File spoon-archives/deleuze-guattari.archive/deleuze-guattari_1998/deleuze-guattari.9810, message 390


Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 15:54:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Orpheus <cwduff-AT-alcor.concordia.ca>
Subject: hughes death


   
   Thursday October 29 10:04 AM EDT
   
Britain's Poet Laureate Ted Hughes Dies Of Cancer

   By Paul Keller
   
   LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Poet Laureate Ted Hughes, one of the
   leading writers of his generation, died of cancer Wednesday at the age
   of 68, his publisher said Thursday.
   
   In a brief statement released through publishers Faber and Faber, the
   poet's family said: ``After a valiant 18-month fight against cancer,
   Ted Hughes died yesterday. The loss to his family is inestimable.''
   
   Hughes is already ranked by many critics alongside major 20th century
   poets such as T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden and Ireland's Nobel Prize winner
   Seamus Heaney.
   
   Along with Heaney, he is also credited with helping to popularize
   poetry, breathing new life into the art form.
   
   But to some, the suicide of his wife, American poet Sylvia Plath,
   overshadowed his career, casting him as the villain in the century's
   most tragic literary love affair.
   
   Hughes was made Poet Laureate, or official poet, in 1984 and composed
   work for the Queen's 60th birthday and the Queen Mother's 90th
   birthday.
   
   Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was ``a towering figure in 20th
   century literature who even in his last years was producing great
   works.''
   
   Hughes, who died peacefully at home, had not wanted anyone to know of
   his fight against cancer and asked his friends to keep the news
   secret, his publisher Matthew Evans said.
   
   Born in Yorkshire, in northern England, Hughes developed a taste for
   hunting and fishing as a boy and, through them, his wild, atavistic
   view of nature.
   
   He established his reputation as a poet in the mid-1950s with a series
   of electrifying works about animals and the natural world that used
   harsh, physical imagery.
   
   He also produced several books of children's verse, plays and
   translations of classical literature. His recently published ``Tales
   from Ovid'' won huge literary acclaim.
   
   The sequence of poems, ``Crow,'' the blackest of his books of poetry,
   retells the legend of creation and birth through the vision of a
   predatory, mocking crow ``screaming for blood'' amid the ``horror of
   creation.''
   
   But his success as a poet and man of letters was matched by the
   tragedy visited on his personal life.
   
   When Plath put her head in a gas oven in 1963 after Hughes deserted
   her and their two children for another woman, he became a hate figure
   for many feminists who painted Plath as an icon and a quintessentially
   female victim.
   
   For years Hughes refused to speak about their marriage or Plath's
   suicide. He broke his silence earlier this year with the publication
   of ``Birthday Letters,'' 88 intensely emotional poems that depict
   their doomed love affair.
   
   ``Anyone who thought Hughes's reticence was proof of his hard heart
   will immediately see how stony they have been themselves,'' said poet
   and literary critic Andrew Motion.
   
   ``This is a book written by someone obsessed, stricken and deeply
   loving. There is nothing like it in literature.''
   
   In 1962 Hughes left Plath for Assia Wevill, the wife of a friend.
   Seven years later Wevill killed both herself and Shura, the daughter
   she had with Hughes.
   
   In 1970 Hughes married Carol Orchard, the daughter of a Devon farmer,
   and became increasingly reclusive.
   
   Despite his fatal illness, Hughes continued to receive critical
   acclaim and awards right up to his death. Earlier this month, Queen
   Elizabeth honored him with the Order of Merit -- an exceptional
   distinction limited to 24 living recipients.
     _________________________________________________________________
To: cwduff-AT-alcor.concordia.ca
Subject: Ted Hughes is dead (fwd)

Subject: Ted Hughes is dead

poetry etc - a list administered by John Kinsella - http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Square/8574/

after an 18-month battle with cancer. Just reported on BBCTV news.
Subject: Obituary
BBC radio announced this morning that Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate of 
Britain and Eliot enthusiast, has died. 

At the time of writing, I hadn't heard confirmation from any other source. 

Yours,

Raphael Ingelbien, English Dept, University of Hull HU6 7RX, UK.
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 06:27:57 +1100
Subject: Re: Ted Hughes

Here in AUSTRALIA (Sydney) Ted Hughes's death 'after an 18-
month battle with cancer' was the lead story in the ABC 6 a.m. 
news. (In Oz ABC is NOT a commercial network; it is the Oz 
equivalent of the Beeb).
	Margaret Hargrave


   

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