Ted Hughes

by Jonathan Bate

  Hughes, Ted (Edward James Hughes): deposition and testimony in Boston libel case (1986), 1–2, 7–9, 11–12, 15, 550; interest in and practice of astrology, 2, 15, 27–8, 70, 100–1, 162, 188, 328, 373, 511; Yorkshire roots, 3; fishing, 4–5, 45–6, 58–60, 317, 383, 399, 406, 421, 449, 483, 509; view of poetry, 12, 44–5, 65–6, 93–4; inner life, 15–16, 18; poetic voice, 15; financial independence as writer, 16; journals and notebooks, 17–18, 224, 231, 241, 247, 255, 320, 359, 401–4, 555; letters, 17–18, 476; sells papers to Emory University, Atlanta, 17, 500; childhood at Mytholmroyd and Mexborough, 23–7, 35, 38, 47; birth and genealogy, 27–30; spiritual life, 31; catches and values animals, 37–8, 44, 58; radio broadcasts, 37, 44, 230; outdoor excursions, 38–40, 56–9; and fox experience on visit to Crisworth Dene, 41–3; moderate drinking, 41; schooling, 47, 49, 52–5; closeness to Olwyn, 48, 273, 492, 539; reading, 49, 53–4, 59, 62, 65, 449, 481; interest in typography and printing, 50; superstitions, 50; political views, 52, 230, 425, 482; attends Cambridge University, 55, 61, 65, 67, 69–73, 79–80; size and strength, 55; early writing and poetry, 56–7, 63; early girlfriends, 58–9, 62–3, 80, 84; early letters to Edna Wholey, 59, 62; national service in Royal Air Force, 61–4; wins exhibition to Cambridge, 61; relations with Edna Wholey, 62–3; gives up shooting, 68; dress, 69, 89, 158, 174; love of music, 70, 73, 114; religious views, 70; appearance, 72, 253, 302, 370, 388; changes studies at Cambridge to Archaeology and Anthropology, 75–8; drinking, 79; writes poems at Cambridge under pseudonyms, 79; applies to emigrate to Australia, 80–1, 83–4; considers mink-farming, 83–4; poaching, 84; returns to Cambridge, 84–5, 106; casual work and money-making schemes, 87, 87–8; restricted by Cambridge authorities, 87; abandons Australian scheme, 88; verse-speaking, 88; attachment to Shirley, 89–92, 97, 105; and supernatural, 92; as story editor for film company, 97; first meets SP, 98–104; SP visits in London, 105–7; in Rugby Street, Holborn, 107–9; in SP’s unfinished novel, 111; ends relationship with Shirley, 113; forms close relationship with SP, 113–15; cooking, 115, 120, 134, 244; marriage to SP, 116; in Spain, 119–22; auditions as reader of modern poetry at BBC, 123; temporarily separated from SP, 123; occupies flat near Cambridge with SP, 124; enters and wins Harper Brothers’ poetry competition, 125, 127; schoolteaching, 126, 128; leaves for USA with SP, 128–30; children’s stories, 130, 227; reads at New York launch of The Hawk in the Rain, 134–5; writer’s block in USA, 134; occult interests, 138–9, 143, 268, 364; teaches and reads poetry at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 138–9; SP suspects of infidelity, 140–2; marriage relations with SP, 142–4, 172–3, 205; wins Guinness Poetry Award, 145; writes play (lost), 145, 155; photographed by Rollie McKenna, 146; wins Guggenheim award, 146; on American poets, 147; stays at Yaddo, 148–9, 154–6; road trip in America and Canada, 149–54; incomplete libretto for Chou Wen-chung’s oratorio, 155; Rogovin portrait, 155; in Chalcot Square flat, 160; invokes Creation myth, 165; fatherhood, 166, 171, 174, 224, 231; theatregoing, 168; minute observation, 171–2; visits to London zoo, 171; interviewed with SP on BBC radio, 172–3; visits SP in hospital, 173–4; wins Hawthornden Prize, 174; buys Devon house (Court Green), 175–8; Alvarez on, 180–1; published in The New Poetry, 180–1; life in Devon, 181–2; buys jaguar skin, 184; kisses Assia in Devon, 185–6; and myth, 189, 465–75, 505; affair with Assia, 190–1, 200, 209, 220–6, 248, 272, 296, 450–4; visits Murphy in Ireland, 192, 246–7; and marriage breakdown, 193, 195–200; Spanish holiday with Assia, 193; leaves Court Green and SP, 195, 469; heart problem, 199; affair and friendship with Susan Alliston, 203–6, 210, 214–15, 225–6, 241–2, 341, 511; finds flat in Fitzrovia (Cleveland Street), 203, 209; and SP’s emotional collapse, 206–7; visits SP in Fitzroy Road, 208–10; and SP’s death, 211–12; at SP’s funeral, 214; effect of SP’s suicide on poetic voice, 217, 250; praises Ariel, 219; publishes and promotes SP’s poems, 219, 234, 236–7; working method, 221; dreams, 223–4, 231–2, 241, 245, 254, 261, 270, 466, 487; writing limited after SP’s death, 226, 228; on England and the English, 228–30; voice and accent, 230–1; co-edits Modern Poetry in Translation, 233; earnings, 233, 497; reviewing, 233–4, 297; writes introduction to Keith Douglas poems, 234–5; edits SP’s Ariel, 236–8; child by Assia, 240; attends