Sylvia was born in 1932, Massachusetts. She went to Smith College and was awarded a coveted position as a guest editior at Mademoiselle magazine. She then moved on and recieved a Scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge where she continued to write poetry.
In 1963, Sylvia too her own life. Plath's gravestone in Heptonstall churchyard bears the inscription "Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted," drawn from the Bhagavad Gita.