October 27, 1932 Sylvia Plath born to Aurelia Schober Plath, first generation American of Austrian descent, and Otto Emile Plath, emigré from Grabow in the Polish corridor. Otto Plath was a professor at Boston University; his specialty: entomology. Aurelia was approximately 20 years younger than her husband.
1935 Brother, Warren Joseph Plath, is born.
1937 The Plath family moves to Winthrop, Massachusetts.
1938 Sylvia begins public school at Winthrop and receives all A's; she is a model student.
November 5, 1940 Otto Plath dies of pneumonia and complications from diabetes.
1940–41 Aurelia Plath teaches secretarial studies at Boston University.
1942 Aurelia Plath moves her family, with her parents, to Wellesley.
1944 Sylvia enters Alice L. Phillips Junior High School.
1945 Plath's poem "The Spring Parade" published in the school's literary magazine.
1945–46 Other literary publications in The Phillipian, the school's literary magazine.
1947 Plath wins Honorable Mention in The National Scholastic Literary contest. During these years her I.Q. tests in the 160s, and she meets a classmate, Richard Willard (a fictional name), who will continue with her in school. Later, she dates his older brother, "Buddy."
1950 Plath enters Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, on a scholarship. During this period, Buddy Willard asks her to the Yale prom.
1952 Plath wins the Mademoiselle fiction contest.
Summer, 1953 Plath is guest editor at Mademoiselle.
Late Summer, 1953 Plath attempts suicide with sleeping pills. She is found and taken to Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
1953 (5 months) Plath resides at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, and is treated with insulin and electro-shock therapy.
