Aurelia Plath was the wife of Otto Emile Plath, mother of the American poet, Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...

, and a son, Warren, and the grandmother of Frieda Hughes

Frieda Hughes

Frieda Rebecca Hughes is an English poet and painter. She has published seven children's books and four poetry collections and has had many exhibitions.-Early life:...

 and Nicholas Hughes

Nicholas Hughes

Nicholas Farrar Hughes was a fisheries biologist known as an expert in stream salmonid ecology. Hughes was the son of the American poet Sylvia Plath and English poet Ted Hughes and the younger brother of English artist and poet Frieda Hughes...

. The relationship between Aurelia and her daughter was a rather problematic and ambiguous one, for on the one hand they were exceptionally close to each other and on the other hand Sylvia Plath often claimed that she hated her mother. Their relationship is portrayed in Plath's semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar is American writer and poet Sylvia Plath's only novel, which was originally published under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" in 1963. The novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed...

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In 1975, Aurelia Plath published her daughter's letters from 1950-1963 as Letters Home.