Spoleto Festival, 242–3; stays in Ireland with children, 244–5; appointment in Philosophy Department of Vienna University, 246; plans International Poetry Festival, 252–3, 289; collaborates with Peter Brook, 256–61, 277, 306–11, 318; relations with Brenda Hedden, 256, 266–7, 277, 280–1, 298–301, 378; version of Seneca’s Oedipus for Peter Brook, 256–9; adaptation of King Lear, 260–1; reorganizes relations with Assia, 265; simultaneous involvement with three women (A, B,C), 266–7, 270–1; attachment to Carol Orchard, 267, 277, 286, 298; falsely accused of improper behaviour in Exeter, 267–8; friendship with Heaney, 271; first TV appearance, 272–3; and deaths of Assia and Shura, 275–7, 279; and mother’s death, 278; visits dying Sue Alliston, 279–81; buys Lumb Bank (house), Heptonstall, 281–2, 286; wins City of Florence Prize for poetry, 282; considers shared purchase of Devon house with Gerald, 287; refuses to sell manuscripts, 287; misidentified as the ‘M1 sex murderer’, 295; environmental/ecological concerns, 297–8, 411, 415, 425–7, 475, 554; torn between Brenda and Carol, 298–9; marriage to Carol, 299, 423–4; visit to Israel, 301–2; campus readings in USA, 302; sexual potency, 302–3; invents language (Orghast), 307–12; presents play in Persia with Peter Brook, 307–12; writes play in invented language, 307–8; protests to Alvarez on writing of SP’s suicide, 312–14; money worries, 316, 324, 328–9, 381; farming, 318–19, 325, 328, 350, 362; self-examination and exhortation, 320, 402–3; translates Pilinszky, 320–2; haunted by SP, 322, 325–6; collecting, 324; receives Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, 324–5, 418, 476; activities and interests, 325; devotion to Arvon Foundation, 325; capital assets, 326; creates trust for Frieda and Nick, 326; fear of throat cancer refuted, 326; avoids autobiographical voice, 331–2; exposed in Ariel, 332; verse drama, 332; openly addresses SP’s suicide, 338–9; feminist hostility to, 346; Robin Morgan accuses of murder of SP, 347–9; collaborates with Aurelia over publication of SP’s letters, 350; and editing and publication of SP’s letters, 351, 352; foreword to The Journals of Sylvia Plath, 354–5; visits Australia for Adelaide Festival, 359–62; affair with Jill Barber, 361, 363–6, 369–70; harassed by ‘libbers’, 361–2; relations with Emma Tennant, 370–1; view of women, 372–5; friends’ views of affairs, 373; champions women writers, 374; explains poetry in Dhaka, 375–7; confesses feelings for SP to Carolyne Wright, 378; appointed OBE, 384; displaces hip, 385; scheme to professionalise school poetry readings, 385; Fay Godwin photograph, 388; plans travels abroad, 399; travels to Alaska, 399, 405, 420–1, 494; character observation, 401–2; again injures hip, 402; trip to Mexico City, 403; visits Lake Victoria, 405; opposes new sewage works at Bideford, 410–11; foreword to The Complete Prints of Leonard Baskin, 415; honorary doctorate from Exeter University, 415; cruise on Nile, 417; poetry readings, 417; appointed Poet Laureate, 418–19; honours, 418; captures peacock at Court Green, 424–5; role as Laureate, 429; summoned to court in USA, 430–2, 434; attends Bell Jar libel case, 435–6, 439; and settlement of Bell Jar case, 438, 441; reluctance to sue, 439; SP’s harsh words on, 439; replies to accusation of neglecting SP’s grave, 441; sues Trevor Thomas, 442; acquires potter’s wheel, 449; library shipped to Atlanta, Georgia, 449; sequence of poems on Assia (‘A’ poems), 452–5; devotion to Shakespeare, 457–8; same-sex desire absent from works, 469; interest in London demi-monde, 472; public activities, 475–7; responds to questions about poems, 480; table talk, 481–2; joint anthology with Heaney, 483–4; socialises with royal family, 483–5; inscribes books for hosts, 484; Laureate poems published, 486–8; public criticisms of, 488–9; aims to make money for different life, 492–3; output in 1990s, 492, 495, 501; final illness, 493; last love affair, 493–4; theatre work, 495–500; translates Wedekind, 495, 497–9; translates Lorca, 499–500; cancer and chemotherapy, 502, 504, 509, 529; translates G
reek and Latin classics, 502, 527–34; breaks silence over life and suicide of SP with Birthday Letters, 503–9; reflects on blocked creativity, 505–6; translates Racine, 532; awarded Order of Merit, 538; death, 539–41; translates Pushkin, 539; funeral and cremation, 541–2, 546; memorial service in Westminster Abbey, 543; final will and value of estate, 546–8; depicted in Schaeffer’s Poison, 548–52; selected letters published, 553–5; archive, 555, 557; view of posthumous biography, 556–8

