Editing Ted Hughes (section)

==Biography==

===Early life===
[[File:Ted Hughes Birthplace.jpg|left|thumb|Hughes's birthplace in [[Mytholmroyd]], Yorkshire]]
Hughes was born at 1 Aspinall Street, in [[Mytholmroyd]] in the [[West Riding of Yorkshire]], to William Henry (1894–1981) and Edith (née Farrar) Hughes (1898–1969).<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://ann.skea.com/THHome.htm
|title=Ted Hughes Homepage
|publisher=ann.skea.com
|access-date=30 September 2008
}}
</ref> He was raised among the local farms of the [[Calderdale|Calder Valley]] and on the Pennine moorland. The third child, Hughes had a brother Gerald (1920–2016),<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/08/15/gerald-hughes-brother-of-ted--obituary/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/08/15/gerald-hughes-brother-of-ted--obituary/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Gerald Hughes, brother of Ted – obituary|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=15 August 2016|access-date=1 December 2018|via=www.telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref> who was ten years older.<ref name="Bellp4">Bell (2002) p.&nbsp;4.</ref> Next came their sister Olwyn Marguerite Hughes (1928–2016), who was two years older than Ted. 

One of their mother's ancestors, [[Nicholas Ferrar]], had founded the [[Little Gidding community]].<ref name="NDB">{{cite ODNB |last=Sagar |first=Keith |chapter=Hughes, Edward James (1930–1998) |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-71121 |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/71121 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=9 May 2020 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Most of the more recent generations of the family had worked in the clothing and milling industries in the area. 

Hughes's father, William, a [[Joinery|joiner]], was of Irish descent.<ref>Paul Bentley, ''Ted Hughes, Class and Violence'', 2014, pp.&nbsp;63 and 64.</ref><ref>Gerald Hughes, "Ted and I: A Brother's Memoir", 2014, p.&nbsp;4.</ref> He had enlisted with the [[Lancashire Fusiliers]] in the [[First World War]] and fought at [[Ypres]]. He narrowly escaped being killed; he was saved when a bullet hit him but lodged in a pay book in his breast pocket.<ref name="NDB"/> He was one of just 17 men of his regiment to return from the [[Gallipoli Campaign|Dardanelles Campaign]] (1915–16).<ref>{{cite book| last = Sagar| first = Keith| title = The Achievement of Ted Hughes| year = 1983| publisher = Manchester University Press| isbn = 978-0-7190-0939-6 | page = 9 }}</ref> 

The stories of [[Western Front (World War I)|Flanders fields]] filled Hughes's childhood imagination (later described in the poem "Out").<ref name="Sagar6"/> Hughes noted, "my first six years shaped everything".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ann.skea.com/timeline.htm|title=Ted Hughes Timeline – publications, life-events etc.|access-date=11 April 2017}}</ref>

Hughes loved hunting and fishing, swimming, and picnicking with his family. He attended the Burnley Road School until he was seven. After his family moved to [[Mexborough]], he attended Schofield Street Junior School.<ref name="NDB"/> His parents ran a newsagent's and tobacconist's shop in the town.<ref name="Bellp4"/>  

In ''Poetry in Making'', Hughes recalled that he was fascinated by animals, collecting, and drawing toy lead creatures. He acted as retriever when his elder brother gamekeeper shot [[Eurasian magpie|magpies]], owls, rats, and [[Eurasian curlew|curlews]]. He grew up amid the harsh realities of working farms in the valleys and on the moors.<ref name="Sagar6">Sagar (1978), p.&nbsp;6.</ref>  

During his time in Mexborough, he explored Manor Farm at Old [[Denaby]]. He later said that he came to know it "better than any place on earth". His earliest poem "The Thought Fox", and earliest story "The Rain Horse", were recollections of the area. At the age of about 13 a friend, John Wholey, took Hughes to his home at Crookhill Lodge, on the Crookhill estate above [[Conisbrough]]. There the boys could fish and shoot. Hughes became close to the Wholey family and learnt a lot about wildlife from Wholey's father, the head gardener and [[gamekeeper]] on the estate. Hughes came to view fishing as an almost religious experience.<ref name="NDB"/>

