Forty-Five: Poems - Hardcover

Hughes, Frieda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061136018 ISBN 13: 9780061136016

Publisher: Harper, 2006

Synopsis

The daughter of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes looks back on forty-five years of loves, losses, pain, hope and joy in this revealing and poignant poetry collection—first time in paperback.

“Hughes writes about tragedy with [Sylvia] Plath-like wit.”—Entertainment Weekly

Breaking forty-five years of near-silence on the subject of her life, Frieda Hughes opens up through the medium she knows best—poetry. In this extraordinary collection of personal poems, she takes the reader step-by-step through the difficult and inspirational events that defined each year of her life, and which she encapsulates here. We share her pain through her mother’s suicide, her fight against bulimia, three marriages, the devastating loss of her father to cancer, and an insurmountable breakdown in the relationship with her stepmother.

But along with the tribulations, she also shares the happy moments in her life, including her successes, her love, and her ultimate triumphs as an accomplished poet and painter. As she grows older, her narrative unfolds to show a complex life beautifully rendered in her poetry.  

Hughes is a master of powerful, moving, and vivid language, as seen with the critical success of her past collections, Wooroloo and Waxworks. For any lover of poetry or for anyone who wants to know what happened to Frieda Hughes after she so tragically lost her mother, this book is the answer.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

The daughter of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes looks back on forty-fiveyears of loves, losses, pain, hope and joy in this revealing poetrycollection.

Breaking forty-five years of near-silence on the subject of her life,Frieda Hughes finally opens up through the medium she knows best --poetry. In this extraordinary collection of personal poems, she takesthe reader step-by-step through the difficult and inspirational eventsthat defined each year of her life, and which she encapsulates here. Weshare her pain through her mother's suicide, her fight against bulimia,three marriages, losing her father to cancer, and an apparentlyinsurmountable breakdown in the relationship with her stepmother. In theface of so much grief, she also shared her successes, her love, and herultimate triumphs as an accomplished poet and painter. As she growsolder, her narrative unfolds to show a complex life beautifully renderedin her poetry.

Hughes is a master of powerful, moving, and vivid language, as seen withthe critical success of her past collections, Wooroloo and Waxworks, andnever more so than now, as she takes on the topics of life, love, loss,and family. For any love of poetry or for anyone who wants to know whathappened in the life of Frieda Hughes after she so tragically lost hermother, this book is the answer.

About the Author:

Born in London in 1960, Frieda Hughes is a painter and poet. She has also written children’s books, and was The Times (London) poetry columnist from 2006 to 2008. Frieda’s first collection of poetry, Wooroloo, was named after the hamlet in western Australia where she lived during the 1990s. Other collections followed: Stonepicker; Waxworks; Forty-five, a collection of autobiographical poems based on her life to the age of forty-five; The Book of Mirrors; and Alternative Values. In this last book, Frieda used the subject of her poems to inform the accompanying abstract images—painted in oils on canvas—combining the two driving forces in her life. Her poems have also appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The London Magazine, The Times (London), and The Spectator (London). Frieda resides in Wales with owls and motorbikes. 

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0061136018
• ISBN 13: 9780061136016
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128