Which poet wrote the only novel "The Bell Jar"?

The poet who wrote the only novel "The Bell Jar" was Sylvia Plath. Best known for poems such as "Ariel" and "Daddy," Plath published the novel as a semi-autobiographical account of a young woman's psychological crisis.

The Bell Jar first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas. Its protagonist, Esther Greenwood, struggles with depression, social expectations, and the restrictive choices available to women in 1950s America. The novel draws on aspects of Plath's own life, including her work as a guest editor at Mademoiselle magazine and her experience of mental illness, while remaining a work of fiction.

Plath died in February 1963, about a month after the novel's first British publication. The book was published under her real name in 1966 and did not appear in the United States until 1971. Readers sometimes confuse the novel's author with its fictional narrator, Esther Greenwood, or overlook the fact that Plath's other major books were poetry, prose, letters, and children's works rather than additional novels.