Aurelia Plath (born Aurelia Frances Schober; April 26, 1906 â€" March 11, 1994) was the wife of Otto Plath, mother of the American poet, Sylvia Plath, and a son, Warren, and the grandmother of Frieda Hughes and Nicholas Hughes.
Aurelia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Franz Schober of Bad Aussee, Austria (who Americanized his name to Frank Schober) and his wife Aurelia Grünwald (who Americanized her name to Aurelia Greenwood). Sylvia Plath made reference to this by making "Esther Greenwood" the name of the heroine in The Bell Jar. The relationship between Aurelia and her daughter was a rather problematic and ambiguous one, for on the one hand they were exceptionally close to each other and on the other hand Sylvia Plath often claimed that she hated her mother. Their relationship is portrayed in Plath's semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, and the poem 'Medusa'.
In 1975, Aurelia Plath published her daughter's letters from 1950-1963 as Letters Home. Aurelia died, aged 87, of complications from Alzheimer's disease in Needham, Massachusetts.