Live or Die was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1966 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1967 — the award that confirmed Sexton’s position as one of the most important American poets of her generation and simultaneously intensified the controversy that had surrounded her work from the beginning. The collection’s title states its subject with brutal directness: these are poems written by a woman for whom suicide was a constant option, and the book’s organizing principle — poems arranged by date of composition rather than by theme — transforms the collection into something like a survival diary.
The Collection
The chronological arrangement gives Live or Die a narrative arc unusual in poetry collections. The reader follows Sexton through a four-year period (1962–1966) in which she oscillates between the desire to die and the decision to live. The arrangement means the reader does not know, until the final poem, which way the balance will tip.
“Wanting to Die” — “Since you ask, most days I cannot remember.” One of the most quoted poems about suicidal ideation in English, it addresses a friend’s question directly and without evasion. The poem explains suicide not as despair but as a vocation — “suicides have already betrayed the body” — and in doing so makes the reader understand that for Sexton, death was not a failure of will but an ongoing temptation.
“Sylvia’s Death” — written after Sylvia Plath’s suicide in February 1963. The poem is addressed to Plath as a rival in death — “what is your kingdom?” — and expresses a complex mixture of grief, envy, and anger. Sexton and Plath had studied together with Robert Lowell and shared drinks afterward discussing methods of suicide. The poem acknowledges this shared territory with unsettling frankness.
“Flee on Your Donkey” — a long poem about returning to the mental hospital, written with exhaustion rather than terror. By the mid-1960s, Sexton knew the institution intimately, and the poem captures the resigned familiarity of chronic illness.
“Live” — the collection’s final poem and its affirmation. “Live or die, but don’t poison everything… / Even so, / I am not finished.” The decision to live is not triumphant but provisional — a choice made today that will need to be made again tomorrow.
The Pulitzer Controversy
The Pulitzer Prize brought both recognition and backlash. Critics who had long been uncomfortable with confessional poetry’s revelations found a focus for their objections. James Dickey dismissed the poems as “embarrassing.” Others questioned whether personal suffering, however honestly rendered, constituted sufficient material for major poetry.
Defenders argued that Sexton’s achievement was precisely in making private suffering articulable — in giving voice to experiences (mental illness, suicidal ideation, female rage) that had been suppressed by literary decorum. The debate anticipated later controversies about identity politics, trauma narratives, and the relationship between lived experience and aesthetic merit.
Publication History
The first edition was published by Houghton Mifflin, Boston, in 1966. First printings are identified by:
- Houghton Mifflin imprint on title page
- First printing statement on copyright page
- Cloth binding with dust jacket
The Pulitzer Prize significantly increased sales, making this Sexton’s best-selling collection during her lifetime.
Collecting Live or Die
First edition (Houghton Mifflin, 1966): Fine copies in dust jacket bring $200–$500. The Pulitzer ensured a somewhat larger first printing than Sexton’s earlier collections, but fine copies remain scarce.
Signed copies bring $600–$2,000. Sexton was actively reading and signing during this period.
Pre-Pulitzer copies (those purchased before the prize announcement) are particularly valued by collectors, as they represent the collection’s original market presence before the award inflated printings.
The Pulitzer Prize makes Live or Die one of the most historically significant Sexton titles, though collectors sometimes prefer the rawer energy of To Bedlam and Part Way Back or the more polished craft of Transformations.