  Hughes, William Henry (TH’s father): home life, 3, 27; marriage, 30, 33; occupation (carpenter), 30, 34; footballing, 33–4, 396; in Great War, 33, 40–1, 516; moves to work in South Wales, 35; takes over newsagents’ shop in Mexborough, 35–6, 47–8; moves to shop in Todmorden, 65; at SP’s funeral, 213; hostility to Assia, 246–7, 253; and wife’s death, 278; and fire at Lumb Bank, 305; grumpiness as widower, 317–18; stays at Court Green, 318; TH wishes to move to Devon, 328; visits Australia with TH, 359, 363; attempted infidelity, 381; difficulties in old age, 384, 399; hospitalised and death, 400, 560; alluded to in ‘October Salmon’, 410

  Humperdinck, Engelbert (pop singer), 300

  Hutchinson, Mary, 520

  Huws, Daniel: at Cambridge with TH, 74, 86–7, 479; writes poetry at Cambridge, 79; TH stays in father’s London flat, 84, 123, 526; criticises SP’s poems, 99, 341, 522; TH writes to from New York, 135; marriage, 191; TH and SP stay with, 191; and TH’s need to give account of marriage to SP, 354; letter from TH on upheaval in late life, 536; Memories of Ted Hughes, 558

  Huws, Helga, 191

  ‘Hypnotising Husband, The’ (SP; story), 120

  ‘I know well’ (TH; poem), 340

  Ibstock Place (school, London), 301

  Icarus (mythological figure), 473–4

  Iceland, 383

  ‘Icon, An’ (TH; earlier ‘Portraits’; poem), 515

  Ilkley Literature Festival, 323

  Imlah, Mick, 429

  ‘Inscription, The’ (TH; poem), 210, 513, 523

  ‘Insomniac’ (SP; poem), 192

  Ionesco, Eugène, 83

  Iran see Persia

  Ireland: TH idealizes, 91, 93, 276, 282, 301; TH and SP visit, 192–3; TH visits with children, 244–6; TH visits after Assia’s death, 276–7; TH visits with Brenda, 300; TH takes Jill Barber to meet Nick, 365; TH’s fishing trips in, 365, 375

