LONDON (AP) -- A letter from the late poet Ted Hughes says he believed an adverse reaction to anti-depressant drugs was the key factor in the 1963 suicide of his wife, the celebrated American poet Sylvia Plath, a British newspaper reported Sunday.
The letter is among more than 140 from Hughes, a former British poet laureate, to his friend and biographer Keith Sagar that have been acquired by The British Library.
The Sunday Telegraph said one letter written in 1981 details events leading to the death of Plath, who gassed herself in her kitchen at age 30, a few months after Hughes left her for another woman.
According to the published extracts, Hughes told Sagar "the key factor" in Plath's death was that she mistakenly swallowed the wrong kind of pills, which gave her suicidal feelings.
Hughes did not name the drug, but wrote that Plath had taken it once before while living in America and had suffered an adverse reaction, the newspaper said.
"She was aware of its effects which lasted about three hours ... just enough time," one extract from the letter reads.
The anti-depressant was sold under a different brand name in Britain and prescribed for Plath by her doctor, who did not know the effect they would have on her, the Sunday Telegraph said.
In one letter, the newspaper said, Hughes revealed a desire for reconciliation with Plath following the estrangement just before her death.
But he complained that "stirrers and troublemakers complicated our getting back together in no small way," the report said.
The letters, written over a period of 35 years, include descriptions of visits abroad and one written months before Hughes' death from cancer in 1998.
Plath met Hughes at Cambridge University and they married in 1956. After her death, Hughes was demonized by some Plath fans.
Months before his death Hughes, who had said little publicly about the marriage, published "Birthday Letters," a poetic -- and often touching -- account of their relationship that has led many to re-evaluate the famous pair.
