1932
27 OctoberSylvia Plath born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Otto Emil and Aurelia Schober Plath; the family lives at 24 Prince Street, Jamaica Plain, a neighbourhood in Boston.
1935
27 AprilWarren Joseph Plath born.
1936
AutumnThe Plaths move to 92 Johnson Avenue in Winthrop, Massachusetts.
1937
SeptemberEnrols in the Sunshine School, Winthrop.
1938
SeptemberEnters Annie F. Warren Grammar School, Winthrop.
1940
FebruaryWrites first letters to her parents.
SeptemberEnters E. B. Newton School, Winthrop.
OctoberOtto Plath admitted to the New England Deaconess Hospital, Boston; his left, gangrenous leg amputated.
5 NovemberOtto Plath dies from an embolus in his lung.
1941
10 August‘Poem’ appears in the Boston Herald; her first publication.
1942
OctoberMoves with her mother, brother, and grandparents, Frank and Aurelia Schober, to 26 Elmwood Road, Wellesley, Massachusetts. Enters the Marshall Perrin Grammar School.
1943/4
SummersAttends Camp Weetamoe in Center Ossipee, New Hampshire.
1944
JanuaryBegins writing in a journal.
SeptemberEnters Alice L. Phillips Junior High School, publishes in school paper.
1945/6
SummersAttends Camp Helen Storrow in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1947/8
SummersAttends Vineyard Sailing Camp at Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard.
SeptemberEnters Gamaliel Bradford Senior High School, Wellesley.
1948
JuneNamed co-editor of school newspaper, The Bradford.
1949
MarchPublishes poem ‘Sea Symphony’ in Student Life.
SummerAttends Unitarian conference at Star Island, New Hampshire.
1950
MarchPublishes article ‘Youth’s Plea for World Peace’ in the Christian Science Monitor.
MayAccepted into Class of 1954 at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. Receives Olive Higgins Prouty scholarship.
SummerWorks at Lookout Farm with Warren Plath in Natick, Massachusetts.
AugustPublishes short story ‘And Summer Will Not Come Again’ in Seventeen.
AutumnEnters Smith College, resides at Haven House. Meets Prouty.
1951
FebruaryBegins dating Richard ‘Dick’ Norton, a senior at Yale University and Wellesley resident.
MarchAttends Yale Junior Prom with Norton. Meets Eddie Cohen.
SummerWorks as nanny for Mayo family in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Her friend Marcia Brown nannies nearby.
AutumnWrites articles for local newspapers as Press Board correspondent for Smith College.
1952
SummerWaitresses at the Belmont Hotel in West Harwich, Massachusetts. ‘Sunday at the Mintons’ ’ wins Mademoiselle short fiction contest. Works as nanny for the Cantor family in Chatham, Massachusetts.
SeptemberMoves to Lawrence House, a cooperative house, at Smith College.
AutumnContinues writing for Press Board. Dick Norton treated for exposure to tuberculosis in New York.
NovemberMeets Yale student Myron Lotz; relationship with Norton strained.
DecemberVisits Norton at Ray Brook, New York; breaks leg in skiing accident.
1953
FebruaryDates Lotz and Gordon Lameyer, a senior at Amherst College. Writes villanelle ‘Mad Girl’s Love Song’.
April–MayHarper’s accepts three poems; wins Guest Editor competition at Mademoiselle in New York City.
JuneLives at Barbizon Hotel in New York; works at Mademoiselle.
July–AugustTreated for insomnia and exhaustion; counselled by psychiatrist; given poorly administered outpatient electro-convulsive shock treatments.
24–26 AugustAttempts suicide in the basement of her house by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. When found, admitted to Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
SeptemberTransfers first to Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, then to McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts. Begins treatment with Dr Ruth Beuscher.
1954
JanuaryRe-enters Smith College; repeats second semester of her junior year.
AprilMeets Richard Sassoon, a Yale student.
SummerAttends Harvard Summer School and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
AutumnSenior year at Smith College on full scholarship; writes thesis on Dostoevsky.
1955
FebruaryAccepted by Newnham College, University of Cambridge.
