Nicholas Hughes | 03/23/2009 9:35 am

Nicholas Hughes, Son of Sylvia Plath, Commits Suicide

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Sylvia Plath ©AP

Nicholas Hughes, the son of poet and feminist icon Sylvia Plath, has committed suicide.

Hughes, 47, who was unmarried and had no children, hung himself in Alaska, where he had taught as a professor of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

He had long suffered from the depression that plagued their mother, according to his older sister Frieda Hughes. In a statement she said:

His lifelong fascination with fish and fishing was a strong and shared bond with our father (many of whose poems were about the natural world). He was a loving brother, a loyal friend to those who knew him and, despite the vagaries that life threw at him, he maintained an almost childlike innocence and enthusiasm for the next project or plan.

This is a sad ending to a long and complicated family history with suicide, to be sure. Hughes was just 1 when his fragile mother took her life. Six years later the lover of his father, Ted Hughes, also gassed herself (killing their child as well).

In Plath’s poem, "Nick and the Candlestick" written about him and published posthumously in her collection, "Ariel," she had perhaps an unfortunate premonition of his future:

In you, ruby.
The pain
You wake to is not yours.

5 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I can’t tell you how disturbing this is to a person who has had suicide invade their life.

By DeBúrca obj on 03/23/2009 9:56 am

e-mail alert

My condolescences go to you and your family!

By L. C. on 03/23/2009 11:58 am

e-mail alert

I am a long time Sylvia Plath lover. I am very saddened by Nick’s suicide. My gosh, Sylvia would not have survived this. My heart goes out to Frieda and the rest of the family.

By kim sisto robinson on 03/23/2009 12:51 pm

e-mail alert

In the intro to Part I of a book I authored in 1978, Metaphors is the lead in: Pregnancy: A Metaphor with Nine Letters." I had the honor of meeting Sylvia, and Anne Sexton years ago and I never forgot those encounters, nor Anne’s years later, again, too.

I will never forget an English prof telling us we could "skip over the Plath poems … they’re depressing … " and I fought clear to the department chairman to have that erroneous omission rescinded and won my goal to ensure everyone first read The Bell Jar … "then they’ll understand her poems." It worked.

This has been upsetting news, and only points up the greatest need that our society recognizes the ciritical aspects of taking mental health serioulsly (it is still an oxymoron), acknowledging that the brain controls the body, and we must stop those who are parading about as "psychological coaches" on TV, radio, and print, doing far more damage by wasting time, and losing precious lives. Suicide affects everyone one, and our collective health is the responsiblity of all.

Deepest condolences to the family, with my love.

By C jay on 03/30/2009 9:58 pm