HAPPY HOURS
Gail Crowther on the firm friendship of Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton
In early 1959, the gas-lit streets of Beacon Hill in Boston were teeming with poets. Two of the best-known, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, met for the first time in a writing workshop held at Boston University. After class, they would drive to the Ritz-carlton Hotel to end the afternoon drinking three extra-dry martinis. Sexton would park her old Ford in a loading-only zone, yelling: ‘It’s okay, because we are only going to get loaded!’ Then, with their books and papers, the pair would sit in the hushed, velvet bar of the Ritz drinking cocktails and eating dish after dish of free crisps. Their talk was about writing, life, death. This collision of worlds was brief, a matter of months, but it was intense, and led to a lifelong friendship and respect between the two women who shared ideas and each other’s successes. Learning about this short but potent moment in their lives inspired me to write about it and explore how the paths of these two great writers ran parallel, but also diverged. It became clear that they were operating in a male-dominated world and if they wanted to succeed, they would need energy, resilience and strength. Both had plenty of this, along with rebellious natures, which resulted in their success. But it was not an easy journey. Their poems were regarded as shocking for the time, dealing with sex, violence, menstruation, marriage and suicide. Sexton felt as though she was ‘kicking at the door of fame’ to which men held the password that they would not share. But, as I hope this book reveals, the two women kicked the door down anyway, no password needed, to write blistering words that secured their own literary legacies. ‘Three-martini Afternoons at the Ritz: the Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton’ by Gail Crowther (£20, Simon & Schuster) is published on 27 May.