a fair picture of the man she both respected and admired for his literary talent. But on examining the narrative, it is clear where her sympathies lie. What she presents is a study of the man behind the poetry and not the poet, dealing more with his personal life, dominated by his relationships with women, than his professional life.

Hughes decided at a young age that he wanted to dedicate his life to poetry. He produced most of his great work in the later part of his life, a career that was capped by his appointment as Poet Laureate. But he is often judged less on his abilities as a poet than on his reputation as a husband whose adulterous behavior drove his wife Sylvia Plath to her death. Ever since her suicide, the reading public has lined up behind one or the other, supporting her side or his in placing blame for her tragic ending. It seems every reader becomes a Hughes fan or a Plath supporter when they hear their story and consider their work, which is so tightly bound together one cannot consider one without the other.

Those who knew Ted Hughes describe him as a tall, dark, athletic figure with a handsome face and an intense gaze that radiated a kind of masculinity sometimes compared to Austen’s Heathcliff. He was a gentle man who never wanted children but became a caring and loving father. He was generous to his friends and other writers and for years after his wife’s death, persisted in his efforts to ensure her poetry was published and her legacy protected, even when it placed him in a negative light with the reading public.

Hughes often spoke of his frugal childhood growing up in Yorkshire. He spent hours roaming the countryside and loved its natural environment filled with animals, dark woods and the rambling hills which later influenced his poetry. As a teenager he became obsessed with hunting and fishing for pike, activities he gave up later in life as he realized how much they contradicted his love of the natural world. During his school years, he made frequent trips to the town library where he discovered the links between nature and the world of words between the covers of books. His life at home was a happy one. The family lived frugally but the children were close. Ted was very attached to his older brother Gerald who he adored and his sister Olwyn, who in later life acted as his agent, took on the task of promoting his work and ferociously guarded her brother’s reputation. Hughes was also close to his parents and dutifully cared for them as they grew older.

Hughes was encouraged by his teachers and their early praise helped him decide to become a poet. He went to Cambridge where he met Sylvia Plath, an American girl and a Fullbright Scholar whose poetry had already appeared in several university magazines. She was pretty and intelligent but beneath her veneer of academic achievement and supreme confidence was a turbulent history of clinical depression, a suicide attempt and treatment with ECT. Their initial meeting was a violent affair. After he kissed her, grabbed her favorite earrings and would not give them back, she bit him on the cheek, hard enough to draw blood. Her energy and excitement in that first interaction attracted him and the two began a relationship. They married, struggled with poverty and for a short period lived in the United States but that did not go well and they returned to England where both their children were born. The two had markedly different temperaments which made living together an uneasy affair. Ted was quiet, self-contained and easy going while Sylvia was animated, articulate and emotionally volatile. They cared deeply for each other but their marriage was often filled with heated arguments.

Feinstein tries to temper the view of those who blame Hughes for driving Sylvia to suicide by beginning an affair with Assia Wevill. She describes the numerous ways Hughes supported Plath’s work while they were married, calmed her when she became anxious and cared for the children every day so she could work for hours without being interrupted. It was not a role husbands and fathers commonly took on at the time.

Plath was a fragile, insecure and vulnerable woman, prone to depression, anxiety and sudden mood swings. She had a strong need to be the most important person in her husband’s life and wanted him to belong only to herself which made her possessive and controlling. She depended on Hughes for reassurance in the face of her endless anxieties but no matter what he did for her, it never seemed enough. He always handled her carefully because she could suddenly erupt in an angry and rude tantrum. Many of his friends and family noted this behavior and wondered how he ever put up with it, describing him as a prisoner in his own marriage.

When Plath discovered Hughes had been unfaithful, she told him to leave and they separated. Hughes never thought the separation would be permanent, but Plath was more wounded than he ever imagined and feeling angry, in despair and abandoned, she committed suicide. Hughes soon became seen as the brutal husband who had caused his wife’s death and Plath’s reputation as a poet began to soar, eventually becoming more powerful in death than when she was alive. It wasn’t until many years later that Hughes confessed his grief and guilt in a series of poems in “Birthday Letters”, admitting how his life with Plath had become so difficult that he believed the relationship would kill him. It was a marriage of contradictions: he was the murderer of his wife but he was also her victim. In this relationship that combined the potent mix of Plath’s fragility and Hughes’ recklessness, each ultimately damaged the other.

