Product Description
From the joy and anguish of her own experience, Sexton fashioned poems that told truths about the inner lives of men and women. This book comprises Sexton's ten volumes of verse, including the Pulitzer Prize-winner Live or Die, as well as seven poems form her last years.Amazon.com Review
She drew her poems from a great depth in herself, and theycontinue to stir us...Her voice remains a distinctive one in Americanpoetry of the past half century. -- J.D. McClatchy ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

She speaks and gives me advice from the beyond...
I'm Manic Depressive!
I struggle with suicidal thoughts daily.
Some people cycle I think I actuallly am manic AND depressed sometimes.
Except unlike her Im both a failure and now more recently a coward.
Thats why shes living good in the afterlife nd I'm stuck here annoying the rest of humanity.
I read her works and its like an epiphany hits me everytime I open a page.
And to have her complete works is like being in heaven with her reading too me, showing me her understanding where as everyone else thinks I'm a pariah.

Birthday Gift
I got this book for a birthday gift for my daughter. She said anything by Anne Sexton. She really likes it. It came in a timely manner and in great condition. Price was good too. I would reccommend it to anyone. If you are an adult.

this is what art looks like
An old friend gave me this book about 6 or 7 years ago and I immediately fell in love with it. Anne Sexton is absolutely my favorite poetess. Her writings are pure art.

Amazingly deep, personal, Anne
Of course, no words can justify this book, you really have to read it for yourself.Sometimes I find myself sitting around for hours just going through it--it seriously feels like dreaming.A lot of times they're nightmares, but they're always passionate.The feelings expressed can be found in all of us in some form, but if you can relate to Anne's struggle on a personal level, they'll speak even louder to you.

She is so depressing
I love Anne Sexton, but really, one can only take her a little at a time.Having read her bio and her daughters book, "To Mercy Street and Back" I had to have her complete works.Here is a woman who is stark raving mad, incests her daughter, and is still a great writer, but even my dark side says "too much".I can't read too much at a time.Still, i'm glad to have it in my library.It is amazint too me how much medication her doctors kept her on, on had an affair with her, one sold her tapes, supposedly confidential information.I feel a great deal of empathy and pity for this woman, oh she also had a husband who liked to use her as a punching bag and a mother in law that took over her household she lived with a bunch of enablers, without which she might never have become a writer, but maybe would have had a chance at life.A true American tragedy of a woman abused in every way, but stilla genius. ... Read more

Product Description
A critically acclaimed biography of Anne Sexton explores the work and tormented life of the powerful American poet, a woman who struggled with mental illness throughout her career, finally taking her own life in 1974. Reprint. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. NYT. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

"distinction between creativity and self-destruction"
This is an extraordinary individual who lived through her language that spoke of her creativity and powerful forces of mental agony.Surely her sufferings and dysfunctions created poetic dilemma that opened eyes to not only individual/relational pathologies, but also the social/cultural/intellectual binds of the women of her time. I am deeply touched by her life, passion and her unpretentiousness, and at the same time, feel great empathy for her family, particularly her daughters, for the price they paid for such complex environments.

Kill-Me Pills
Biographies seem to be one genre where the quality goes from 'brilliant' to 'self published'. However, 'Anne Sexton: A Biography" never quite hits the highs and lows I expected (strangely enough.)Middlebrook is fairly good at telling the stories of people who have long since left this plane, but her portrait of Anne was a little distant. Some of the eccentricities of her and her family and brought to light but Middlebrook doesn't shy away from the dark stuff either. I think unless you are a completely insaitable, raving Sexton fan, this is probably not an essential purchase, but more something to grab from the library.

Attended by devils
Since references to Ms Sexton's work in Portugal are almost non-existent, I cannot remember why I became interested in her. I have some idea that the british poet Neil Curry very favourably mentioned to me the book by the same author on the Plath/Hughes case and perhaps that led me to Sexton's biography.

This work is certainly as accurate as any biography can be. The author was invited by one of Ms Sexton's daughters to write it, so she must have had access to all the material available which gives a firm foundation.
As an author, we can only be surprised how someone with such little formal education and in a relatively short time was able to produced work which earned praise,a Pulitzer prize included.

As opposed to that, Ms Sexton private life was tragic. "Attended by devils", I'm borrowing from a Joan Plowright's sentence on her husband, Laurence Olivier, she was so disturbed that she was unable to perform the simplest everyday life activities and most of her life she was under psychiatric care. She depended on other people even to cross a road, a strongest example cannot be given.

We can only imagine the nightmare that her husband, and later her daughters, had to endure during some 25 years. All the time amother-in-law was there to provide some stability to household life and her husband was prepared to put up with a lot of suffering (he knew about Sexton's multiple sexual affairs, for example) always hoping that she would get better and for a normal family life.
Since people are not saints, it is only understandable that from time to time there were terrible anger outbursts.

This biography raises a few non-trivial questions.

First, in my opinion, nothing but medical care legitimates the access to the medical archives of a patient. I strongly disapprove of their being used in this work.

Second, at a differently level, it is utterly disgusting that a psychiatrist, or a medical doctor for that matter, allows himself to get sexually involved with a patient. I see no reason for him not to be banned from the profession right away.

