Three-Martini Afternoons At The Ritz

Introduced at a workshop at Boston University, led by the acclaimed and famous poet Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton formed a friendship that would soon evolve into a fierce rivalry, coloured by jealousy and respect on equal terms. In the years that followed, these two women would not only become iconic figures in literature, but also lead curiously parallel lives haunted by mental illness, suicide attempts, self-doubt, and difficult personal relationships. With weekly martini meetings at the Ritz to discuss everything from sex to suicide, theirs was a relationship as complex and subversive as their poetry. 

Based on in-depth research and unprecedented archival access, Three-Martini Afternoons at the Ritz: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton is a remarkable and unforgettable look at two legendary poets and how their work has turned them into lasting and beloved cultural figures.

"Crowther skillfully walks readers through those inebriating early years when Plath and Sexton met as nervous young poets through their blossoming into major literary figures and into the darkness of their struggles with difficult marriages and depression. Offering a powerful and disturbing look into the forces that drive us to creativity and to our own destruction, with all its details of infidelities and hardships, cigarettes, and sorrows, this book leaves readers hungering for more of what these two literary comets burned with: the power of a little poetry ... Deliriously fast-paced and erudite, this is highly recommended for all literature, poetry, and women’s studies collections."  -  Herman Sutter, Literary Journal