Talk:Anne Sexton

message: 59.92.44.53 added the sentence "Anne was mad in nature and was a downright fool. To hell with with her poem.It is nothing but a insane's raving" to the first paragraph yesterday (Nov 14 2005). The sentence, imho, does not maintain npov and is otherwise out of place in this paragraph. I'd like to remove the sentence. Any objections? -sungo — Preceding undated comment added 11:01, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah those innocent days of yesteryear.  Today such an insertion would be quietly undone with the comment "rvv". —Tamfang (talk) 21:20, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Removing a sentence

message: For some reason that was erased when I posted it before.  Ms. Linda G. Sexton claims in her book about her mother and that her mother did in fact molest her.  I realize that Ms. Sexton is known as a great poet and one that many people admire, but it is something that her daughter wrote about in her book.  
I am unable to directly link the book (not available online) but I did find this book which mentions it.
http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0802067832&id=yB4HSMuHpYcC&pg=PA148&lpg=PA148&dq=Linda+Sexton+incest&sig=FdI2HmggBr9hkWBH3dpC8iusE74
As a further note, I believe Ms. Linda G. Sexton is the main person in charge of the Anne Sexton estate.
: Yes, Linda Gray Sexton is in charge of the rights to her mother's literary works, republication and quotation requests, etc. It's something her mother set up years before her death. Perhaps the title is Literary Executor? Codenamemary (talk) 22:48, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Linda Gray Sexton's very credible-sounding claims have been yanked out of the article repeatedly. Pretty disgusting to do this.Wbroun (talk) 13:49, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Linda Gray Sexton claims that Anne Sexton committed incest with her in her book 

message: I had a student do an Anne Sexton presentation the other day where she highlighted Sexton's incestuous relationship with her daughter and the romantic relationship with Sylvia Plath.  I asked her if she was sure about both of those.  She told me she got it from Wikipedia.  I said, "Oh, I see.  That's the problem."  Can somebody PLEASE link to a better source for the incest thing.  I tell my students not to use a dot com, and the verification of this controversial claim is a dot com.  Also, the idea that a romantic relationship between Plath and Sexton is hinted at in "Sylvia's Death" is no proof of a romantic relationship.  We read that poem together as a class, and you could just as easily see that as a close friendship.  Is there ANY other proof?  Besides, you know, interpretation?
—Preceding unsigned comment added by  F. Simon Grant (talk • contribs) 12:47, 26 April 2007
:In reply to your despairing plea - The Controversy section of the article has many sources for the incest allegations including info on the tapes from her therapy sessions and the Middlebrook biography. The family deny the allegations and the controversy continues but Sexton's own testimony is well documented. All the references are given. Spanglej (talk) 16:23, 17 May 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  Well, RE: "the family deny the allegations", not all of them do. I wonder if Linda's sister Joy went on record? Codenamemary (talk) 22:51, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sexton's soap-opera life 

message: Quote: "Sexton spoke candidly about her battle with bipolar disorder, SIDS, which she fought for most of her life."
First off, SIDS is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, which I doubt applies here. Second, SID (no S) is Sensory Integration Dysfunction, which Sexton could have suffered from, but it is not a mental illness and not related to bipolar disorder. I didn't want to just strip the SIDS part out without knowing exactly what was meant here. Can someone with more knowledge on the subject please correct? PacificBoy 04:54, 3 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed.  Cluster B personality disorder, either Histrionic or Borderline, I'd guess.  68.83.72.162 (talk) 04:38, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

text: Note that "hysteria" can also be Histrionic Personality Disorder, which is closely related to BPD.  68.83.72.162 (talk) 04:35, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

text: Agreed. Don't turn her into a celebrity on a talk show leading through example. 178.38.157.11 (talk) 22:09, 10 November 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need clarification/correction on mental illness 

message: This is kinda silly, but who here thinks the current photo makes her look like Ellen Degeneres?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.139.79.47 (talk) 12:15, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Current photo

message: Why is this part of Wikipedia's Ohio portal?  Does Sexton's publisher Houghton Mifflin have offices in Toledo?  Anne Sexton lived her whole life in Massachusetts.70.114.39.22 (talk) 01:36, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Ohio Portal?