Third, it is clear that with the remarkableexceptions of Dr Orne and his mother among probably others, some people treating Anne were incompetent, the last one not being even a psychiatrist but a psychiatric social worker... How is it possible that with her medical history, full of suicide attempts, alcoholism, hospital stays and so on,someone can say that "... Sextonhad recently shown significant gains and that the decision to seek a divorce was reasonable"? (page 371, opinion of Dr Chase).

Sexton went ahead with the divorce, both daughters were angry at the way
she treated their father, some friends tried to talk her out of that decision, provided care and, nothing that were not to be expected, got
fed up.

The foreword, written by Dr Martin T. Orne, after all the man who suggested she try poetry, ends as follows:

Sadly, if in therapy Anne had been encouraged to hold on to the vital supports that had helped herbuild the innovative career that meant so much to her and others, it is my view that Anne Sexton would be alive today.

Well, it is a rather assertive statement BUT she might.

Biography reminds us we need to read Anne Sexton
This biography reminds us we need to read Anne Sexton, as she was one of this country's fore-most confessional poets.

The biography was engrossing, and elucidated many things I had not known about Sexton, or had only vaguely heard discussed.

Such difficult times she and her fellow confessional poet, Sylvia Plath, lived in.

One cannot help but wonder how things might have been different for Sexton and Plath, had they been born a couple of decades later.

Very well worth reading.

Psychologically compelling
This biography is a psychologically compelling, fascinating portrait of Anne Sexton the person.I wouldn't call it a relaxing read, but if you are interested in Anne Sexton or in a rather mysterious mental illness this is for you.I've been telling many friends about this book. ... Read more

Product Description
These poem-stories are a strange retelling of seventeen Grimms fairy tales, including "Snow White," "Rumpelstiltskin," "Rapunzel," "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," "The Frog Prince," and "Red Riding Hood." Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sexton's most intimate poems. "Her metaphoric strength has never been greater -- really funny, among other things, a dark, dark laughter" (C.K. Williams). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

A poet and a soul worth knowing
To be a great poet, one must possess the soul of a poet as a prerequisite, and the honesty of a human being who is unafraid of revealing their soul to its essential bareness.Anne Sexton does that with natural and admirable ease.

Perhaps exactly because she possessed those necessary qualities, she was well aware that it takes more than just the beautiful aspects of life, to create poetry that touches forgotten strings in our hearts.Strings that each on their own may produce sounds we would rather close our ears to, but used in the inspired and ingenious way as she does, and as a compilation, sound off with a flare, expressing the opus of Anne's life and resonating within our own hearts and lives. Great poetry turns on "lights" in our minds and awakens dormant feelings in our hearts.

Anne artfully proves that the ugly and the frightful, the ridiculous and the humorous, and not just the beautiful, all find their perfect place in poetry. The creativity and wit of her poems, like facets of a gem, reflect life's elements of joy and anguish, and clearly demonstrate that soul's journey inevitably passes through the muck of life, yet, in the end, and deep in its core, it remains unchanged, in its purity and reflection of the Devine.
In two words:

Great poetry! Anne Sexton, you ARE loved!

Anna Leda

Fabulous!
I love this book. Ann Sexton's version of Grimm's Tales is somewhat sick and twisted but it's wonderful. The person that owned this book before me made wonderful notes. Very informative and thought provoking.

great book
this book by anne sexton was in great condition. The condition was new, and had no messed up edges or highlighting. I think the seller was very honest and satisfying.

New Take on Fairy Tales
It probably sounds almost like a cliche, but I still must say it--Anne Sexton takes a new spun perspective on the classic Grimm fairy tales. She has a "theme" which she feels is appropriate for each story. Then, she fills in the blank of what elements and details seem to be missing in the fairy tales. The flat and static characters such as Mother Gothel now become a more complex character. In this cynical and dense poems, Sexton makes it seem as if her stories are the untold truth of the fairy tales.

Sexton as poet-storyteller, retelling dark fairytales with modern details and personal themes
In this remarkable collection of poems, Anne Sexton offers readers seventeen transformations of classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales. As she makes clear in the first poem "The Gold Key", Sexton assumes the persona of the storyteller for this collection, calling herself a "middle-aged witch" with "my face in a book and my mouth wide, ready to tell you a story or two." This device allows her to write about intensely personal topics, such as a sexually abusive father, through the detached voice of a storyteller. The use of fairy tales also provides Sexton with a shared cultural framework that enables her to communicate her own experiences and perspectives in a universal language that readers already understand intimately.

Fairytales have a power few of us realize. The stories shape many of our fantasies as children; they also condition us to accept traditional gender roles as we grow up. I believe that Anne Sexton understood their power and influence. She brilliantly tapped into that power and transformed the tales in a way that forces the reader to look at them with fresh eyes. Before launching into the tales themselves, Sexton set the themes of the stories in a modern or personal context. These connections, along with the interlacing of 20th century details (like soda pop and jockstraps) and her use of modern syntax in the fairy tales made their subversive commentary on the burdens and fears of women in a society shaped by male dominance startlingly clear.