Hughes attended [[Laurel Academy|Mexborough Secondary School (later Grammar School)]], where a succession of teachers encouraged him to write, and develop his interest in poetry. Teachers Miss McLeod and Pauline Mayne introduced him to the poets [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]] and [[T.S. Eliot]]. Hughes was also mentored by teacher John Fisher, and his own sister Olwyn, who was well versed in poetry.<ref name="NDB"/><ref name="Sagar7"/> Future poet [[Harold Massingham]] also attended this school and was mentored by Fisher. In 1946, one of Hughes's early poems, "Wild West", and a short story were published in the grammar school magazine ''The Don and Dearne''. He published further poems in 1948.<ref name="Bellp4"/> By 16, he had no other thought than being a poet.<ref name="NDB"/>

During the same year, Hughes won an open [[exhibition (scholarship)|exhibition]] in English at [[Pembroke College, Cambridge]], but chose to do his [[national service]] first.<ref>Keith M. Sagar (1981). ''Ted Hughes'' p.&nbsp;9. University of Michigan</ref> His two years of national service (1949–1951) passed comparatively easily. Hughes was stationed as a ground wireless mechanic in the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]] on an isolated three-man station in east Yorkshire. During this time, he had little to do but "read and reread Shakespeare and watch the grass grow".<ref name="Bellp4"/> He learnt many of the plays by heart and memorised great quantities of [[W. B. Yeats]]'s poetry.<ref name="NDB"/>

===Career===
In 1951 Hughes initially studied English at Pembroke College under M.&nbsp;J.&nbsp;C. Hodgart, an authority on [[ballad]]ic forms. Hughes felt encouraged and supported by Hodgart's supervision, but attended few lectures and wrote no more poetry at this time, feeling stifled by literary academia and the "terrible, suffocating, maternal octopus" of literary tradition.<ref name="NDB"/><ref name="Sagar8">Sagar (1978), p.&nbsp;8.</ref> He wrote, "I might say, that I had as much talent for [[F. R. Leavis|Leavis]]-style dismantling of texts as anyone else, I even had a special bent for it, nearly a sadistic streak there, but it seemed to me not only a foolish game, but deeply destructive of myself."<ref name="NDB"/> In his third year, he transferred to [[Anthropology]] and [[Archaeology]], both of which would later inform his poetry.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/11820/9/11820_%27Throttle%20College%27_%20Ted%20Hughes%27s%20Cambridge%20Poetry.pdf |title='Throttle College'? Ted Hughes's Cambridge Poetry |last=Reddick|first=Yvonne|author-link=Yvonne Reddick |publisher=University of Central Lancashire |date=September 2015|access-date=23 October 2021}}</ref> He did not excel as a scholar, receiving only a third-class grade in Part I of the Anthropology and Archaeology Tripos in 1954.<ref name="Bellp5">Bell (2002), p.&nbsp;5.</ref><ref>'Cambridge Tripos', ''Times'', 19 June 1954, p.&nbsp;3.</ref> 

His first published poetry appeared in ''Chequer''.<ref name="Bellp5"/> A poem, "The little boys and the seasons", written during this time, was published in ''[[Granta]]'', under the pseudonym Daniel Hearing.<ref name="Sagar9">Sagar (1978), p.&nbsp;9.</ref>

After university, living in London and Cambridge, Hughes had many varied jobs including working as a rose gardener, a nightwatchman, and a reader for the British film company [[Rank Organisation|J. Arthur Rank]]. He worked at [[London Zoo]] as a washer-upper,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/tobias-hill-tales-from-decrypt-99601.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/tobias-hill-tales-from-decrypt-99601.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Tobias Hill: Tales from decrypt|date=9 August 2003|newspaper =The Independent|access-date=23 June 2017}}</ref> a post that offered plentiful opportunities to observe animals at close quarters.<ref name="Bellp5"/> 