There is one violent act that Feinstein merely glances over: Hughes’ destruction of Sylvia’s journals covering the last months of her life. Assia Wevill found them and was overwhelmed by the malice Plath had directed at her on those pages which may explain why he destroyed them. But it was an act that made Hughes the target of hatred for generations of Plath’s readers who were devastated he would do such a thing. Feinstein deals with it in a perfunctory way, simply relaying the fact that they were destroyed without commenting on it.

Feinstein has produced a book which is more a bibliographical account of Ted Hughes’ life than a serious critical scrutiny of his poetry or his life as a poet. Pieces of his work are used to support or comment on his life, but there is no sense of his growth and development as a poet, no critical appraisal of his long writing life or how the important influences in his life such as astrology, primitive religion, black magic, myth, folklore and environmentalism came to be a part of his poetry. Feinstein does place considerable emphasis on “Birthday Letters”, one of Hughes’ more popular works largely because of its connection to Plath’s death and the continued interest in their relationship despite the many years that have passed.

Feinstein has been careful. She has tried to remain non-judgmental and objective about the man who was considered a literary genius but could never quiet his continual interest in other women. He had no sense of how his open philandering behavior destroyed those he cared about as he left a trail of abandoned women behind him. He could never accept the premise that a sexual relationship was something that existed between a man and his wife, rejecting that notion as a simple puritanical belief. It did not acknowledge the legitimacy of his own desires so he rebelled against it. He often spoke of his need for more than one woman in his life and had a difficult time understanding why his adulterous affairs affected his relationships so deeply. He never reached the point where he admitted that his inability to remain faithful affected women as much as it did, driving two of them and one child to their deaths. Feinstein runs through the gamut of his relationships describing how six years after Plath’s death, Assia Wevill, the woman he left her for, committed suicide taking their daughter Shura with her. Then months after Wevill’s death, Hughes was living with Brenda Hedden a former neighbor who he had been involved with when he was still with Wevill. While living with Brenda Hedden in the house he bought with Plath, he married Carole Orchard, assuring Hedden that nothing had changed between them and things would go on as before. While in London, but still married to Carole, he lived with Jill Barber another lover and managed still another affair with Emma Tennant. Feinstein presents all these relationships as facts, never commenting on what it implies about Ted Hughes’ psyche.

And then there is the question of whether any of it mattered in terms of Ted Hughes’ work as a poet. But as Feinstein details his difficult and complicated life with women, she leaves his professional life as a poet aside. She speaks of the poems he writes but does not examine them, choosing instead to focus on his personal dramas which are muted in the telling. She is careful in speaking of them, holding back, aware memories of those who have recently died are still fresh and there are those still alive who may be affected by what is written.

Hughes died in 1998. There will probably be many more biographies of his life in the future and some may give readers a more critical analysis of his work.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read a biography that was actively gripping, before! Unfortunately it has to deal with wrenchingly tragic events.

This biography of Hughes is, I believe, the first to be published. I'm not sure there are any others, though there have been memoirs dealing with Hughes and Plath. Now, Hughes became a widely hated figure in America because of a radical Feminist view of his treatment of his first wife Sylvia Plath (who committed suicide) based on extremely limite, biased and factually inaccurate evidence and Hughes' refusal to try to set the record straight in any serious way until very late in his life. Plath's suicide became the defining incident in Hughes' life and Feinstein does everything in her power to shed the maximum light on it, establish the bare facts of what actually happened and examine as closely as possible the states of mind of everyone involved from all perspectives, whilst trying to take in to account everybody's biases (including her own; she new Hughes later in his life). Of course, unsurprisingly to any dispassionate observer, it turns out to be way more complicated than the "Hughes was the root of all evil" extremism of Plath cultists in America, or the "Plath was totally off her rocker" argument Hughes defenders countered with. (Hughes himself did his best to dismiss this view of matters.) The sometimes posited, "if it wasn't for Assia Wevill's predatory behaviour" angle also fails to capture the whole thing.