In her transformed tales, Sexton examines the female archetypes they depict: the docile virgin, the wicked stepmother, the aging witch. She also sheds an illuminating, feminist light on the themes of female competition and the idea of happily ever after which pop up often in fairytales. It is significant that Sexton uses the gritty Grimm versions of the tales, instead of the child-friendly Disney versions we grew up with. Their original form reveals the subversive nature and insightful symbolism of the fairy tales, many of which were crafted by women.

While this collection is a departure from Sexton's typical confessional style, the poems of "Transformations" are unabashedly naked and intimately introspective--a wondrous achievement by one of our greatest poets. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

The same exuberance and passion that mark the Poetry
These letters are written with the same exuberance and passion that distinguish Sexton's poetry. She is a person of extraordinarily strong expression. At times this can be tiring, especially when it involves flattering or over- praising fellow writers. But most of the time it is strong and convincing, especially when it tells the drama of her daily struggle to somehow hold on to her sanity and create her poetry. Poetry is she makes clear her life- raft and place of refuge. But the letters also reveal involvement in family life and struggle with its responsibilities. In fact I found one of the most moving sections of letters those she wrote to her husband when she was far away traveling in Europe. Her husband was throughout their marriage an anchor and source of strength. He did not care for or understand her poetry, and was worlds away from her politically but he gave her love and support. In these letters to him she expresses her deep appreciation and love for him.
In many of the other letters Sexton expresses love and admiration for her correspondents. She had many friends and in writing to them she expresses such strong positive feelings for their work and person that it is no wonder many became long- time friends. And this when her intensity and demandingness emotionally did often lead to cooling of relationships in time.
Sexton in a moving final letter to her daughter, writes " No matter what happens you were always my bobolink, my special Linda Gray. life is not easy.It is awfully lonely. I know that. now you know it- wherever you are ,Linda, talking to me. But I've had a good life- I wrote unhappy- but I lived to the hilt. You too Linda- Live to the HILT!To the top. .."
Sexton is one of those writers who follows the Salinger prescription and 'writes her heart out'. This is an especially moving collection of letters one filled with pain and love and generosity and ambition and beauty.

Journey Through Letters
I first heard about Anne Sexton in one of my American Literature classes in college when we studied some of her works.Even though I was interested in a few of her poems at the time, I was quick to put her (and her writing) out of my mind.It wasn't until a few years later that I rediscovered Anne in a local bookstore; I happened to see a book called "Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters."Curious, I flipped through some of the pages and started reading fragments of her letters.Moments later, I decided that I wanted to purchase the book.Though it took me a while to read the biography, I became fascinated with Anne and all aspects of her life.The fact that this biography explores both her personal and professional life attracted me as a reader.The title, in itself, is interesting because it caught my attention, and I had never before read a person's biography that consisted mainly of letters--written to acquaintances and loved ones.It was a new experience for me, and a very enjoyable one at that!It seems that nowadays, for the most part, letters are disregarded as they have been replaced by e-mails and text messages.Reading Anne's letters also reminded me of when I used to write to various friends all over the world.Though I have stopped writing letters, Anne's biography took me back in time and allowed me to live vicariously through her written word."Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters" is a definite must have for those who wish to delve further into the mind of a brilliant poet.

Hoping to Find Something in the Midst of All Those Words
When I first began exploring poetry as a pre-teen, trying to go beyond the rhyming and beyond the few things we see in our burst toward "Education," I ran across the works of Anne Sexton and immediately fell in love with them. They were hopeful and hopeless all at once, loving and filled with dismay sometimes on the same page. As I learned more about the author from a scattering of books, I saw how much of herself she put into her writing because she was tormented in so many ways, too, and that this wasn't a love of writing that powered her onward. It was the need to let things go so she could continue living - in a very real physical sense. The failures on the marital front, the challenges that she found in motherhood, the way she found herself struggling with something that culminated with her writing at the start and breaking at the end - it was all there and I really didn't understand that until I read books like A Self-Portrait in Letters.That's possibly one of the things I liked about her more than most poets as well - Anne Sexton was really struggling when she found herself and the painful Muse she used to write. If followed through, you can see the desperation in the motif of work she constructed, and you can see where she feel too far to be salvaged and ultimately ended her life in October of 1974.

This book isn't a book of poems and doesn't contain anything like that at all inside. It is instead an intimate glimpse of her as she wrote fellow writers and people she loved, trying to figure out everything besides the pen. It shows how she felt about writing sometimes and how she felt about losing sometimes and, ultimately, it showed how she felt about the divorce that would consume her life and the years off she found and the things that drove her to kill herself.
While you can bear witness to this vicariously in her poetry, you can definitely tell that there is something far more driven when looking into her words that she wrote in a montage of letters. More sadly still, you can see her as she struggles to find a way that she will not ever obtain, and you can see the mental illness that silenced one of the most powerful voices poetry has really ever known.

If you are a fan of Anne Sexton and would like to see something on her life from her point-of-view, then this is a good book to look into. It IS NOT a good book for someone looking into the works of Sexton because none of that is there ,and I'm not really sure I would recommend it to anyone other than those interested in what really ailed the writer. I found it fascinating to see her private letters and to delve into her life, because I wondered what had taken her from feeling as if she could function to walking away from everything in the prime of her written moments. Still, this is more exploration into a person that anything else, It is trying to understand, too, because understanding is the key to so many a door not opened simply by the quill.