On 25 February 1956,<ref>Jonathan Bate (2015). ''Ted Hughes: the unauthorised life'' p.&nbsp;98.</ref> Hughes and his friends held a party to launch ''[[St. Botolph's Review]]'', which had a single issue. In it, Hughes had four poems. At the party, he met American poet [[Sylvia Plath]], who was studying at Cambridge on a [[Fulbright Scholarship]].<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2010/apr/15/sylvia-plath-ted-hughes "Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes talk about their relationship"], ''The Guardian'', 15 April 2010. Excerpt taken from [[British Library]]'s sound archive, published on the audio CD ''The Spoken Word: Sylvia Plath''.</ref> She had already published extensively, having won various awards, and had come to the party especially to meet Hughes and his fellow poet Lucas Myers. Hughes and Plath felt a great mutual attraction, but they did not meet again for another month, when Plath passed through London on her way to Paris. She visited him again on her return three weeks later.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}

{{Quote box|align=right|bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
|quote =<poem>
Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox's nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.
</poem>
|source =The last four stanzas of "The Thought Fox" <br/>from ''[[The Hawk in the Rain]]'', 1957<ref name="poetryarchive.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=13821|title=The Thought Fox - poetryarchive.org|access-date=11 April 2017}}</ref>}}
Hughes and Plath were married on 16 June 1956, at [[St George the Martyr, Holborn]], four months after they had first met. They chose the date, [[Bloomsday]], in honour of Irish writer [[James Joyce]].<ref name="NDB"/> Plath's mother was the only wedding guest. The couple spent most of their honeymoon at [[Benidorm]], in [[Province of Alicante|Alicante]] on Spain's [[Costa Blanca]].<ref name="Bellp6">Bell (2002), p.&nbsp;6.</ref>

Hughes's biographers note that Plath did not tell him about her history of depression and suicide attempts until much later.<ref name="NDB"/> Reflecting later in ''Birthday Letters'', Hughes commented that early on he could see chasms of difference between himself and Plath, but that in the first years of their marriage they both felt happy and supported, avidly pursuing their writing careers.<ref name="Bellp6"/>

On returning to Cambridge, they lived at 55 Eltisley Avenue. That year they each had poems published in ''[[The Nation]]'', ''[[Poetry (magazine)|Poetry]]'', and ''[[The Atlantic]]''.<ref name="Sagar11">Sagar (1978), p.&nbsp;11.</ref> Plath typed up Hughes's manuscript for his collection ''Hawk in the Rain'', which won a competition run by the Poetry centre of the [[Jewish Community Centre|Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association of New York]].<ref name="Bellp6"/> The first prize was publication by [[HarperCollins|Harper]]. Hughes gained widespread critical acclaim after the book's release in September 1957, including a [[Somerset Maugham Award]]. The work favoured hard-hitting [[trochee]]s and [[spondee]]s reminiscent of [[Middle English]] — a style he used throughout his career — over the more genteel latinate sounds.<ref name="NDB"/>

The couple moved to the United States in 1957 so that Plath could take a teaching position at her alma mater, [[Smith College]]. During this time, Hughes taught at the [[University of Massachusetts Amherst|University of Massachusetts]], Amherst. In 1958, they met artist [[Leonard Baskin]], who would later illustrate many of Hughes's books, including ''Crow''.<ref name="Bellp6"/> 

The couple returned to England in 1959, staying for a short while back in [[Heptonstall]] and then finding a small flat in [[Primrose Hill]], London. They were both writing: Hughes was working on programmes for the BBC as well as producing essays, articles, reviews, and talks.<ref name="Bellp7">Bell, Charlie (2002) ''Ted Hughes'', Hodder and Stoughton, p.&nbsp;7.<!--ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref> During this time, he wrote the poems that would later be published in ''Recklings'' (1966) and ''Wodwo'' (1967). 