  Iron Man, The (The Iron Giant in USA; TH; children’s book), 261–3; adapted at Young Vic as musical, 489–90, 497

  ‘Iron Wolf, The’ (TH; poem), 382, 413

  Iron Woman, The (TH; fable for children), 427, 489

  Israel: TH visits with Carol, 301–2

  Italy, 324

  J. Arthur Rank (film company), 97

  ‘Jaguar, The’ (TH; poem), 94–6, 105, 135, 137

  ‘Jaguar Skin, The’ (TH; poem), 183

  ‘Jailor, The’ (SP; poem), 201, 237, 296, 346, 443

  James and James (publishers), 407

  Jay, Peter, 430

  Jean (nanny), 219, 222

  Jeff, Christine, 548

  Jews: in TH’s poems for Assia, 452, 454–6

  Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams (SP; stories), 354

  Johnson, Alan, 55

  Johnson, Samuel, 76, 402

  Jones, Jeffrey, 432, 433

  Jong, Erica, 302–3

  Jonson, Ben, 462

  Joseph, Rosemary, 88–9

  Journals of Sylvia Plath, The: publication, 354–5, 522

  Jung, C.G.: on synchronicity, 95; TH reads, 331, 351; SP reads, 351; Psychological Types, 54, 63–4, 67; Sacred Marriage, 231; Symbols of Transformation, 157; The Undiscovered Self, 146

  Kane, Kathy, 237

  Kane, Marvin, 184, 237

  ‘Karlsbad Caverns’ (TH; poem), 523

  Kavanagh, Patrick, 252

  Kayak (Oxford girl): claims to be TH’s daughter, 480–1

  Keats, John, 405, 424, 460; letters, 554

  Keen, Peter: provides photographs for River, 406–7, 410

  Kennedy, John F., 179

  Kent, Jonathan, 532, 537

  Key, Percy and Rose, 184

  ‘Kindness’ (SP; poem), 240

  King, John, Baron, 485

  ‘Kingfisher’ (TH; poem), 413

  Kipling, Rudyard, 53, 411, 495

  Knopf, Alfred, 174

  Kopp, Jane Baltzell, 356

  Kovner, Victor, 434, 437–9, 481

  Kroll, Judith, 350–2, 355; Chapters in a Mythology: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath, 353

  Krook, Dorothea, 126, 356

  Kunitz, Stanley, 145, 167

  ‘Laburnum, The’ (TH; poem), 523

  ‘Lady Lazarus’ (SP; poem), 236, 239

  Lameyer, Gordon, 103, 110, 356–8, 436–7, 442

  Larkin, Philip: parodies Crow, 14; memorable lines, 15; as librarian, 16; style, 135; as Movement poet, 180, 320; and sexual experience, 206; as judge for Arvon International Poetry Competition, 385–6; as candidate for Poet Laureateship, 417–18; criticises TH’s Wolfwatching, 428; TH disparages, 554; instructs executors to burn manuscripts, 555; ‘At Grass’ (poem), 180; ‘Aubade’ (poem), 386; ‘MCMXIV’ (poem), 137

  Lasdun, James, 490, 495

  ‘Last, The’ (TH; poem), 513

  ‘Last Letter’ (TH; poem), 215, 524–6

  ‘Law in the Country of the Cats’ (TH; poem), 102

  Lawrence, D.H., 52, 148, 180, 251, 389; Lady Chatterley’s Lover (trial), 169; The Rainbow, 181

  ‘Leaf Mould’ (TH; poem), 396, 428

  ‘Learning to Think’ (TH; talk), 44

  Leavis, F.R., 69, 71, 74, 76, 86, 89, 181

  Lee, Hermione, 488

  Leeming, Owen, 173

  ‘Lesbos’ (SP; poem), 195, 237, 347

  Lessing, Doris, 243, 349

  Letters Home: Correspondence 1950–1963 (SP; edited Aurelia Plath), 19, 353, 552–3