AprilCompetes in Glascock Poetry Contest, Mount Holyoke College, Hadley, Massachusetts.
MayWins Fulbright scholarship to University of Cambridge.
6 JuneGraduates Smith College, summa cum laude.
SeptemberSails on the Queen Elizabeth to UK.
OctoberBegins courses at Newnham College.
WinterTravels to Paris and the south of France with Sassoon.
1956
25 FebruaryAttends party at Falcon Yard, meets Edward ‘Ted’ James Hughes.
March–AprilTravels through France, Germany, and Italy with Gordon Lameyer.
16 JuneMarries Ted Hughes at St George-the-Martyr, Queen Square, London.
SummerHoneymoons in Alicante and Benidorm; meets Warren Plath in Paris; lives at the Hughes home, The Beacon, in Heptonstall, Yorkshire.
AutumnBegins second year at Newnham College; keeps marriage a secret.
DecemberMoves to 55 Eltisley Avenue, Cambridge, UK.
1957
23 FebruaryHughes’s poetry collection The Hawk in the Rain wins Harper’s poetry prize.
12 MarchSmith College offers Plath teaching position on English faculty.
JuneFinishes programme at Newnham; sails on Queen Elizabeth to New York.
SummerVacations in Eastham, Massachusetts.
SeptemberMoves to 337 Elm Street, Northampton, Massachusetts; begins teaching at Smith College.
1958
JuneLeaves position at Smith College. Records poems for Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard. Receives first New Yorker acceptances for ‘Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor’ and ‘Nocturne’ [‘Hardcastle Crags’].
9 August‘Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor’ appears in The New Yorker.
SeptemberMoves to 9 Willow Street, Beacon Hill, Boston.
10 DecemberResumes seeing Dr Beuscher, records details in her journals.
1959
FebruaryRecords more poems for Woodberry Poetry Room. Attends Robert Lowell’s poetry course at Boston University, meets Anne Sexton.
8 MarchVisits father’s grave in Winthrop.
July–AugustTravels across North America; becomes pregnant.
AutumnSpends two months at the writer’s colony Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, New York. Has creative writing breakthrough.
DecemberSails on the United States to UK.
1960
JanuaryRents flat at 3 Chalcot Square, Primrose Hill, London.
10 FebruarySigns contract with Heinemann in London to publish her first collection of poetry, The Colossus and Other Poems.
1 AprilDaughter, Frieda Rebecca Hughes born.
31 OctoberThe Colossus published in Britain.
1961
FebruarySuffers a miscarriage.
MarchHas an appendectomy.
SpringBegins writing The Bell Jar.
JuneRecords poems for BBC series The Living Poet.
JulyTravels to France; reads ‘Tulips’ at the Poetry at the Mermaid festival in London.
AugustPurchases Court Green in North Tawton, Devonshire; sublets London flat to David and Assia Wevill.
1 SeptemberMoves to Court Green.
1962
17 JanuarySon, Nicholas Farrar Hughes born.
MayVisits from Ruth Fainlight and Alan Sillitoe, as well as the Wevills.
SummerAssia Wevill and Hughes begin an affair. Aurelia Plath visits Court Green.
SeptemberVisits Irish poet Richard Murphy in Cleggan, Ireland; Hughes abruptly leaves.
OctoberWrites twenty-five poems; records ‘Berck-Plage’ for BBC and fifteen poems for British Council/Woodberry Poetry Room.
NovemberRents flat at 23 Fitzroy Road, London, formerly a residence of W. B. Yeats.
10 DecemberMoves with Frieda and Nicholas into Fitzroy Road flat.
1963
JanuaryDubbed the ‘Big Freeze of 1963’, London experiences its coldest winter of the century.
10 JanuaryRecords review of Donald Hall’s Contemporary American Poetry for BBC.
14 JanuaryHeinemann publishes The Bell Jar under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas.
4 FebruaryWrites last known letters.
4–5 FebruaryWrites last known poems.
7–10 FebruaryStays with Jillian and Gerry Becker at nearby 5 Mountfort Crescent, Islington.
11 FebruaryProtects children then commits suicide by gas poisoning.
18 FebruaryLaid to rest in Heptonstall.