Sylvia Plath biographer here tonight

Carl Rollyson calls Sylvia Plath the "Marilyn Monroe of modern literature" in his new book, "American Isis." With the 50th anniversary of Plath's death almost here (Feb. 11), Rollyson's book is one of two new looks at Plath.

He'll discuss the poet at 7 p.m. tonight at Left Bank Books, 399 North Euclid Avenue.

Plath, separated from her husband, poet Ted Hughes, killed herself at age 30 while her children slept in their London flat.

In a live chat last month with the London Guardian, Rollyson, a journalism professor and the author of dozens of books, said that Plath's beauty wasn't the only part of her appeal: "If Plath were alive today, I believe we would be talking about her. Her work was getting stronger and stronger. Her creativity might have flagged, of course, but I suspect she would have produced several important novels and perhaps more poetry."

When she died, she'd published one book of poetry, "The Colossus and Other Poems." Her autobiographical novel "The Bell Jar" had just been published in Britain under a pseudonym, and she'd been furiously writing the poems that her husband would rearrange and publish as "Ariel." In 1982, Plath posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for the publication of her collected works.

The brilliant writer, who eagerly sought public attention and early on was interested in combing high art with popular culture, had also suffered from mood problems for years. She attempted suicide several times, even before she met Hughes. Still, much of the continuing interest in Plath's life consists of debates over who was the more difficult or guilty spouse in their marriage. (The woman with whom Hughes had an affair also killed h! erself and their child a few years later.)

Rollyson writes in a note to "American Isis" that he hopes readers new to Plath biography may feel "some of the exhilaration and despair that marked the poet's life."