Oh God. Many things. There are also many things she severely fucked up on: sexually abusing her daughter Linda was one of those, and periodically Anne would go off her Thorazine in order to get a freaking tan (it gives you problems with sun exposure). However, there is also a great deal to admire:
* She essentially wrote herself back to sanity for as long as she possibly could. Having had her first nervous breakdown at 29, she was under the care of Dr. Martin Orne, who suggested she try writing down her feelings. She went back to poetry (she had stopped as a teenager after her mother dissed some of her writing), and worked and worked at it.
* She and Maxine Kumin formed a really remarkable writing friendship that was almost like a two-person workshop.
* She kept experimenting: with the poetry-rock fusion thing (Her Kind), with poems based on fairytales (Transformation), with poems about religion (The Awful Rowing Toward God).
* Even though travel was terrifying and incredibly difficult for her, she kept going on the road and giving readings because, once she became famous, they brought in quite a lot of money, and she had a sense that she should give back to her family.
* She was nice to the people with mental illness who wrote to her, having read her poems, because they felt like she'd understand. Once she was in a position to give advice, she gave it.
* She essentially wrote herself back to sanity for as long as she possibly could. Having had her first nervous breakdown at 29, she was under the care of Dr. Martin Orne, who suggested she try writing down her feelings. She went back to poetry (she had stopped as a teenager after her mother dissed some of her writing), and worked and worked at it.
* She and Maxine Kumin formed a really remarkable writing friendship that was almost like a two-person workshop.
* She kept experimenting: with the poetry-rock fusion thing (Her Kind), with poems based on fairytales (Transformation), with poems about religion (The Awful Rowing Toward God).
* Even though travel was terrifying and incredibly difficult for her, she kept going on the road and giving readings because, once she became famous, they brought in quite a lot of money, and she had a sense that she should give back to her family.
* She was nice to the people with mental illness who wrote to her, having read her poems, because they felt like she'd understand. Once she was in a position to give advice, she gave it.
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