Looove Anne!
I love reading other people's letters.It's a little like catching them undressing!... Making one feel a little naughty for watching.
Ann's letters are quite revealing, refreshing, honest, as if she is talking to you directly.The misspelled words and puntuation errors just add to the honesty of the words...especially in the beginning of the book. The way Anne jumps from here to there... the same way a person's thoughts or ideas would. Anne writes her letters like this!

Can you believe Anne Sexton got a C in Engish class w/ little effort?Just goes to show you, the genius many of us may hold inside.But throughout the letters, Anne continually second guesses herself, continually craves validity about her writing..."Is this any good?"

She and Sylvia Plath have much in common and discuss their suicide attempts as if it is a common thing to discuss."How many times have you tried to kill yourself?"Sounds like a poet to me!

I so wanted Anne to be happy, to feel satisfyed, to be content with her MANY accomplishments, but the mental illness would not allow her this luxury.

Anne wrote letters to many people and made them fall in love with her..."I love you."she told many of them."I don't know what I would do without you." She even wrote beautiful letters to a monk who was, after a while, willing to leave his Monk-hood."Oh no!"Anne wrote back."This love affair can only be in letters!" Yes, what a perfect distance, Anne.

One fan wrote about his love for Anne and her poetry."I am only a housewife!"She wrote back.Did she really see herself this way?Oh, Anne!

Anne said..."Poetry is the opposite of Suicide."
WOW!
And when she finally stopped writing it, she killed herself once again.This time for real.

I give Anne's letters five stars, but the book as a whole four stars because of the lack of Anne's poetry, which should have been available for the reader throughout the book.

I loooove Anne Sexton!!!!!!put this review under Siammuse!!!!!

The Artof Self-Exposure
The Art of Self-Exposure

Anne Sexton (1928-1974) showed the best of herself in letters.To quote Donald Hall she was a `soul-flasher.' She was passionately engaged in living and tormented into dying.Her flight through life was one of breathtaking bravery in the face of crippling odds.The letters date from 1944 when she was sixteen, through 1974 a few days before her death.Full credit should go to the editors, Linda Gray Sexton, daughter of Ann, and Lois Ames, Ann's closest friend.The commentary is sensitive, knowledgeable and readable.The necessary biographical linkage is there.

There have always been unfortunate attempts to link Ann Sexton and Sylvia Plath.Their similarities are their age, their sex, their birthplace in the Northeastern United States, and their self-inflicted deaths.And there the similarity ends.Ann was a fragile child who emerged a tormented woman.She was creatively brilliant in a very natural sense; yet she worked feverishly all her life to improve every word she wrote.She once said,"I am tearing at the stars." Ann enjoyed a large circle of devoted friends and repaid their devotion in kind.She was supportive and free with advice to younger struggling poets when she could barely survive her own despair.Ann was a naturally beautiful woman who seemed completely unaware or disinterested in her own breathtaking countenance.

I am astounded at how helpless she became at the end of her life.I truly do not comprehend how her friends and family could bear her onslaughts of misery and self-paralysis.They must have loved her very much. These letters are appealing and a pleasure to read.She was a wordsmith as well as an incredible poet.Following is a stanza from "All My Pretty Ones"

Never loving ourselves,

hating even our shoes and our hats,

we love each other, precious, precious.

Our hands are light blue and gentle.

Our eyes are full of terrible confessions.

But when we marry, the children leave in disgust.

There is too much food, and no one left over

to eat up all the weird abundance. ... Read more

Product Description
Twenty-five poems celebrating the sensual frontiers of Sexton's time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

number one on the list of this century's greatest poetry
although all anne's work has moved me to contemplation (and often tears), love poems has been the most gorgeously presented and emotionally draining collection of poetry any author i have before seen published.i challengeall readers to find a more beautiful reflection of inferior self-perceptionthan in 'for my lover, returning to his wife.'anne's poetry is as onceangelic and crude, inspiring a kinship between herself and the reader --the true mark of a gifted writer.

IT WAS A INTERESTING TEAR JERKER BUT WAS EXCITING TO
I THOUGHT THAT SHE GOT INTO REALISM AND HEART WITH THIS BOOK AND REALLY WROTE ABOUT IT IT WAS ALMOST LIKE SHE LIVED THESE FEELINGS HER SELF I REALLY LOVE HER WRITING AND POETRY SHE MADE ME FEEL THOSE THOUGHTS And feelings i love this writer!!!!!! ... Read more

Product Description
This selection, which is drawn from Anne Sexton's ten published volumes of poems as well as from representative early and last work, is an ideal introduction to a great American poet. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A "must" for all Anne Sexton fans.
Selected Poems of Anne Sexton draws from poet Sexton's ten published works of poems as well as from her last pieces to provide a fine introduction andoverview to her best works. The editors reveal a wide range of styles andthemes and provide new readers with a definitive overview. Highlyrecommended.

