Discussed in this essay:

Ted Hughes: The Unauthorized Life, by Jonathan Bate. Harper. 672 pages. $40.

Among those who knew Ted Hughes — friends, rivals, lovers, wives — it was universally agreed that, his other qualities notwithstanding, he was very, very good-looking. Six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and floppy-haired, his face lantern-jawed and slightly concave, he was almost a caricature of manliness. At Cambridge in the 1950s — where, a romantic competitor claimed, Hughes was “the biggest seducer” on campus — he favored an old black corduroy jacket and unbelted trousers. He hunted and fished and hiked and cooked (masculine meals: fried…