So here are some things to consider before taking a view: Plath attempted suicide as a teen. She was clearly struggling emotionally prior to Hughes' affair and the marriage was already in trouble because of it. She was paranoid about Hughes' fidelity before he started the affiar with Wevill. Assia Wevill did behave as a sexual predator, not just towards Hughes, either. Hughes' attitude to sex before and after his relationship with Plath was never one of idealising monogamy. Plath knew this. Plath kicked Hughes out of their home when she found out about the affair but subsequently maintain a duplicitous attitude, whereby publicly she wanted a divorce and provately she desperately wanted Hughes back. Her suicide had some remarkable features: She took extensive precautions to protect her children from harm; she left the phone number of her doctor in a prominent place; she expected to be found relatively soon after turning on the gas.

Putting all this together suggests a situation where Plath, whilst not completely bonkers by any stretch, was losing the mental and emotional stability she had regained after ECT treatment in her teens. The marriage was already under strain because of it. Assia Wevill was sexually aggressive towards Hughes but Hughes reciprocated and his past and future behaviour strongly suggest if it wasn't Wevill then, it would have been somebody at some point. Plath may have strategised a failed suicide attempt as a method of getting Hughes back but instead miscalculated and died. No single person was to blame; nobody was evil personified; nobody benefitted emotionally from the tragedy. Maybe not even Plath herself wanted the outcome she got.

So this is an excellent biography, clearly stating what is fact, what is opinion, what speculation, what is out-right false and presenting the public views of the key players. Feinstein is clearly sympathetic towards Hughes, way more forgiving of his philandering than I am, but still attempting to be fair to all and crucially set the factual record straight.

Hughes' poetry is discussed mainly in terms of whatever light it sheds on his character and life, rather than from a strongly lit. crit. perspective. You will probably learn more about it from reading the volume of Hughes' letters, which should be read by anyone interested in Hughes' life, anyway, as it serves as a compliment to this biography, filling gaps and giving its own insight into Hughes life, work and character.

[Rania Attafi · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having just read a Sylvia Plath biography I thought it only fair to redress the balance and read one on Ted Hughes. Given that this was written by someone who knew him I expected it to give a closer portrait of the man and the poet so I was somewhat disappointed by the book. It left me with the impression that the author didn't really know him at all or rather didn't understand him. I don't think he was the 'Heathcliff' character he is sometimes portrayed as and nor do I think he was responsible for Sylvia Plath's death ( although I'm still not sure I understand that fully..)but I couldn't get a sense of the man at all from the book. His 'friends remember him affectionately' isn't much of an analysis. The list of affairs he had during both his marriages could be due to arrogance or perhaps he didn't know what he was looking for- he remarked later in life that he had never gotten over Sylvia Plath. Either way he treated women terribly. His life seems to have been overshadowed by her death and this book certainly was and I hope future biographers leave the sensationalism and speculation out and concentrate more on his poetry.

[Ingrid Lola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elaine Feinstein, British poet and writer, herself an acquaintance of Hughes, succeeded in writing a fine and clear account of Hughes' prolific career as a poet. This book is very non-biased, well researched, and expertly written. Feinstein taps into Hughes' unique and artistic interpretation of the world, and examines how is poetry reflects that. Feinstein writes that Hughes himself "was not writing to stun or to startle, but to understand," and Feinstein achieves as well a clear understanding of Hughes in his own right, not as the murderous mysogynist some may believe him to be. She focuses on Hughes' interest in mysticism, folk talkes, the occult, British as well as world literature, and his strong sense of individualism. Brilliant book, I'd recommend it strongly to any interested in Hughes, Plath, or poetry in general.

[Diane Fordham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a complete newby to Ted Hughes, and indeed to poetry. I was interested in this book though as I was aware of the interest that there had been surrounding the death of Sylvia Plath. I really enjoyed the early chapters but found the book heavier and heavier as we progressed. I was determined to get to the end, and am glad that I made the effort. But I sure am glad it’s over.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some brief thoughts: this book makes a great accompaniment to Birthday Letters, Hughes' collection of poetry about his relationship with Plath. It struck me as quite obviously biased towards Hughes himself - but I suppose I sought it out in the first place because Plath's feminist following make such a song and dance about what a selfish bully Hughes was and it was time to redress the balance. I think he comes across even here, though, as a bit of a loafer, a selfish son (concerns re: his father's nursing home fees are a little crass) and a very distant father. We know how the Nick story turns out but, nevertheless, poor Nick. Feinstein comments on his 'need' to have more than one woman on the go, but doesn't even attempt to justify it. Fascinating read, though; not overly long and, as ever, proof that a writer needs time, cockiness and connections.