  Letters of Ted Hughes: serves as autobiography, 553–5

  Levy, Laurie, 356

  Lewis, Alun, 66

  ‘Life after Death’ (TH; poem), 227

  ‘Lily’ (TH; poem), 189

  Lipsey, Dicky, 452

  Listener, The (magazine), 14

  Listening and Writing (BBC radio series), 37

  Litle Gidding, 31

  Little, Brown (publisher), 3

  Little Missenden Harvest Festival (1968), 326

  Lloyd, Reginald J., 414, 430, 489, 538

  ‘Lodger, The’ (TH; poem), 199

  Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth: Hiawatha, 59

  Loren, Sophia, 477

  ‘Lovesong’ (earlier ‘Second Bedtime Story’; TH; poem), 270, 362

  Lowell, Robert, 145, 179–80, 220, 239, 252, 347, 565–6; For the Union Dead, 239; ‘The Ghost’ (translation of Propertius), 565; Life Studies, 146–8, 156, 180–1, 216, 239, 331, 566; ‘The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket’ (poem), 185; ‘Waking in the blue’ (poem), 147

  Lucas, F.W., 408

  Lucie-Smith, Edward, 88, 275–6

  Lukács, László: marriage to Frieda, 478, 480, 560; moves to England, 502

  Lumb Bank (house), Heptonstall: TH puts in offer for, 222–3; TH buys, 281, 286; fire, 305–6, 559; renovated and leased to Arvon Foundation, 325; maintenance costs, 328; valuation, 329

  ‘Lumb Chimney’ (TH; poem), 392

  Lupercal (earlier ‘Lupercalia’; TH; poetry collection): publication and reception, 153, 155, 163–4, 166–8, 200–1; awarded Hawthornden Prize, 174; writing, 186, 196; and Wodwo, 249–50; qualities, 271–2; Shakespeare allusions, 458

  Lyde, Joe, 75, 98

  Lyonesse (SP; poetry collection), 347

  MacBeth, George, 18, 165

  MacCaig, Norman, 167

  McCall’s (magazine), 305

  McCaughey, Revd Terence, 70, 74, 84, 466, 476, 542

  McCullough, Fran, 173, 303–4, 352, 354

  MacDiarmid, Hugh, 252

  Macedo, Suzette, 186

  McEnroe, John, 403

  MacGibbon, James, 407

  McKenna, Rollie, 146, 221

  McKinley (game
keeper), 38, 74

  Mackle, Joanna, 485, 503

  MacLean, Sorley, 476

  McLeod, Miss (schoolteacher), 52

  MacNeice, Louis, 169

  Maddux, Hilary, 348

  Madge, Anna, 268

  Madonna, 481

  ‘Magic Mirror, The’ (SP; undergraduate thesis), 11, 256

  Mahabharata (Indian epic), 261

  Mailer, Norman, 432

  Major, John, 475

  Malamud, Bernard, 20

  Malcolm, Janet: The Silent Woman, 440

  Malinowski, Bronisław, 77–8

  ‘Man in Black’ (SP; poem), 157

  Manly, George, 183

  Mann, Thomas, 224

  ‘March Calf, A’ (TH; poem), 327

  Marowitz, Charles, 260

  Mars (magazine), 364, 374

  Marx, Karl, 389

  ‘Masque for Three Voices, A’ (TH; poem), 487

  May, Derwent, 251

  ‘Mayday on Holderness’ (TH; poem), 163–4

  Mayne, Pauline, 37, 43, 53

  Mayo, Barbara, 295

  Mead, Margaret, 77–8

  ‘Medusa’ (SP; poem), 10, 45, 350

  Meet My Folks (TH; children’s poems), 45, 148

  Menotti, Gian Carlo, 243

  Merchant, Moelwyn, 299, 477

  Mermaid’s Purse, The (TH; children’s poems), 489

  Merwin, Dido, 136, 160–1, 163, 203, 206, 401–2, 542

  Merwin, W.S.: reviews The Hawk in the Rain, 136; in London, 160–2, 169, 203; on CND march, 163; TH and SP visit in Dordogne, 175; separation from Dido, 401