Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Anne Sexton: The Last Summer
    Anne Sexton: The Last Summer
    Anne Sexton: The Last Summer
    Ebook101 pages16 minutes

    Anne Sexton: The Last Summer

    By Arthur Furst

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Striking photos of the alluring, defiant, and mesmerizing poet Anne Sexton-many published for the first time in this exclusive collection-taken during the last summer of her life, before her suicide on October 4, 1974

    According to those who knew her best, Anne Sexton was always preparing for her death, almost like an Egyptian queen constructing her pyramid. She wanted to create the most poignant version of her life story, which would best serve as her monument after she was gone. She left behind a study filled with her papers, writings, and photographs.

    On a photo assignment from Houghton Mifflin, Arthur Furst first met Anne Sexton in April 1974, just two months after she was revived (against her wishes) from a suicide attempt. Welcoming him into her life as a friend, Sexton entrusted Arthur Furst to capture her image over the last months of her life. Undoubtedly, she intended his photographs to become part of her legacy.

    Anne Sexton: The Last Summer beautifully juxtaposes Furst's exclusive photos with letters and unpublished drafts of Sexton's poems written during the last months of her life, as well as previously unpublished letters to her daughters, giving unprecedented insight into the life of this legendary poet.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateOct 12, 2001
    ISBN9781429927703
    Anne Sexton: The Last Summer
    Author

    Arthur Furst

    Arthur Furst's career in photography has spanned forty years, and has included sessions with such poets as Allen Ginsberg and Denise Levertov. He lives in Norfolk, Massachusetts, with his wife and two sons.

    Related to Anne Sexton

    Related ebooks

    Literary Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      No One Gets Sylvia Plath

      Nov 6, 2020

      No One Gets Sylvia Plath
      16 min read

    • Article

      A Mad Woman on Fire: On Sylvia Plath and Female Rage

      Jul 12, 2018

      “You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe…” The poet’s voice is strong, piercing. Her tone arch, sly. A few lines later, as she proclaims, “Daddy, I have had to kill you,” she sounds like she’s about to burble into a mean, delicious laugh.

      5 min read

    • Article

      On Louise Glück

      Dec 1, 2021

      I WAS LYING in bed late at night, woeful, confused by another death, this one the death of a close friend; the losses had been mounting steadily, a bewildering number of losses, each one specific, difficult to accept, hard to overcome, and I must hav

      12 min read

    • Article

      David Berman, Slacker God

      Aug 8, 2019

      David Berman, Slacker God
      3 min read

    • Article

      How Instagram Saved Poetry

      Oct 15, 2018

      How Instagram Saved Poetry
      6 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems by Sheri Benning

      Mar 9, 2021

      the baby, name lost. 1906. Spring born,almond and blackthorn in bloom. Meadowsweet,chickweed, petals of milk on her lips. Spider-silk saliva from mouth to crab apple fists,on Mother’s lap, the train from Kiev to Minskafter the last harvest in Tiegeno

      2 min read

    • Article

      Jan Morris

      Jun 15, 2018

      I have always rather envied the poet Ovid, who was banished from Rome by the emperor Augustus, you may remember, to a remote place called Tomis on the shores of the Black Sea. There he died, ten years later, and his exile has gone into legend and int

      17 min read

    • Article

      Exhaustively Researched, Often Brilliant Biography Of Sylvia Plath

      Nov 7, 2020

      ALMOST six decades after her death, Sylvia Plath stands as the most consequential poet of her generation. As a feminine voice, she dominates the 20th century. At the time of Plath’s death at age 30, critic A Alvarez wrote: “The loss to literature is

      13 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Anne Sexton

    3.5/5

    9 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      It was tragic! I jus start with a new author and this book the last one before this great woman took her life apart… I am interested in more of her work!
    • 2/5
      The text of this book is largely forgettable, but the photographs, of an aging Sexton, are a true insight. A nice change of pace from the usual, chain-smoking in a sundress press photos used in Sexton books.

    Book preview

    Anne Sexton - Arthur Furst

    e9781429927703_cover.jpge9781429927703_i0001.jpg

    For Kathy

    Table of Contents

    Title Page

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    FOREWORD - Photographing Anne

    INTRODUCTION - The Last Summer

    NOTES ON THE TEXT

    Copyright Page

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    I would like to extend my gratitude to Linda Sexton for the phone calls, E-mail, and all her help, and to Joy Sexton for the privilege of teaching her that summer. My special thanks to Tara Wenger, Research Librarian at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, for her assistance and guidance through Anne’s papers. Thanks also to Steve Snider, Creative Director, St. Martin’s Press, for his aesthetic and enthusiastic support, and Diane Higgins, Senior Editor, St. Martin’s Press, for thinking this was a book worth doing.

    For all of those who shared their assistance, knowledge, and advice, thank you to Wendy Lurie, Patty Fernandez, Nathan Furst, Chris Beaver, and Diane Middlebrook.

    FOREWORD

    Photographing Anne

    Spring 1974

    In April of 1974 I was scheduled to meet and photograph Anne Sexton. She was living in Weston, Massachusetts, an upper-middle-class suburb of Boston. My image of Anne was based on a Gwendolyn Stewart photo in which she appears to be at a literary garden party, wearing a black-and-white summer dress, smiling, sitting, her

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1