[Liz Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

A compulsive read. Could be titled Ted and "brain" as this book cleverly has a two prong approach. The first Ted as a poet with an "inner life"- fantasies/innermost spirits- that often seems/needs to function on its own. Second his "physical life" -everyday needs/trials and tribulations. Both need satisfying causing conflicts, even suffering to those around him. Continuing with this two prong approach this book explores his marriage to the poet Sylvia Plath with her competing innermost spirits/fantasies/and poems filled with images of death; his affair with Assia Weivell whose inner life was haunted by Sylvia and stolid with misery; his interim women -seemingly more grounded -as well as marrying Carol Orchard who loved the man and not the "brain." Fidelity was never Ted's strong point along side many men who were enjoying the new found sexual freedoms of the 60s.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this biography knowing only two facts about Ted Hughes: that he was a poet, and that he was Sylvia Plath's husband. I came away profoundly relieved to be in a stable marriage, inspired to read and write more poetry, and confident that Ted Hughes was not someone I would be likely to count as a friend. This is an excellent portrait of the man, touching and rich, and it made me curious to read other books by Elaine Feinstein, especially her biography of D.H. Lawrence. This would have been a four-star book, in my opinion, had it not been for the feeling that it is two parts biography, one part defense: Feinstein, who was a friend of Ted's, clearly wanted to show the world that he doesn't deserve to be cast as the villain who drove Sylvia Plath to suicide.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The great biography is yet to be written. This is a readable introduction of sorts.

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not deep enough, provides some interesting notes but doesn't delve deep enough into his thought and intellectual development.

[Alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m generally uninterested in celebrity gossip, but this book got me. This was an anthropologically fascinating—and also repulsive—read. Feinstein is determined to exculpate Hughes. The effect, however, is that the biography left me imagining, even more than I had before, just how immoral he was, given the sense that the author appears to write everything at a slant, and the imagining can paint things more freely given when what’s real is hidden. It also only leaves one to wonder why Feinstein has this personal vendetta.

For example, Feinstein says that Plath believed that her “purpose of life is measured in fame and money.” Or, when she writes of how Hughes abandoned his second wife when her dad died, left her grieving alone, and went to Australia, where he had two affairs, and each of those woman did not know of the other until a year passed—Feinstein writes this in a matter-of-factly tone, without any language choice that could throw shade on Hughs.

Before reading this book, I knew that Plath killed herself while married to Hughes, and shortly after that, Hughes’ lover Wevill (with which his having an affair with preceded Plath’s suicide) killed both herself and their 4-year-old daughter. I was horrified by these facts, but also interested in the possibility that it is the wrong narrative to think that Hughes in effect murdered them—that is, it is part of feminism to assume that woman have as much agency as men.

From what I can tell, Plath and Wevill tried their best to move on from Hughes when he was treating each of them with such disrespect. Plath, for example, initially took all the steps to sue for a divorce, and she was at first energetic with her own creative projects. It makes sense to me that each of these woman were unable to move on in the end due to the sexist culture of their time, which shaped them. I can only imagine what it was like to grow up in the 50’s.

Seeing the drama unfold in this biography helped me viscerally feel something I’ve known—I shouldn’t take for granted the position I have in society today, where I haven’t experienced any sexism. Nevertheless, something haunts me from the life trajectories of these woman. I think it is related for most people that when we’re in love with someone, that person becomes our world. Moreover, our sense of who we are can often become contingent on how that person evaluates us. It is scary to have imagined in detail, due to reading this biography, what it could be like to suffer so horribly from losses with regards to these two issues, such that in spite of all one’s efforts, one slips into suicide. It is an impulsive post-break-up teenage fantasy, for some people, becoming reality.

I guess for many of us, we need not worry about such suffering that could ensue from breakups or divorce. I don’t think most men—or at least no man I’ve met before—is a piggish as Hughes. In particular, it seems that Hughes, whenever he was attracted to a woman, sexually pursued her. It is unfortunate that his poetry is so good. It’ll be interesting to see, however, whether I’m still able to enjoy his poetry after reading this biography. In a sense, I hope I still can; at least so far in my life I think it’s okay to separate the art from the artist under many circumstances.