In March 1960, his book ''Lupercal'' was published, and it won the [[Hawthornden Prize]]. He found he was being labelled as the poet of the wild, writing only about animals.<ref name="NDB"/> Hughes began to seriously explore myth and esoteric practices including shamanism, alchemy and Buddhism, with [[The Tibetan Book of the Dead]] being a particular focus in the early 1960s.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rácz|first=István&nbsp;D.|title=The Realm Between Life and Death in Ted Hughes|date=1991|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41273855|journal=Hungarian Studies in English|volume=22|pages=121–126|jstor=41273855|issn=1217-0283}}</ref> He believed that imagination could heal dualistic splits in the human psyche, and poetry was the language of that work.<ref name="NDB"/>

Hughes and Plath had two children, [[Frieda Hughes]] (b. 1960) and [[Nicholas Hughes]] (1962–2009). In 1961, they bought the house [[Court Green]], in [[North Tawton]], Devon. 

In the summer of 1962, Hughes began an affair with [[Assia Wevill]], who had been subletting the Primrose Hill flat with her husband. Under the cloud of his affair, Hughes and Plath separated in the autumn of 1962. Plath moved back to London and set up life in a new flat with the children.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kirk |first=Connie Ann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NBlJYGHVESwC&pg=PR7 |title=Sylvia Plath: A Biography |date=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-33214-2 |pages=xx }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last= |first= |date=10 April 1999 |title=Haunted by the ghosts of love |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/apr/10/tedhughes.sylviaplath |access-date=19 August 2022 |website=The Guardian }}</ref>

Letters written by Plath between 18 February 1960 and 4 February 1963, unseen until 2017, accuse Hughes of physically abusing her, including an incident two days before she miscarried their second child in 1961.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/11/unseen-sylvia-plath-letters-claim-domestic-abuse-by-ted-hughes?CMP=fb_gu|title=Unseen Sylvia Plath letters claim domestic abuse by Ted Hughes|first=Danuta|last=Kean|date=11 April 2017|work=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=11 April 2017}}</ref>

===Death of Sylvia Plath===

Beset by depression made worse by her husband's affair and with a history of suicide attempts, Plath took her own life on 11 February 1963.<ref name="Bellp8">Bell, Charlie (2002) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RC5AHAAACAAJ Ted Hughes]'' Hodder and Stoughton p8</ref> 

Hughes dramatically wrote in a letter to an old friend of Plath's from Smith College, "That's the end of my life. The rest is posthumous."<ref>{{cite book| last = Gifford| first = Terry| title = Ted Hughes| year = 2009| publisher = Taylor & Francis US| isbn = 978-0-415-31189-2 | page = 15 }}</ref><ref>Smith College. ''Plath papers. Series 6'', Hughes. Plath archive.</ref> Some people argued that Hughes had driven Plath to suicide.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ted-hughes|title=Ted Hughes|date=11 April 2017|access-date=11 April 2017}}</ref><ref name="Reading Women"/><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/06/ted-hughes-sylvia-plath-poem-found "Unknown poem reveals Ted Hughes's torment over death of Sylvia Plath". ''The Guardian'']. 6 October 2010</ref> Plath's gravestone in [[Heptonstall]] was repeatedly vandalized. Some people were aggrieved that "Hughes" is written on her stone and attempted to chisel it off, leaving only the name "Sylvia Plath".<ref name="Reading Women">{{cite book| last1 = Phegley| first1 = Jennifer| last2 = Badia| first2 = Janet| title = Reading Women Literary Figures and Cultural Icons from the Victorian Age to the Present| year = 2005| isbn = 978-0-8020-8928-1 | page = 252 }}</ref>