Selections superior to the Collection
I'd seriously have to bicker with another reviewer and state that Middlebrook did a fine job selecting the "most worthy" of Sexton's poetry. Let's face it: towards the end of Sexton's career as apoet, she pumped out more garbage than grandeur...and Middlebrook (whosebiography on Sexton, by the way, is among the best biographies on ANYbody)seems perfectly aware of that. With "Selected Poems" in print,scholars of poetry no longer have to plow through rubble to find a fewdiamonds.

It's not her fault that they didn't pick her very best!
Okay.No offense to Anne Sexton, but this book just doesn't cut it.The people who did the "selecting" didn't do a very good job.Many good poems which are hard to find are found, but many of her greatest that are easily found aren't even mentioned in this book.And why does Middlebrook always do the commentaries??I love Anne Sexton and she needs to be portrayed for her art, not for the mentally ill, depressed, phsychotic person that she was.I mean--her poetry is terrific, and personally, I don't think that Middlebrook does a very good job of summarizing Anne Sexton to the readers. ... Read more

Product Description
Anne Sexton: The Last Summer juxtaposes Fursts exclusive photos with letters and unpublished drafts of Sextons poems written during the last months of her life, as well as previously unpublished letters to her daughters. With an introduction by Linda Gray Sexton, this book furthers both Sextons literary and personal legacies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Share an intimate look
Furst's intimate photographs are the centerpiece of this book. It is a chance to gaze into the face of one of this incredible poet.The portraits enable you to feel Anne's pain and the joy. These images are as revealing as any of her poems. This book is a must for all sincere Sexton readers.

A stunning tribute
This photographic biography lures us into the brilliant mind of poet Anne Sexton.Furst's beautiful pictures portray her as intelligent, thoughtful and sensuous, haughty and pensive, and we are drawn into the rich complex verses written in her own hand. We are allowed to peek at her personal correspondence, and look inside the poet to the woman and her spirit.Surely, this book is a "must have" for those who are looking for the real Anne Sexton. ... Read more

Product Description
Collects the best of Anne Sexton's memoirs and prose reflections on her development as a poet
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent though somewhat repetitive
This whole series is really good; I first read "Don't Ask" which focuses on Philip Levine.I wanted to know more about Anne Sexton after reading Middlebrook's bio and this was a good source. The interviews werevery entertaining and informative. Prepare yourself, however, for a fairamount of repetition as she like to tell the same stories over and over. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Anne Sexton's poems are powerful and touching
This collection features some of the early works of Anne Sexton as she struggled with mental illness and emmotional trouble. It is a profoundly power commentary on the inner state and malignacy towards the world she wasfeeling in her life. Each poem works together to create a emulsified whole. ... Read more

Product Description
Read by the Poet
One Cassette, 1 hour

The second installment of our exclusive The Voice of the Poet series, comprised of rare archival recordings, some never before released, featuring Anne Sexton.

This audio production is accompanied by a book containing the text to the poems and a commentary by J.D. McClatchy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Misleading Overview?
"Sexton might have inspired generations of women writers, but, placed beside some of the masters of our time, her work pales quickly"


Given that Sexton's poems -- smart, enthralling art --often capture the mystery of woman, this manly degradation of the poet concerns me. The word "master" itself reeks of exclusive masculinity (her male "master," Lowell, and other presumably male poets of our time), and deals with Sexton as if she taught the lot of stay at home mommies how to pick up the pen. She deserves more praise than that, as this collection will attest to.

riveting!
it is mesmerizing to listen to anne read her own written words in her husky, throaty, dusky, smoke filled, hauntingly beautiful, voice!

But life is a trick, life is a kitten in a sack
I assume if you're looking at this item that you'll already be somewhat familiar with Sexton's work, so I'll comment only on the recording itself, in an objective (and objectifying!) sense.Anne Sexton, if I may say so, has an incredible voice.It's deep and throaty, as if she's had a few drinks and continues to chain-smoke as she reads (which is entirely possible).Among my favorite poems to hear Anne read is "Some Foreign Letters," in which she achieves an intensely acerbic tone, spitting out the words to her subject.I've seen a different recording, in which she reads that same poem, and she pronounces it tenderly, with an obvious affection for the woman she's talking to.Hearing these differences, the way that one poet seems to change her mind about her own work, is fascinating.

Anne Sexton's voice is gorgeous, and her poetry makes so much sense when read by the woman herself.Buy this recording.

If you like Sexton's poerty
Reading Anne Sexton's poetry is amazing by itself, so imagine what it would be like to hear them read out loud by miss Sexton herself. A great experience for a true poetry lover. ... Read more

Product Description

Anne Sexton's poems are brutally honest, often controversial, and always thought-provoking.  Her work continues to dazzle new generations of readers and listeners.

On this recording, made shortly before her death in 1974, Ms. Sexton reads twenty-four poems selected from different periods in her creative life, all in a dramatic, resonant voice that complements the deeply personal quality of her dark poetic explorations.  Ms. Sexton had a wonderful, unique literary vision, and she ranks among the great poets of our century.

Customer Reviews (6)

Haunting
Anne Sexton is a favorite of mine. Her struggle with life is sad, and deeply moving. You can hear the despair in Ms. Sexton's voice as she reads her poems,voice is quite haunting.

mesmerizing!
listening to anne sexton read her own works in her gravely, husky, smoke filled, throaty, voice is riveting.

