Sylvia Plath’s Son Commits Suicide

There isn’t a poet around who doesn’t know the story of Sylvia Plath. Known for deeply moving poetry that provides a woman’s perspective, Plath had an emotional life and marriage with fellow poet Ted Hughes. In 1963, she put her head in a gas oven and took her own life. Her small children slept in the next room.

Now her son Nicholas Hughes, just 47-years old, has also taken his own life. Hughes was single and had no children of his own. He had recently left his job as a marine biologist to open a pottery studio.

Hughes grew up with his father and sister, Frieda. Both of his famous parents have written about him in their poetry.

Frieda Hughes has struggled with depression in the past as well, and has said of Nicholas, “He was a loving brother, a loyal friend to those who knew him and, despite the vagaries that life threw at him, he maintained an almost childlike innocence and enthusiasm for the next project or plan.”

Image: Barnes and Noble.