Plath's poem "The Jailer", in which the speaker condemns her husband's brutality, was included in the 1970 anthology ''[[Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sisterhood is powerful : an anthology of writings from the women's liberation movement (Book, 1970) |publisher=[WorldCat.org] |oclc = 96157}}</ref> Poet [[Robin Morgan]] published a poem "Arraignment", in which she openly accused Hughes of the battery and murder of Plath.<ref name="Reading Women"/><ref>[http://www.robinmorgan.us/robin_morgan_bookDetails.asp?ProductID=21 Robin Morgan's Official website] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719182313/http://www.robinmorgan.us/robin_morgan_bookDetails.asp?ProductID=21 |date=19 July 2011 }} Retrieved 9 July 2010</ref> 

There were lawsuits resulting from the controversy. Morgan's 1972 book ''Monster'', which contained that poem <!--which? Arraignment or Monster?  -->was banned. Underground, pirated editions of it were published.<ref name="goodreads1">{{cite book|first=Robin |last=Morgan |url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/544191.Monster |title=Monster: Poems by Robin Morgan — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists |date=1972 |publisher=Goodreads.com |isbn=978-0-394-48226-2 |access-date=13 April 2017}}</ref> Other radical feminists threatened to kill Hughes in Plath's name.<ref name="Rhyme">"[https://www.theguardian.com/books/1993/feb/16/biography.sylviaplath Rhyme, reason and depression]". (16 February 1993). ''The Guardian''. Retrieved 9 July 2010.</ref> In 1989, with Hughes under public attack, a battle raged in the letters pages of ''[[The Guardian]]'' and ''[[The Independent]]''. In ''The Guardian'' on 20 April 1989, Hughes wrote the article "The Place Where Sylvia Plath Should Rest in Peace":
<blockquote>
In the years soon after [Plath's] death, when scholars approached me, I tried to take their apparently serious concern for the truth about Sylvia Plath seriously. But I learned my lesson early... If I tried too hard to tell them exactly how something happened, in the hope of correcting some fantasy, I was quite likely to be accused of trying to suppress Free Speech. In general, my refusal to have anything to do with the Plath Fantasia has been regarded as an attempt to suppress Free Speech... The Fantasia about Sylvia Plath is more needed than the facts. Where that leaves respect for the truth of her life (and of mine), or for her memory, or for the literary tradition, I do not know.<ref name="Reading Women"/><ref>Hughes, Ted. "The Place Where Sylvia Plath Should Rest in Peace". ''The Guardian'', 20 April 1989</ref>
</blockquote>

As Plath's widower, Hughes became the executor of Plath's personal and literary estates. He oversaw the posthumous publication of her manuscripts, including ''[[Ariel (Plath)|Ariel]]'' (1965). Some critics were dissatisfied by his choice of poem order and omissions in the book.<ref name="Bellp8"/> Others, who were critical of Hughes personally, argued that he had essentially driven Plath to suicide and should not be responsible for her literary legacy.<ref>Joanny Moulin (2004). ''Ted Hughes: alternative horizons''. p.&nbsp;17. Routledge, 2004</ref><ref name="Bellp8"/>  He claimed to have destroyed the final volume of Plath's journal, detailing their last few months together. In his foreword to ''The Journals of Sylvia Plath'', he defends his actions as a consideration for the couple's young children.

<!-- Commented out: [[File:Sylvia plath.jpg|thumb|right|Hughes's wife [[Sylvia Plath]]]] -->
Following Plath's suicide, Hughes wrote two poems, "The Howling of Wolves" and "Song of a Rat". He did not write poetry again for three years. He broadcast extensively, wrote critical essays, and became involved in running Poetry International with [[Patrick Garland]] and [[Charles Osborne (music writer)|Charles Osborne]], in the hopes of connecting English poetry with the rest of the world. 