Anne's poetry swims back to me
How absolutely superb to be read to by Anne Sexton...

That husky, sexy, deep cigarette voice-- reads her own poetry so beautifully, that nobody else could have done it justice, except Anne herself.

I love her poetry...."Music Swims Back To Me"is deliciously devine!!!!!!

Wait Mister.Which way is home?
They turned the light out
and the dark is moving in the corner.
There are no sign posts in this room,
four ladies, over eighty,
in diapers every one of them.
La la la, Oh music swims back to me
and I can feel the tune they played
the night they left me
in this private institution on a hill.... Anne Sexton

Get the audio!Get in a hot-bath and let Anne read to you!
You won't be disappointed!!!!!

The Sound of Immortality
Having to read the seminal poetry of Sexton--in my view a giant in the world of poetry (regarding just her talent for words alone, never mind her being a woman, etc., etc.)--and having to have fallen so deeply and intimately in love with the work--without ever having the opportunity to HEAR and LISTEN to her recite these masterpieces; well, that would be somewhat akin to having been given the gallies of all of Bob Dylan's lyrics, and never getting the chance to hear him sing[ing] them.Listening to her reading these words which I had known and admired for so long, and never knowing what her voice was like; finally hearing her speak the lines was like being in the room with a ghost who could make you hear her voice. Strangely, I felt throughout that I had known the voice all along...

Certainly haunting
I had read so much about Sexton's dramatic readings and her absolute captivation of an audience through her reading.This tape, though, does not re-create that for me.It is infused with the drama characteristic ofher performances, to be sure, but it is not the voice I expected from herand this somehow makes it disconcerting for me.She sounds (due to herhabit of chain smoking much of her life) like an old woman, even though shewas quite young.It's ok, but just not all that I expected. ... Read more

Product Description
The poet's life as a teacher. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (9)

The Other Side of The Story
I had just finished reading Anne Sexton:A Portrait in Letters, which I found very intense but entertaining, and decided to pursue her daughter's memoir.This book is Linda's side of the story, and is extremely explicit.The author is to be commended for her honesty.I believe everything she writes here; it does indeed have the ring of truth.

My only criticism is that - in three instances - this explicitness becomes extremely off-putting.While discussing one of her mother's trance states, we are treated to some TMI - too much information of a sexual nature.In another example, Ms. Sexton writes that her mother encouraged their father to walk around nude so their girls could get use to the adult male physique, and even goes further to remark on the size of her father's penis.While her father would probably be complimented (as any male would), did we really need to know that?

What struck me about this book was how disturbed Anne Sexton was.When you read her letters, you feel her intelligence and humor, but as portrayed in this book you learn of the fugue and trance states and how sexually charged she was.Anne played both sides of the fence too, having numerous affairs with both men and woman while married to the long suffering Kayo.Anyone would sympathize with this handsome man with the engaging smile who must have suffered through hell living with Anne.But he stood by her for some 25 years, but one day Anne decided she wanted a divorce because she wasn't getting enough sex.
I would highly recommend anyone looking for a fuller picture of the life of Anne Sexton.Also recommended would be Diane Middlebrooks authorized biography.

The photos included by the way reveal how strongly Lynda Gray so closely resembles the mother.

I will never tire of reading about mothers and daughters
I will never tire of reading about mothers and daughters. When I was 10, my own mother had a breakdown and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. In the years that followed, my father - a medical scientist with many connections - my mother, and many others in the family, wove a fascinating yet tortured life for my siblings and me. There was always something sinister behind the blatant reality of my mother's tragic intermittent psychosis. That something sinister was in part the times in which we lived, times not far removed from the times Sexton and Linda Gray Sexton lived.

I like to think we live in more enlightened times now, but am not sure of that perception.

Linda Gray Sexton's account of life with her mother was by turns refreshing, brutally honest, uplifting and depressing. Yet it needed to be told.

Go hug your mom after reading this
I read long ago the biography of Anne Sexton by Diane Middlebrook, and was very impressed by the tormented life of the poet.I also happened to read one of the novels written by her daughter, Linda Gray Sexton, "Points of Light", which I did not like all that much.So I had (I thought) an idea of who Linda was, both through the biography and her novel.

I was wrong.Searching for Mercy Street is truly what the subtitle claims: "A journey back to my mother".It gets so personal it is embarrassing at times.Linda goes into a lot of detail as to why she revealed things that you would never want anybody outside of your family to know, and it makes sense, and yet it doesn't.I have never read a better account of life with another person.It is not 100% chronological, but it is rich in detail and clarity.I read it with the anticipation I have sometimes when reading a very interesting novel.

Long time ago a friend said: "Your parents are probably the only people that you may love even if you don't like them".I have thought about that comment quite a bit over the years.Linda was conflicted over the relationship she had with her mother.There was the void of not having had a mom in the general sense of the term, not so much a June Cleaver, but more someone who takes care of you, looks after you, helps you, loves you.There was the abuse.And mingled with everything else, there was the unconditional love.The complexities of mental illness are true and clear and never better represented than in this story.I have to wonder: how much of Anne's behavior was pure selfishness, and how much was her disease?

