One of the most influential poets, novelists, and short story writers of the 20th century, Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was credited with advancing "confessional poetry." Her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar was published shortly before her suicide. In 1982, she won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for The Collected Poems. Plath married the poet Ted Hughes in 1956 and they had two children. They separated in 1962, shortly before her death.
