Ted Hughes

Hughes was one of the major English-language poets of the later 20th C. Eliot was his first editor – Hughes appreciated his light touch. Auden (met only rarely), Spender and MacNeice were with the same publisher. Plath was determined to meet him: they were together until a few months before her suicide, for which he was persistently attacked. Hughes was responsible for getting Herbert translated into English, was a great admirer of Holub (it was mutual), and was credited by his close friend Amichai with putting him into orbit. Yevtushenko did not impress him. Heaney called him a tower of tenderness and strength.