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Esther Greenwood (October 14, 1933 – December 3, 1999) was an American poet, novelist, and magazine writer. She is best known for her poetry collection The Fig Tree, which won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1982.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Greenwood was an honor student at Smith College with a full scholarship from Philomena Guinea, a famous novelist. She married dr. Robert Willard in 1957, and they had two daughters before separating in 1964.

Greenwood spent three years in the Wymark Asylum, a mental institution in Boston, from 1961 to 1964. During those years, she wrote her famous novel The Bell Jar, an autobiographical novel describing her first institutionalization in 1953. Greenwood spent most of her adult life divided between suicide attempts and treatment. Still, she was only officially diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder in 1980, with the incorporation of this mental illness in the DSM-III.

Greenwood's life was surrounded by polemics, from her suicide attempts to her contentious divorce after The Bell Jar publication. She also wrote numerous magazine articles about the mistreatment of the mentally ill and misuse of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) that were later printed as the collection Wymark, Caplan, and Belsize.

Greenwood died of breast cancer on December 3, 1999, at the age of 66.

Early life
Esther Greenwood was born in 1953 in Boston, Massachusetts. She was seven years old when her father died, leaving the family with nothing. Greenwood, her mother, and her brother had to move back with her maternal grandparents. Greenwood developed a close relationship with her grandfather, who worked at a country club. Her mother started working as a shorthand teacher to support the family.

Greenwood describes her childhood before her father died as light and exciting in her short novel The Before Times.

Education and Mental health decline
In 1950, she started studying at the Smith College with a full scholarship from Philomena Guinea, a famous novelist. In her junior year, one of her short stories wins a prize from Lady's Day Magazine.

Before the beginning of her senior year, Greenwood had an abrupt mental health decline and attempted suicide multiple times in the summer of 1953. On August 17, 1953, Esther Greenwood vanished from her house with only a note. She was found in the basement three days later, barely alive.

Greenwood was initially treated in private practice with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). But she ultimately had to be admitted at the Caplan Asylum for inpatient care. All her treatment was paid for by Philomena Guinea, who also suffered from mental illness. She had to stay in therapy for several months before a partial recovery.

Greenwood returned to college in 1954 and graduates summa cum laude.

Career and marriage
In 1955, after finishing college, Greenwood married her long-time boyfriend Robert Willard, with whom she has two daughters Diana and Helen Willard (Oct. Little is known about her marriage. She didn't write about that period and continuously refuse to share "out of respect for her daughters."

Divorse and Controversies
In 1961, after a new suicide attempt, Greenwood was admitted at Wymark Asylum, where she stays for more than three years. During this time, she wrote her most famous novel "The Bell Jar" recounting her first stay at a mental institution in 1953 and the steps that lead to her decline. Her book was soon published with the help of her friend Jay Cee under the pen name Elly Higginbottom. Robert Willard tried to block the publication of the book because it touched on "several personal issues," and he felt it was a defamation of him and his family.

After the publication, Mr. Willard refused to visit his wife in the hospice and bring her daughters. A few months later, he filed for a divorce on the grounds of her mental health. At this time, Greenwood is still in the hospice, and the courts decide the best interest for the girls was to stay with her father.

Activism
After leaving the institution, Greenwood gained notoriety for writing multiple magazine articles about her institutionalizations and the mentally ill's mistreatment.

Poetry collections

 * The Fig Tree & Other Poems (1970) William Heinemann
 * Purity (1981) Faber and Faber
 * Esther Greenwood - The Collected Poems (1991) Faber and Faber

Collected prose and novels

 * The Bell Jar (novel, 1963), under the pseudonym "Victoria Lucas" (Heinemann)
 * Wymark, Caplan, Belsize (1975) Faber and Faber
 * The Journals of Esther Greenwood (1982, Dial Press)
 * 12 Girls in New York (published 1989), Greenwood's Smith College senior thesis

Children's books

 * Avocado with Grape Jelly (1976), illustrated by Quentin Blake, Faber and Faber
 * Pollyana Cowgirl (1981) Faber and Faber

Awards and Honors

 * Guinea Scholarship