Assia Esther Wevill ( Gutmann; 15 May 1927 – 23 March 1969) was a German-Jewish woman who escaped the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

at the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and emigrated to

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, via Italy, then later England, where she had an affair with the English poet

Ted Hughes Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He wa ...

. While she was a successful advertising copywriter and a talented translator of poetry, she is mainly remembered in the context of her relationship with

Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath (; October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet and author. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for '' The Colossus and Other Poems'' (1960), '' Ariel'' (1965), a ...

and Hughes.

Early life and marriages

Assia Gutmann was the daughter of a Jewish physician of Latvian origin, Lonya Gutmann, and a German

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

mother, Elisabeth "Lisa" (née Gaedeke). Her sister Celia was born on 22 September 1929. They escaped the

at the beginning of

and moved to Mandatory Palestine. She spent most of her youth in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. Described by friends and family as a free-spirited young woman, she would go out to dance at the British soldiers' club, where she met Sergeant John Steele, with whom she moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1946 and who became her first husband in 1947. According to her biographers, Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev, "she had entered an essentially loveless marriage with an Englishman at the age of 20 – largely to enable her family to immigrate to England." The couple later immigrated to

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, Canada, where Gutmann enrolled at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

and met the man who would become her second husband, Canadian economist

Richard Lipsey Richard George Lipsey, (born August 28, 1928) is a Canadian academic and economist. He is best known for his work on the Theory of the Second Best, economics of the second-best, a theory that demonstrated that piecemeal establishing of individu ...

. Gutmann and Steele divorced in 1949 and she married Lipsey in 1952. In 1956, on a ship to London, she met the 21-year-old Canadian poet David Wevill. They began an affair and Gutmann divorced Lipsey; she and Wevill married in 1960.

Career

Wevill had a successful career in advertising and was an aspiring poet who published, under her maiden name Assia Gutmann, an English translation of the work of Israeli poet

Yehuda Amichai Yehuda Amichai (; born Ludwig Pfeuffer 3 May 1924 – 22 September 2000) was an Israelis, Israeli poet and author, one of the first to write in colloquial Hebrew language, Hebrew in modern times. Yehuda Amichai, the poet of everyday life, love, ...

Ted Hughes

In 1961, poets

and

rented their flat in Chalcot Square,

Primrose Hill Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park located north of Regent's Park in London, England, first opened to the public in 1842.Mills, A., ''Dictionary of London Place Names'', (2001) It was named after the natural hill in the centre of t ...

, London, to Assia and David Wevill, and took up residence at

North Tawton North Tawton is a small town in Devon, England, situated on the river Taw. It is administered by West Devon Council. The population of the electoral ward at the census 2011 was 2,026. History Romans crossed the River Taw at what is now Newla ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. Hughes was immediately struck with Wevill, as she was with him. He later wrote: :We didn't find her – she found us. :She sniffed us out... :She sat there... :Slightly filthy with erotic mystery... :I saw the dreamer in her :Had fallen in love with me and she did not know it. :That moment the dreamer in me :Fell in love with her, and I knew it. Plath noted their chemistry. Soon afterward, Hughes and Wevill began an affair. At the time of Plath's suicide, Wevill was pregnant with Hughes' child, but she had an abortion soon after Plath's death. The actual relationship, who instigated it and its circumstances, has been hotly debated for many years. After Plath's suicide, Hughes moved Wevill into Court Green (the Devon home at

he had bought with Plath), where Wevill helped care for Hughes & Plath's two children, Frieda and

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...

. Wevill was reportedly haunted by Plath's memory; she even began using things that had once belonged to Plath. In their biography of Wevill, ''Lover of Unreason'', Koren and Negev maintain that she used Plath's items not from obsession, but for the sake of practicality since she was maintaining a household for Hughes and his children. On 3 March 1965, at age 37, Wevill gave birth to Alexandra Tatiana Elise, nicknamed Shura, while still married to David Wevill. Ostracized by her lover's friends and family, and eclipsed by the figure of Plath in public life, Wevill became anxious and suspicious of Hughes' infidelity. Hughes began affairs with Brenda Hedden, a married acquaintance who frequented their home, and Carol Orchard, a nurse 20 years his junior, whom he would later marry in 1970. Wevill's relationship with Hughes was also fraught with other complexities, as shown by a collection of his letters to her acquired by

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

. She was continually distraught by his reluctance to marry her and establish a home together, as well as his treatment of her as a "housekeeper". In his letter to Leonard Baskin on 16 July 1969, Hughes references Shura, his daughter with Wevill. He writes, "I have two nice children who make life a great pleasure.... I had a third, a little marvel, but she died with her mother."

Death

On 23 March 1969, at their London flat, Wevill killed her daughter Shura and then herself in a murder-suicide, sometimes described a "copycat suicide" of Plath's, using sleeping pills and turning on the gas stove.

Legacy

In advertising

Wevill composed the 90-second "Lost Island" advertisement for "Sea Witches" ladies' hair-dye product for television and cinemas, called a "breakthrough in type" and a "huge success" by her biographers, Koren and Negev, that was "applauded in theaters." The advert can be viewed in some classic ad compilations or sometimes as an online posting.

In literature

*Ted Hughes's volume of poetry ''

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus ''Corvus'', or more broadly, a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not linked scientifically to any certain trait but is rathe ...

'' (1970) was dedicated to the memory of Wevill and Shura. *His poem "Folktale" deals with his relationship with Wevill: :She wanted the silent heraldry :Of the purple beach by the noble wall. :He wanted Cabala the ghetto demon :With its polythene bag full of ashes. *Hughes published half a dozen poems he had written for Wevill, which were hidden among the total of 240 in ''New Selected Poems'' (1989). *In "The Error." he wrote: :When her grave opened its ugly mouth :why didn't you just fly, :Why did you kneel down at the grave's edge :to be identified :accused and convicted? *In "The Descent", he wrote: :your own hands, stronger than your choked outcry, :Took your daughter from you. She was stripped from you, :The last raiment :Clinging round your neck, the sole remnant :Between you and the bed :In the underworld *Wevill appears as "Helen" in

Fay Weldon Fay Weldon (born Franklin Birkinshaw; 22 September 1931 – 4 January 2023) was an English author, essayist and playwright. Over the course of her 55-year writing career, she published 31 novels, including ''Puffball'' (1980), '' The Cloning o ...

's novel ''Down Among the Women'' (1971).

In film and television

* In the feature film '' Sylvia'' (2003), Wevill is portrayed by

Amira Casar Amira Casar is a French-British film actress. She was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress for the 1997 film ''La Vérité si je mens !, La Vérité si je mens!'' and also for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for ...

. * In October 2015, the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

documentary ''Ted Hughes: Stronger Than Death'' examined Hughes's life and work, and included an examination of the part played by Wevill.

References

External links

Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
Emory University
Letters to Assia Wevill, 1955-1970
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wevill, Assia 1927 births 1969 deaths 1969 suicides British emigrants to Canada Filicides in England German emigrants to Canada German people of Russian-Jewish descent Canadian people of Russian-Jewish descent Canadian people of German-Jewish descent Canadian people of Latvian-Jewish descent British people of Russian-Jewish descent British people of German-Jewish descent British people of Latvian-Jewish descent Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Mandatory Palestine Murder–suicides in the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom People from Berlin Writers from Tel Aviv Suicides by carbon monoxide poisoning Suicides in Greater London Ted Hughes Women copywriters Hebrew–English translators Members of Aliyah Bet