Poet Anne Sexton Publishes First Book
On this day in 1960, Massachusetts poet Anne Sexton had her first collection of poems published, To Bedlam and Part Way Back. Just before the manuscript was to go to press, she made major changes in "Her Kind," a poem that had been rejected by literary journals, and included it in the book. From then on, she began all her readings with this poem. She formed a band called "Anne Sexton and Her Kind" to accompany her. Anne Sexton achieved great literary success, winning the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 but also lived with mental illness all her adult life. In 1974 she died by suicide. She was 46 years old.
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