Anne Sexton's Houses

Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit the homes in which Anne Sexton lived in Newton Lower Falls and Weston, Massachusetts. As my friend and I arrived, the owner of the second come greeted us with stories about the original condition of the home and Diane Middlebrook's visit for her biography. The house has since been renovated, with a large addition, but Sexton's study, which she shared with the family den, is still visible. I discuss Sexton's addition of her the study to her first home in my forthcoming book Annotating Modernism: Marginalia and Pedagogy from Virginia Woolf to the Confessional Poets (2015). For an earlier view of the second house, see the video of Sexton at home. To read more about the houses, you can also check out Sexton's Self-Portrait in Letters.

The First Home, Newton (1953-1965)

The Second Home, Weston (1965-1974)

The house was later renovated and the top piece and other parts were added. Sexton had black wallpaper with a flowered pattern in the dining room and orange shag carpeting (not burnt orange) elsewhere. The study was located on the ground floor facing the lawn near the porch.