In 1966, he wrote poems to accompany [[Leonard Baskin]]'s illustrations of crows, which became the epic narrative ''[[Crow (poetry)|The Life and Songs of the Crow]]'', one of the works for which Hughes is best known.<ref name="NDB"/> In 1967, while living with Wevill, Hughes produced two sculptures of a jaguar, one of which he gave to his brother and one to his sister. Gerald Hughes' sculpture, branded with the letter 'A' on its forehead, was offered for sale in 2012.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/31/ted-hughes-jaguar-sculpture-sale |title=Ted Hughes's jaguar sculpture hints at poet's demons |quote=Poet's family to sell rare jaguar sculpture that they believe shows his pain over Sylvia Plath's death |date=31 December 2011 |website=The Guardian|access-date=20 June 2021}}</ref>

On 23 March 1969, six years after Plath's suicide, Assia Wevill took her own life by the same method: asphyxiation from a gas stove. Wevill also killed her child, Alexandra Tatiana Elise (nicknamed Shura), the four-year-old daughter of Hughes, born on 3 March 1965. These deaths resulted in reports that Hughes had been abusive to both Plath and Wevill.<ref name="murderer">{{cite news|first=Nadeem |last=Azam |url=http://1lit.tripod.com/june2001.html |title=Ted Hughes: A Talented Murderer| date= 11 December 2001 |work=The Guardian |access-date=17 February 2018 | location=London}}</ref><ref name="I failed her">[http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/poetry/story/0,6000,148915,00.html ''I failed her. I was 30 and stupid''  ''The Observer'' 19 March 2000] Retrieved 9 July 2010</ref><ref>{{cite news|first1=Yehuda |last1=Koren |first2=Eilat |last2=Negev |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/19/biography.tedhughes |title=Written out of history|work=The Guardian|date=19 October 2006 |access-date=27 April 2010 | location=London}}</ref> Hughes did not finish the ''Crow'' sequence until after his work ''Cave Birds'' was published in 1975.<ref name="NDB"/>

===1970–1998===
[[File:Lumb Bank - The Ted Hughes Arvon Centre - geograph.org.uk - 970898.jpg|thumb|right|The Ted Hughes Arvon Centre, Lumb Bank – an 18th-century mill-owner's house, once Hughes's home]]
In August 1970, Hughes married a second time, to Carol Orchard, a nurse. They were together until his death. Heather Clark in her biography of Plath, ''Red Comet'' (2021), observed that Hughes "would never be faithful to a woman after he left Plath".<ref>''Red Comet'', Heather Clark, 2021</ref> <!-- This biography was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Needs citation to be included in content. -->

Hughes bought a house known as Lumb Bank near [[Hebden Bridge]], West Yorkshire, while still maintaining the property at [[Court Green]]. He also began cultivating a small farm near [[Winkleigh]], Devon, called ''Moortown''; he used this name as the title of one of his poetry collections. Later he served as the president of the charity [[Farms for City Children]], established by his friend [[Michael Morpurgo]] in [[Iddesleigh]].<ref name=hatherleigh/>

In 1970 Hughes and his sister Olwyn<ref>{{cite news|last1=Guttridge|first1=Peter|title=Olwyn Hughes: Literary agent who fiercely guarded the work of her brother, Ted Hughes, and his wife, Sylvia Plath|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/olwyn-hughes-literary-agent-who-fiercely-guarded-the-work-of-her-brother-ted-hughes-and-his-wife-a6799816.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/olwyn-hughes-literary-agent-who-fiercely-guarded-the-work-of-her-brother-ted-hughes-and-his-wife-a6799816.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=10 January 2016|work=The Independent|date=7 January 2016}}</ref> set up the Rainbow Press. Between 1971 and 1981, it published sixteen titles, comprising poems by Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, [[Ruth Fainlight]], [[Thom Gunn]], and [[Seamus Heaney]]. The works were printed by Daedalus Press in Norfolk,<ref name="ann.skea/Hughes-Press">{{cite web |last1=Skea |first1=Ann |title=Ted Hughes and Small Press Publication |url=https://ann.skea.com/RainbowPress.htm |website=ann.skea.com |access-date=16 December 2024}}</ref> [[Rampant Lions Press]], and the John Roberts Press.

