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Anne Sexton: The Last Summer
Striking photos of the alluring, defiant, and mesmerizing poet Anne Sexton-many published for the first time in this exclusive collection-taken during the last summer of her life, before her suicide on October 4, 1974
According to those who knew her best, Anne Sexton was always preparing for her death, almost like an Egyptian queen constructing her pyramid. She wanted to create the most poignant version of her life story, which would best serve as her monument after she was gone. She left behind a study filled with her papers, writings, and photographs.
On a photo assignment from Houghton Mifflin, Arthur Furst first met Anne Sexton in April 1974, just two months after she was revived (against her wishes) from a suicide attempt. Welcoming him into her life as a friend, Sexton entrusted Arthur Furst to capture her image over the last months of her life. Undoubtedly, she intended his photographs to become part of her legacy.
Anne The Last Summer beautifully juxtaposes Furst's exclusive photos with letters and unpublished drafts of Sexton's poems written during the last months of her life, as well as previously unpublished letters to her daughters, giving unprecedented insight into the life of this legendary poet.
According to those who knew her best, Anne Sexton was always preparing for her death, almost like an Egyptian queen constructing her pyramid. She wanted to create the most poignant version of her life story, which would best serve as her monument after she was gone. She left behind a study filled with her papers, writings, and photographs.
On a photo assignment from Houghton Mifflin, Arthur Furst first met Anne Sexton in April 1974, just two months after she was revived (against her wishes) from a suicide attempt. Welcoming him into her life as a friend, Sexton entrusted Arthur Furst to capture her image over the last months of her life. Undoubtedly, she intended his photographs to become part of her legacy.
Anne The Last Summer beautifully juxtaposes Furst's exclusive photos with letters and unpublished drafts of Sexton's poems written during the last months of her life, as well as previously unpublished letters to her daughters, giving unprecedented insight into the life of this legendary poet.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 11, 2019
Such a great poet lost when she took her own like.
August 25, 2015
This book is a beautiful blend of unearthed photographs and archival material.
October 31, 2017
4 1/2 stars. I'm so happy this exists. I was a bit bothered why the author would bother including letters that were not readable? Overall, incredible material and ultra personal photographs of a complex woman.
January 9, 2014
One of my all time favorite books. axing photography of Anne and some of her old letters and poetry. Love it.
January 4, 2022
It's a literary gift for all Anne Sexton fans. So vivid and personal, the rawness of this book time-capsuled the glimpse of her journey before she finally put the quietus in her own will.
The Starry Night by Anne Sexton
“That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.”
Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother
The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.
It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:
into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.
The Starry Night by Anne Sexton
“That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars.”
Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother
The town does not exist
except where one black-haired tree slips
up like a drowned woman into the hot sky.
The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die.
It moves. They are all alive.
Even the moon bulges in its orange irons
to push children, like a god, from its eye.
The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars.
Oh starry starry night! This is how
I want to die:
into that rushing beast of the night,
sucked up by that great dragon, to split
from my life with no flag,
no belly,
no cry.
September 28, 2026
Four stars only because it's not 100 percent my kind of perfect book. Everything else about it is five stars. The story, the subject matter, the writing are all worthy of the Pulitzer that it won. One tiny thought is that the giant fancy words he likes to use kept making me stop to look them up, which kind of broke the magical spell of reading. But i guess if you're writing about comic books you have to balance out the subject matter with a big cerebral vocabulary.
May 8, 2008
The pictures really bring the Sextons home to you. The book includes some typed letters and poems that Sexton edited. One can only say it really is a pity she didn't die of natural causes, so much talent gone nowhere.
June 10, 2009
Great book except so much of her handwriting is impossible to read I don't feel as though I actually "read" the whole book.
January 7, 2010
stunning photographs. lovely introductions. a great selection of personal letters. absolutely heart-wrenching & yet beautifully done.
May 2, 2013
Only, up from death, rises this little love, that can hardly move -Sexton
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews