Introduction

Anne Sexton continues to fascinate readers. Her career is in need of a reassessment that considers the wide range of materials in her archive, her influence on contemporary poetry, and directions for future scholarship. While there have been recent volumes analyzing the poetry of Sexton’s midcentury contemporaries, there have not been comparable considerations of Sexton’s poetry. Several collections of essays were published from the late seventies to the early nineties, but there has not been a book that fully engages the scope of Sexton’s creative and critical legacy. This introduction speaks to the ways that This Business of Words addresses these goals and draws new attention to the material dimensions of Sexton’s life and work.