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Poets on Poetry
No Evil Star: Selected Essays, Interviews, and Prose
Collects the best of Anne Sexton's memoirs and prose reflections on her development as a poet
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 1985
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247 people want to read
About the author
Anne Sexton
149 books2,491 followersAnne Sexton once told a journalist that her fans thought she got better, but actually, she just became a poet. These words are characteristic of a talented poet that received therapy for years, but committed suicide in spite of this. The poetry fed her art, but it also imprisoned her in a way.
Her parents didn’t expect much of her academically, and after completing her schooling at Rogers Hall, she went to a finishing school in Boston. Anne met her husband, Kayo (Alfred Muller Sexton II), in 1948 by correspondence. Her mother advised her to elope after she thought she might be pregnant. Anne and Kayo got married in 1948 in North Carolina. After the honeymoon Kayo started working at his father-in-law’s wool business.
In 1953 Anne gave birth to her first-born, Linda Gray. Two years later Linda’s sister, Joyce Ladd, was born. But Anne couldn’t cope with the pressure of two small children over and above Kayo’s frequent absence (due to work). Shortly after Joy was born, Anne was admitted to Westwood Lodge where she was treated by the psychiatrist Dr. Martha Brunner-Orne (and six months later, her son, Dr. Martin Orne, took over). The original diagnosis was for post-natal depression, but the psychologists later decided that Anne suffered from depression of biological nature.
While she was receiving psychiatric treatment, Anne started writing poetry. It all started after another suicide attempt, when Orne came to her and told her that she still has a purpose in life. At that stage she was convinced that she could only become a prostitute. Orne showed her another talent that she had, and her first poetry appeared in print in the January of 1957. She wrote a huge amount of poetry that was published in a dozen poetry books. In 1967 she became the proud recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Live or Die (1966).
In March 1972 Anne and Kayo got divorced. After this a desperate kind of loneliness took over her life. Her addiction to pills and alcohol worsened. Without Kayo the house was very quiet, the children were at college and most of Anne’s friends were avoiding her because they could no longer sympathize with her growing problems. Her poetry started playing such a major role in her life that conflicts were written out, rather than being faced. Anne didn’t mention a word to Kayo about her intention to get divorced. He knew that she desperately needed him, but her poems, and her real feelings toward him, put it differently. Kayo talks about it in an interview as follows: “... I honestly don’t know, never have known, what her real, driving motive was in the divorce. Which is another reason why it absolutely drove me into the floor like a nail when she did it.”
On 4 October 1974 she put on her mother’s old fur coat before, glass of vodka in hand, she climbed into her car, turned the key and died of monodioxide inhalation. She once told Orne that “I feel like my mother whenever I put it [the fur coat] on”. Her oldest daughter, Linda, was appointed as literary executor and we have her to thank for the three poetry books that appeared posthumously.
Her parents didn’t expect much of her academically, and after completing her schooling at Rogers Hall, she went to a finishing school in Boston. Anne met her husband, Kayo (Alfred Muller Sexton II), in 1948 by correspondence. Her mother advised her to elope after she thought she might be pregnant. Anne and Kayo got married in 1948 in North Carolina. After the honeymoon Kayo started working at his father-in-law’s wool business.
In 1953 Anne gave birth to her first-born, Linda Gray. Two years later Linda’s sister, Joyce Ladd, was born. But Anne couldn’t cope with the pressure of two small children over and above Kayo’s frequent absence (due to work). Shortly after Joy was born, Anne was admitted to Westwood Lodge where she was treated by the psychiatrist Dr. Martha Brunner-Orne (and six months later, her son, Dr. Martin Orne, took over). The original diagnosis was for post-natal depression, but the psychologists later decided that Anne suffered from depression of biological nature.
While she was receiving psychiatric treatment, Anne started writing poetry. It all started after another suicide attempt, when Orne came to her and told her that she still has a purpose in life. At that stage she was convinced that she could only become a prostitute. Orne showed her another talent that she had, and her first poetry appeared in print in the January of 1957. She wrote a huge amount of poetry that was published in a dozen poetry books. In 1967 she became the proud recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Live or Die (1966).
In March 1972 Anne and Kayo got divorced. After this a desperate kind of loneliness took over her life. Her addiction to pills and alcohol worsened. Without Kayo the house was very quiet, the children were at college and most of Anne’s friends were avoiding her because they could no longer sympathize with her growing problems. Her poetry started playing such a major role in her life that conflicts were written out, rather than being faced. Anne didn’t mention a word to Kayo about her intention to get divorced. He knew that she desperately needed him, but her poems, and her real feelings toward him, put it differently. Kayo talks about it in an interview as follows: “... I honestly don’t know, never have known, what her real, driving motive was in the divorce. Which is another reason why it absolutely drove me into the floor like a nail when she did it.”
