Q 01/05

In which year was Sylvia Plath born?

A) 1932

B) 1935

C) 1938

D) 1941

Answer · why

A) 1932

She was born on 27 October in the Jamaica Plain neighbourhood of Boston; the family later moved to Winthrop and then Wellesley.

Q 02/05

Plath's father Otto, a Boston University biology professor, wrote a 1934 book about which insects?

A) Ants

B) Butterflies

C) Termites

D) Bumblebees

Answer · why

D) Bumblebees

His death in 1940, a week and a half after her eighth birthday, haunts poems including 'Daddy' and 'The Colossus'.

Q 03/05

Otto Plath died in 1940 of complications from what?

A) Untreated diabetes

B) Lung cancer

C) A heart attack

D) Pneumonia

Answer · why

A) Untreated diabetes

Convinced he had lung cancer like a friend, he avoided doctors until his diabetes had gone too far, and died after a foot amputation.

Q 04/05

Plath published her first poem at what age?

A) Twelve

B) Eight

C) Fifteen

D) Seventeen

Answer · why

B) Eight

It appeared in the children's section of a local newspaper; she began keeping a journal at 11.

Q 05/05

Which private women's college in Massachusetts did Plath attend from 1950?

A) Smith

B) Wellesley

C) Vassar

D) Radcliffe

Answer · why

A) Smith

She lived in Haven House and then Lawrence House, where a plaque marks her old room, and edited the Smith Review.