What were some of your favorite Hughes’ poems before writing your biography? Did learning more about Hughes’s life lead you to favor poems you had formerly overlooked? All my literary passions-Shakespeare, the Romantic poets, the way that literature can address questions of environmental crisis and the relationship between humankind and the natural world, the theatre of ancient Greece and Rome, Sylvia Plath and the relationship between creativity and mental illness-all these came together in the book because they were Ted Hughes’s obsessions. I do feel that this is the book I was born to write. What drew you to write a biography about Ted Hughes? What about his life and work interests you most? In anticipation of Bate’s visit to the Ransom Center, we asked him to discuss what he discovered about Hughes in his research. Seating is first-come, first-served, and doors open at 6:30 p.m. This program is free and open to the public, but donations are welcome. during the annual Stanley Burnshaw Lecture, followed by a reception and book signing.

Bate will discuss his research and rewrite process on Wednesday, November 18, at 7:00 p.m. When the estate suddenly revoked its permission to quote freely from the archives, Bate challenged himself to find a way to continue his project. Scholar Jonathan Bate worked with the Hughes’s estate for four years to create an account of a “literary life.” The result is Ted Hughes: The Unauthorised Life (Harper, October 2015). Ted Hughes’s will stipulates that there be no official biography of his life.

Ted hughes by jonathan bate