This was also an interesting reading experience with regards to seeing how absorbed I got. I now understand first-hand something I’ve known for a while: we like celebrity gossip because the actions of these celebrities reflect general types of actions that many people in the world might undertake, even those in our immediate surrounds. It makes sense how much people have hated Hughes. In a sense, I endorse this (which I think is nevertheless compatible with loving the poems he wrote); to hate Hughes stands in for condoning certain types of behavior in the real world.

[Jessica Stilling · Rating 1 out of 5]

After finishing Heather Clark's AMAZING Sylvia Plath Biography Red Comet, I wanted to understand Ted Hughes better. Honestly, I'd hated him for most of the time I knew who he was, Plath's husband, but Clark's book made me wonder if there was more going with Ted. Maybe my knee jerk reactions about him were misguided...and while maybe he wasn't a perfect husband to Plath, maybe that didn't make him the devil. So I found this biography and bought it. I should have read up on it more before starting it. As has been said in other reviews, this is a hastily written biography by someone who knew and liked Ted, published right after his death. It feels like it. First of all there is no nuance. All the stories are totally straight forward and the author does not attempt to tell a story, give context, analyze anything, or honestly, write well at all. Every page, every paragraph, every chapter is a list of "and then this happened, and then this happened and then this happened."
And it's just too nice to Ted. Even if he's not the monster Plath fans sometimes paint him to be, I wouldn't know that from this book, which only tries to prove time and again how great Ted was. What I wanted from a Hughes biography was not to like him or for some proof as to why so many feminists hate him, I wanted to understand him. Clark's Plath biography, while not focused on Ted, honestly gave me some great nuanced insights about Ted that made me want to read about him and understand him better. This is not the book to help me with that. This book has an agenda, it's too obvious to be taken seriously. I don't think I'll finish this book. I need to find a Hughes Biography that challenges all sides of his literary and personal reputations. This is not the book.

[James Hartley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strange one.
Certainly informative and readable - Feinstein knew Hughes - and this is a good primer of Hughes' life but it's very uneven and badly paced. This could be because the book was more or less commissioned at Hughes' funeral and written fairly quickly, but it's also because the writer's proximity to many of the players in the story clearly influences her treatment of it.
Hughes' personal life - particularly his relationships with women - are hugely divisive for strangers, let alone friends and aquaintances and there's a definite feeling of being told a diplomatic version of events here: so much is left out, airbrushed or skipped over.
The book is uneven, too, in its construction: it starts very traditionally, impersonally, albeit quickly, with some family background but by its middle section we're into 'Hughes told me' territory and 'our friend', which can be offputting. Plus, there's a constant, weird, jarring, referencing of DH Lawrence which I found annoying.
While reading I ended up downloading a copy of Hughes' Collected Poems and Plath's, which I found really useful as reference - and as a way to calibrate or aim better at 'truth': with this biography, my own reading between the lines/intuition and the words of the poets themselves, I felt I could better guess at what had actually happened (as if anyone of us could).
So, overall, deeply flawed but also interesting - I ended up wanting to know a lot more about Hughes' take on life and nature and the occult - all of which were rather taken as given by the biographer.

[Rebecca Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had this book a while and have picked it up a few times over the years, always struggling to get into it. I persevered this time for the simple reason I wanted to donate the book to charity.

Full to the brim with information and I like the author’s diplomatic stance against all involved. I knew very little of Hughes other than his association with Plath so I found it interesting. There were a few typos/inaccuracies which was a little disappointing.

[Stuart Botham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this biography of Ted Hughes. Elaine Feinstein knew the poet personally and tells the story of his as he experienced it rather than a figure perceived by others.

She describes the complex situation on his marriage with Sylvia Plath and the impact on her suicide. Feinstein also provides her analysis on Hughes’ poems.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elaine Feinstein’s 'Ted Hughes: The Life of a Poet' is a thoughtful biography that illuminates Hughes’ brilliance and inner conflicts. Feinstein writes with clarity and empathy, offering rich insights into his creative life and both romantic and professional relationships. Engaging and accessible, it’s an inspiring portrait of one of the twentieth century’s greatest poets.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very brown study with nothing very new to say. Written to cash in on his death.

[Alexandra French]

Love the poetry of Ted Hughes. Know a lot about Sylvia Plath. Wanted to know more about the life of Ted Hughes. Thoroughly enjoyed.