I had to cry at some of the stuff, because you know the pain was real and strong, and there was no prettifying any of the horrible things that went on at that household.And at the same time I had to smile at certain things, like the tenderness in the relationship between Linda and her father.It was heartwarming, among all the raw pain.

The choice of photos complemented the writing perfectly.I loved reading this memoir, pain and sordid details and all.

Honesty Can Be Pure Hell
"My mother died of depression.She took her life to end her pain." --Linda Gray Sexton

Living with Anne Sexton must have been like living in hell--and her daughter, Linda Gray Sexton, leaves absolutely nothing out of this book.She allows every dirty secret to emerge like a sort of bitterness filling the air.

Such as Anne's body lying on top of her-- "She's very heavy...I want to scream-get off, get off, get off!"--Linda Gray Sexton

Without Linda G. Sexton's honesty, "Mercy Street" would have been just another Mommy Dearest, but this was not. This book was about therapy, change, and forgiveness: this book was about new beginnings.

"Without knowing it, mother passes out to me her powers of observation.She shows me how to watch, how to see, how to record what transpires in the world around me.This is how I inherit her greatest gift..."--Linda Gray Sexton

"Searching for Mercy Street" was about rising above an environment which could have easily turned one into the same monsters you coexisted with--

But Linda Gray does not only show the reader the monster, the molester, the mentally ill, Anne Sexton-- she shows us the victim, the darkly depressed poet-- who without writing, would have killed herself long ago; she shows us a mother who did the best she could,even while walking through the dark.

Linda Gray Sexton finally arrives whole--In a world for her that was once motherless--

Now, after years of searching, she has found the mother within, and Anne Sexton herself,with all her imperfections, lives within that person too.

captivating, enthralling
I actually read this book while it was in production -- I was on the proofreading team for the publisher's typesetter -- and the entire team was enthralled by this book. Work is work, and usually we would would deal with the task at hand, but on breaks and over lunch, many of us working on this book would have mini-sessions about the author, her mother, the context of the relationship. We all felt very personally attached and protective of this book because we were working with the manuscript, which had handwritten notes between the author and her editor in the margins. It wasn't simply a narrative, we were keenly aware of the humanity behind the words. However, that awareness was truly heightened by the sensitive and thoughtful writing. Of course, my reading experience is unique to my situation, but I urge all readers to give this book some time. It's worth the investment. ... Read more

Product Description
"Makes the case that Sexton was a highly original poet of the twentieth century but best understood in twenty-first-century terms. The result is a genuinely fresh appreciation of the artistic achievements of Anne Sexton."--Diane Middlebrook, professor emerita of English, Stanford University

Given the amount of scholarship on twentieth-century poetry, there has been remarkably little published about Anne Sexton, even though her work is considered to be as important as that of such contemporaries as Sylvia Plath and W. H. Auden. By offering new and provocative readings of her entire oeuvre, Jo Gill provides a long overdue critical appreciation of Anne Sexton and presents a radical rethinking of the confessional mode of poetry and a recuperation of Sexton's place in it.

Gill makes substantial use of Sexton's archive of unpublished diaries, drafts, correspondence, lectures, interviews, stage readings, and book annotations, as well as a little-known television documentary on Sexton. She also uses techniques that have not been previously applied to Sexton's poetry to increase our understanding of the poet's life and work.

Employing new--principally poststructuralist--literary theories and critical practices, Gill offers new readings of Sexton's complex and ambitious poems. She discusses the diversity and richness of Sexton's writing across her career, shows the relevance of the often-ignored later poems, and places Sexton's work in its specific historical, political, and ideological contexts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A powerful poetic voice
This was Anne Sexton's first collection of poems. It is easy to understand why it made such a strong impression. It has a power in feeling and expression, a reaching beyond any restrait or limit - it is confessional poetry in which the poet seems to spare no one, least of all herself. Her whole enterprise in poetry began at the suggestion of her psychoanalyst and she was in the worlds of extreme emotion long before she began to write. Her descriptions of life in the asylum, including those of her fellow 'inmates' are striking. But the poems also include pieces involving her relations to family members, perhaps her mother first and above all, but also her father, and a beloved aunt of hers who she reimagines the life of. Sexton's language is richly metaphoric and original. The feeling in reading her work is that she is a poet at the highest level, whatever objection one might have to certain kinds of sentiment she expresses i.e. She does not seem especially generous and forgiving of those closest to her. In one of the poems she speaks of herself as having been an unwanted third daughter. As a mother of two daughters she defines their lives and being too primarily in relation to her own needs.
Among the many outstanding poems there is the one which opens the book, 'You, Doctor Martin' which tells of her psychiatrist who each morning 'walks from breakfast to madness','Her Kind'in which the refrain 'I have been her kind' connects the poet with the 'witch' whose actions are described in the poem,'Some Foreign Letters' in which she inrereading letters her aunt wrote from Europe in the 1890's 'learns to love her twice', 'The Funnel' in which she tells the story of her great- grandfather who ' begat eight genius children and brought twelve almost new pianos'. This last poem concludes with the following stanza;
'Back from that great- grandfather I have come
to puzzle a bending gravestone for his sake,
to question this diminishing and feed a minimum
of children their careful slice of suburban cake.'
Sexton is a writer whose sense of life's toughness, pain , difficulty, perhaps even impossibility is very great. She is not to be taken in large doses without danger of negative effect. But her power ,daring and linguistic brilliance are unmistakable.