Hughes was appointed [[Poet Laureate]] in December 1984, following [[John Betjeman|Sir John Betjeman]]. A collection of his animal poems for children had been published by Faber earlier that year, ''What is the Truth?'', illustrated by R. J. Lloyd. For that work he won the annual [[Guardian Children's Fiction Prize]], a once-in-a-lifetime book award.<ref name=relaunch/> 

Hughes wrote many works for children. He also collaborated closely with [[Peter Brook]] and the [[National Theatre Company]].<ref name="Bellp10"/> He dedicated himself to the [[Arvon Foundation]], which promotes writing education and has run residential writing courses at Lumb Bank.<ref name="Bellp10">Bell, Charlie (2002) ''Ted Hughes'' Hodder and Stoughton, p.&nbsp;10.</ref> 

In 1993, Hughes made a rare television appearance for [[Channel 4]], reading passages from his 1968 novel [[The Iron Man (novel)|''The Iron Man'']]. He was featured in the 1994 documentary ''Seven Crows A Secret''.<ref>{{YouTube|oQ0xVki00nU|''Seven Crows A Secret''}}</ref>

In early 1994, increasingly alarmed by the decline of fish in rivers local to his Devonshire home, Hughes became involved in conservation activism. He was one of the founding trustees of the [[Westcountry Rivers Trust]], a charity established to restore rivers through catchment-scale management and a close relationship with local landowners and riparian owners.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://wrt.org.uk/the-westcountry-rivers-trust-story/|title=The Westcountry Rivers Trust Story|date=25 May 2017|work=Westcountry Rivers Trust News|access-date=16 June 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Avron Foundation, Colden Valley - geograph.org.uk - 1188593.jpg|thumb|right|Lumb Bank in the Calder Valley]]
Hughes was appointed a member of the [[Order of Merit]] by [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II]] just before he died. He had continued to live at the house in Devon, until suffering a fatal heart attack on 28 October 1998 while undergoing hospital treatment for [[colon cancer]] in [[London Borough of Southwark|Southwark]], London. 

On 3 November 1998, his funeral was held at [[North Tawton]] church, and he was cremated in [[Exeter]]. Speaking at the funeral, fellow poet [[Seamus Heaney]], said: 
<blockquote>"No death outside my immediate family has left me feeling more bereft. No death in my lifetime has hurt poets more. He was a tower of tenderness and strength, a great arch under which the least of poetry's children could enter and feel secure. His creative powers were, as Shakespeare said, still crescent. By his death, the veil of poetry is rent and the walls of learning broken."<ref>{{cite book| last = Boyanowsky| first = Ehor| title = Savage Gods, Silver Ghosts In the Wild With Ted Hughes| year = 2010| publisher = Douglas & McIntyre Limited| isbn = 978-1-55365-323-3 | page = 195}}</ref></blockquote>

On 16 March 2009, [[Nicholas Hughes]], the son of Hughes and Plath, died by suicide in his home in [[Alaska]]. He had suffered from depression.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/books/03/23/plath.son.suicide/index.html|title=Tragic poet Sylvia Plath's son kills himself|publisher=CNN|date=23 March 2009|access-date=16 July 2010}}</ref>

In January 2013, Carol Hughes announced that she would write a memoir of their marriage. ''[[The Times]]'' headlined its story "Hughes's widow breaks silence to defend his name" and observed that "for more than 40 years she has kept her silence, never once joining in the furious debate that has raged around the late Poet Laureate since the suicide of his first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath."<ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/article/my-life-with-ted-hughess-widow-breaks-silence-to-defend-his-name-573k0mjz8fz "My life with Ted: Hughes's widow breaks silence to defend his name"]. Valentine Low. ''The Times''. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 21 May 2015.</ref>

Hughes's brother Gerald published a memoir late in 2014, ''Ted and I: A Brother's Memoir''. ''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' described it as "a warm recollection of a lauded poet".<ref>[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gerald-hughes/ted-and-i "Ted and I: A Brother's Memoir by Gerald Hughes"]. ''Kirkus Reviews''. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2015.</ref>