A DAUGHTER’S STORY: I KNEW HER BEST

New York Times Book Review, 8.18.91In August of 1974, at a candlelit dinner in a restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., shortly after my 21st birthday — on which my mother, Anne Sexton, had appointed me as her literary executor — I once again brought up my reluctance to take on the task. This “birthday gift” seemed…

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“FOREWORD” TO ANNE SEXTON: A SELF-PORTRAIT IN LETTERS

Houghton Mifflin, 1991 In 1987, I received with sadness the news that Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters was to go out of print. My regret stemmed not only from the fact that I had worked hard on Self-Portrait, my first book, during the tumultuous time immediately following my mother’s death, but also from my belief that the book…

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