[Andy Law]

Not a bad biography, but not a great one either, Jonathan Bate's is far more in depth and much better written, this is a good start.

[Oliver Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

maybe he wasn’t so bad after all

[Ilze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hughes was a born writer. You can see it in his work (and his unceasing need to write) as well as his studies. He couldn't stick out his original course of study because it was interfering with his writing. So anthropology and history it was, and you can follow the traces of these studies in his poetry (and other work). He absolutely loved Shakespeare ... and women! My theory is that he would always have hankered after Plath (as he did anyway) should they merely have divorced and she had lived to see it through. As it was, his sister ended up with the children after Assia died until he did find a wife (Carol) willing to stand by him. But even then he still followed other women. He seemed to have quite an admiration for Robert Graves' idea of the White Goddess, which could well have justified his conquests in that realm. I find it tragic that he spent the rest of his life hunting the one woman he loved, only to discover, too late, that writing about her would free him. It was only once he managed to put pen to paper for Birthday Letters that Plath's spell had less of a hold on him.

I admire this poet for his amazing work and his amazing ability to keep writing even in adversity.

[Larry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do have some sympathy for the author and a certain respect at least for her attempt to write "The Life of a Poet" that poet being the daunting on so many levels Ted Hughes. I must admit I have not completed the book as I wish to begin Jonathan Bate's bio of this poet. I recognise in some fashion the shortcomings of this work in that it was produced a mere three years after Ted's passing, and therein possibly lies the major challenge: a Biography with the title "The Life of the Poet" must carry weight, insight and at least some thorough analysis of the intersection of the subject's life and art. One reviewer called this volume "Ted Light" and I find I am unfortunately coming to the same conclusion thereby my decision to stop and commence Prof. Bate's much talked about biography. This bio may have been well received in the immediate glow of the comet that was Ted but I am afraid it just doenst read well in 2018.

[Anna Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a deep breath taken, I feel grateful for Hughes' poetry, sadness for the course of his life which revealed such depths. The book was full of interesting nuances, from Hughes' childhood through his later years. It felt thin at times, but his relationship and marriage to Sylvia Plath was well documented, as was his affair with Assia Wevill, which to many might be the biggest draw. I would have loved more background with his children, and his wife Carol. Still an excellent read for anyone curious to Hughes' life, or that of the women he loved and lost.

[Kim Bolton · Rating 5 out of 5]

i enjoyed this bio much more than I thought I would. I began reading it with a preconcieved idea of who Ted Hughes was: the lying, cheating, husband of poet Sylvia Plath. BUT you get a different persepctive of Hughes after reading Feinstein's book as the husband of neurotic woman who was constantly suspicious of him. He spent their married life encouraging Plath to write, but because of Plath's mental/emotional instability and Hughes's propensity to seek comfort from younger women their marriage was anything but wedded bliss.

[Kate (Tremain) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this delve into Ted Hughes' life. I'm a Plath fan through and through and it was interesting to see the account of their marriage from Hughes' point of view. However, often this book read as an account of a fan wanting more than anything to raise her idol up in others' esteem. I would have liked a more balanced view, especially as a friend of mine who also 'knew' Hughes described him as arrogant and selfish. If this book is spin doctoring then it fails to convince me by its unbalanced viewpoint.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I preferred the chapters that didn't explore the relationship between Plath and Hughes - Feinstein's opinion was too present in these sections, and I fail to see how she could have known so much about the intimate workings of Hughes' mind. At times, she goes beyond speculation - which is unwise. However I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter on his childhood, and found the book in its entirely, on the whole engaging and persuasive

[Jeanne Cosmos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ted Hughes. Interesting literary figure. However, author of his biography is less than an engaging writer. She interjects herself in a narrative about him that I find less than appropriate & actually nuanced focus on herself & her importance rather than on the biography. Feinstein's use of 'moreover' is quite distracting. I'm sure Hughes would be disenchanted with this attempt at his biography. I Do Not Recommend.

[Helen Calcutt · Rating 1 out of 5]

'The Life of a poet' or 'The Death of Sylvia Plath: with chunks of Assia Wevill, briefly touching on the poetry of Ted Hughes'. What a load of bollocks. Teaching nothing but the squirmy ins and outs of a sexual affairs and personal intrigues, adding nothing of the man or the writing itself. Contraditction after contradiction after contradiction. Read only if desparate.