Restrained melancholy and rhythmic genius
In this striking volume, as also in the second book All My Pretty Ones, Sexton's despair is still beautifully controlled, enabling her to discuss it with an aloof but engaging sense of objectivity. For example, The Waiting Head is a poignant memory of a beloved grandmother who lived alone and the poem ends with the line "but no one came no one came."

Equally poignant, but humorous too, is her description of being admitted to a mental institution. The poem is called Music Swims Back To Me and contains a repeating refrain and flowing rhythm that convey the sense of alienation particularly well. Said The Poet To The Analyst, a look at the relation between patient and therapist, is another masterpiece in its rhythmic flow and economical use of vivid imagery

The poem Her Kind described the poet as the witch, inhabiting a different world and a person "who is not ashamed to die." The Moss Of His Skin opens with a quote from Psychoanalysis And Psychoanalytic Review and is a resigned description of being buried alive. I find echoes of the same resignation in the music of Swans.

The musical quality of Sexton's poetry comes to the fore again in her tale of accepting the death of a friend, in the poem Elizabeth Gone, one of the most magical elegies I have ever read. Noon Walk On The Asylum Lawn integrates a line from Psalm 23 in each of the three stanzas, juxtaposing the reassuring words of protection with her own terrifying observations to eerie effect, for example, the second stanza:
"The grass speaks.
I hear green chanting all day.
I will fear no evil, fear no evil
The blades extend
And reach my way."

A sense of first-hand experience lends a genuine authenticity to these poems, whilst her imagery and the natural rhythm of language are original and impressive. To Bedlam And Part Way Back and All My Pretty Ones remain her best books, since the later works like The Awful Rowing Toward God became so bleak and harrowing that some of it is very painful to read and digest.

Restrained Melancholy and Rhythmic Genius
In this evocative volume (and also in the second book All My Pretty Ones), Sexton's despair is still beautifully controlled, enabling her to discuss it with an aloof but engaging sense of objectivity. For example, The Waiting Head is a poignant memory of a beloved grandmother who lived alone and the poem ends with the line "but no one came no one came." Equally poignant, but humorous too, is her description of being admitted to a mental institution. The poem is called Music Swims Back To Me and contains a repeating refrain and flowing rhythm that convey the sense of alienation particularly well. Said The Poet To The Analyst, a look at the relation between patient and therapist, is another masterpiece in its economical use of vivid images and the rhythm of the words. The poem Her Kind described the poet as the witch, inhabiting a different world and a person "who is not ashamed to die." The Moss Of His Skin opens with a quote from Psychoanalysis And Psychoanalytic Review and is a resigned description of a terrifying occurrence, being buried alive. The musical quality of Sexton's poetry comes to the fore again in her tale of accepting the death of a friend, in the poem Elizabeth Gone, one of the most magical elegies I have ever read. Noon Walk On The Asylum Lawn integrates a line from Psalm 23 in each of the three stanzas, juxtaposing the reassuring words of protection with her own terrifying observations to eerie effect, for example, the second verse:
"The grass speaks.
I hear green chanting all day.
I will fear no evil, fear no evil
The blades extend
And reach my way."
A sense of first hand experience lends a genuine authenticity to these poems, whilst her mastery of imagery and the natural rhythm of language is original and impressive. To Bedlam And Part Way Back and All My Pretty Ones remain her best books, since the later works became so bleak and harrowing that some of them are very painful to read and digest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Talented And Fatal
Anne Sexton a brilliant controversial poet who took her own life at age 46, in 1974 even though she had religion is puzzling. Anyway suffering from bouts of mental breakdowns, and guilt from having committed adultery (with other women and therapists) she was in an enormous amount of pain.
Being an impressively accomplished woman, her writings appearing in the New Yorker, Harper's, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1966, just to give some examples her depression, memory lapses, and guilt took over to the point of tragedy. Mental illness, like cancer does not care who you are, it just attacks.
The Death Notebooks, are beautifully written, however she already had a plan to commit suicide, as she was writing them and was preparing for the Day.
Most of the poems in this book embody difficulty since she mocks in a spiritual way her own depression and towards the end of the book, she begins to write "Psalms".
She asks for mercy, through her prose over all the dirty little sins she had committed during her lifetime. She is about to off herself and writes about heaven and challenges her readers with Christ imagery, she assumes there is a heaven where things are better wherever that may be. She prays and rejoices of wonderful things to come painting a delightful portrait that makes you wonder if she truly believes in it or not.
Most of the poems are about rage and, desperation that represent most of the time some kind of repressed depression.

"The Furies" section and the we have the "the Death Baby"

Then she become religious, so be it I suppose. I hope she found what she was looking for after her death. It has always been understood that people that have faith and commit suicide are engaging in a BIG sin.

I like Sexton's poetry books, however this one just made me ponder more. If you are in a good frame of mind, read it.
... Read more