message: The article makes only oblique reference to Sexton's husband. Her change of surname remains quite unexplained until we get to "Subsequent Controversy" and we hear about "her physical altercations with her husband".  According to the "Anne Sexton Chronology" at http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/sexton/chrono.htm she "eloped with Alfred Muller Sexton II ("Kayo")" on August 16 1948 - this has to qualify as a significant life event even for someone who was not emotionally fragile. And who was George E. Sexton, with whom she is buried? Likewise, Joan S. Palmer? Moletrouser (talk) 20:02, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: George E. Sexton-her father in law who I believe died in a car accident in 1960, Joan S. Palmer-Joan Sexton[?] Palmer, her sister-in-law who died in a car accident on her honeymoon in 1967.24.167.105.97 (talk) 04:23, 21 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Elopement? Marriage? Extended family?

message: I have downgraded the assessment from B to C. The B was given in 2007 as "scrapes in as B because the basic framework is there and with references would be a nice article". Reasons for downgrade:
*Inadequate lead paragraph
*Choppy, disconnected prose (at times repetitious) with inadequate paragraph structure
*Superficial discussion of the themes in her poetry
*Even more superficial discussion of her early life and family, There is no clear biographical narrative.
See also: Assessment- Voceditenore (talk) 07:12, 12 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment

message: Under "Controversies", << However during the writing of Sexton's biography, Sexton's daughter, Linda Gray Sexton alleged to the book's author that Anne had been sexually assaulted by her mother.[17] >> appears. As I recall, the abuse involved memories of her father drunkenly touching her as a teen, and also long, semi-sensual cuddling sessions with "Nana" (her grandmother, or aunt?) I don't remember allegations against Anne's mother Mary, but I could be wrong. Codenamemary (talk) 23:01, 28 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Abuse by mother (Mary Harvey) 

message: Anne Sexton sexually abused her daughter Linda. Why the article continues to be reverted to cover up such widely discussed and well-publicized allegations (which sound pretty damn true to me) is beyond me, but it once again illustrates how one or two editors with an agenda can, through sheer persistence, destroy an entry. I love Anne Sexton's work, but I don't need a sanitized version of her life. She was a great talent and, apparently, a monstrous parent. We have no special reason to doubt Linda Gray Sexton, and we have an obligation to take her claims at least somewhat seriously. Wbroun (talk) 13:45, 3 August 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It Seems extensively discussed with references in  this section. Not quite sure what whitewashing you are referring to. Best wishes Spanglej (talk) 01:20, 4 August 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Another Wikipedia whitewash 

message: There's a sentence in here that needs to be attributed because it sounds just like and is sequenced just like M. Kumin's foreword to Sexton's poetry. Kumin's sentence is: "She wrote openly about menstruation, abortion, masturbation, incest, adultery, and drug addiction at a time when the proprieties embraced none of these as proper topics for poetry." Compare to section here about her themes and it's too similar. I would add the citation but it has been so long that I'm very rusty with wikipedia and don't want to mess it up. Kajuble (talk) 17:00, 24 March 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Source added. Span (talk) 01:41, 26 March 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Quote

message: I could have sworn she won the prize for her collection "Transformations", the edition I have says so. I'm not sure if it means that it was authored by a Pulitzer Prize WINNER, but I could have sworn it meant she won it for that book itself. --Matt723star (talk) 14:51, 18 May 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: The Pulitzer website says she won it for Live or Die in 1967. Book blurbs often bang on about 'Pulitzer winners', meaning they have won the prize at some point, not necessary for the book the blurb is on. It can indeed be confusing. Span (talk) 14:59, 18 May 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes I just looked at my book again, and it says "winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry" so you can understand why I was confused. --Matt723star (talk) 19:00, 21 May 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pulitzer Prize 

message: An article about a poet without citing a single line of her poetry.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.97.52.95 (talk) 02:31, 9 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Not a single line

message: What does this sentence mean?: "During this process, he allegedly used suggestion to uncover memories of inflicting [sic] childhood sexual abuse." Her childhood? Her daughter's? Shouldn't it be, "During this process, he allegedly used suggestion to uncover memories of childhood sexual abuse."? Autodidact1 (talk) 23:24, 22 December 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: It was a bit unclear, I suspect, because it's a complicated story. Orne supposedly uncovered memories in Anne Sexton of being abused as a child. Anne Sexton's daughter Linda (separately) later wrote about being abused by her mother, Anne. I have edited the section a little and added a linked ref. 20:27, 23 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Subsequent controversy 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Anne Sexton. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20071104042713/http://www.pshares.org:80/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleid=3360 to http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmarticleid=3360
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Cheers. —cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 01:00, 17 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: How can I read the poems? DEFFODIL'1995 (talk) 15:04, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Hello DEFFODIL'1995. For copyright reasons we cannot publish her poems on Wikipedia. However, several of her poems are available for reading at the Poetry Foundation website here. Voceditenore (talk) 15:40, 7 September 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Access to Sexton's poetry