On 4 October 1974 she put on her mother’s old fur coat before, glass of vodka in hand, she climbed into her car, turned the key and died of monodioxide inhalation. She once told Orne that “I feel like my mother whenever I put it [the fur coat] on”. Her oldest daughter, Linda, was appointed as literary executor and we have her to thank for the three poetry books that appeared posthumously.
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November 4, 2025Yeah, this is decidedly inessential. Granted, posthumous interview collections are normally just a way for publishers to squeeze every last bit of toothpaste out of the tube, so I probably shouldn’t have been expecting much to begin with. Her poetry is essential. Her letters are revelatory. This is a whole lot of filler, strung together into a volume that was deemed marketable. I don’t even feel like I need to dissuade you from reading this, because it’s already on the dust heap.
February 5, 2025
So enjoyable and such a rare look at her. “All gods children need radios” blew me away and I’ll come back to that one often. Hopefully can find more of her prosey essay stuff
June 13, 2011
If you've read biographies of Sexton, this book won't add a lot to your understanding of her or her work, BUT, there's a sonnet in here that was uncollected in the books which I rather liked, and some interviews in here that do round out the time line of Sexton's learning as a poet as well as her approach to writing poetry and how it changed over time. This book really makes clear how ahead of her time Sexton was in her voice and subject matter, and once again makes me sad in terms of wondering how much more great work she'd have produced if not for her suicide. Worth reading for both established Sexton fans and those new to her work who want an inside peek at a poet's development over time.
March 17, 2023
God damn it, father-doctor / I'm really thirty six. / I see dead rats in the toilet. / I'm one of the lunatics.
"Marx: In your book, All My Pretty Ones, you quote this part of a letter written by Franz Kafka: The books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves. A book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us. Is this the purpose you want your poetry to serve?
Sexton: Absolutely. I feel it should do that. I think it should be a shock to the senses. It should almost hurt."
"Marx: In your book, All My Pretty Ones, you quote this part of a letter written by Franz Kafka: The books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves. A book should serve as the axe for the frozen sea within us. Is this the purpose you want your poetry to serve?
Sexton: Absolutely. I feel it should do that. I think it should be a shock to the senses. It should almost hurt."
June 10, 2016
I am glad I read this book. The author committed suicide after a late career as a poet (which began with poems while in a mental institution). The interviews about writing and life show a woman with a very rich life and very insightful thoughts on the writing life. She is a good friend (and has an interview with a dear friend included in this collection). To me there was much in here that was helpful in reflecting on writing, but also in reflecting on life and death and pain and suffering and joy.
February 10, 2023
Sexton in the essays and interviews collected here is at once self-assured and self-deprecating, honest yet guilfeful. Significant insight into her writing process and how she regarded her contemporaries / major influences in these pages - the bit on how she revised her relentless "All My Pretty Ones" was particularly illuminating. So too were her thoughts on giving poetry readings, which she considers to be at odds with poetry being "the tablet of the soul". Dismissals of her work as purely "autobiographical" or overtly personal are dealt with some rebuttals from Sexton herself too.
May 20, 2016
Sexton's thoughts on writing are rich, and ever worthwhile, and the honesty of her voice in these interviews is nothing less than haunting. I think anyone who reads and enjoys Sexton's poems will find something here to fall into and appreciate, and without doubt, I recommend it. I think there's also a lot to be gained here for beginning writers, or for writers who want a view into another artist's life.
January 24, 2008
Bitch be real crazazay. To have been a Brookline housewife with nothing to do but hang out with Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell, fuck around, and borrow insanity...I was born in the wrong decade.
December 29, 2012
Sexton's sometimes strange essays on poetry and poetics are not to be missed for writers in this genre (or any other).
March 27, 2018
The interviews here offer insight's into Sexton's poetry and writing process. I loved the joke about how after her poetry class she'd park in the No Loading zone by the bar and say that it was ok because she was going to get loaded. In another interview with Maxine Kumin, she down played how much she drank on those outings.
I would have like for her to go more in depth in the interviews about whatever poem she just read. The best interviews were for college students. The ones at the ends kind of got repetitive. I've read her daughter's memoir - Mercy Street, and Kumin's intro to her collect works. This was a chance to hear her in her own terms.
I would have like for her to go more in depth in the interviews about whatever poem she just read. The best interviews were for college students. The ones at the ends kind of got repetitive. I've read her daughter's memoir - Mercy Street, and Kumin's intro to her collect works. This was a chance to hear her in her own terms.
February 28, 2008
I'm a huge Sexton fan and I read this book to introduce me to her personality during interviews. I would recommend reading her bio by Diane Middlebrook before this one--it was much more informative and less of a collection of random articles/interviews. The bio gave a more complete description of her life--this is purely supplemental.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews