Anne Stevenson’s Bitter Fame about Sylvia Plath evoked undeserved outrage

Anne Stevenson, the poet, has died whose ‘meticulously crafted poetry was elegiac, witty, passionate and sharply visual’ in the words of a reviewer. She avoided fame and publicity – out of a distrust of “the ego-hill, the misery-well,/ the siren hiss of publish, success”. But became the focus of outrage for Bitter Fame her biography of Sylvia Plath in which she apportioned equal blame to Plath as well as Ted Hughes for the breakdown of their relationship, befor