What is the main conflict in The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes by Janet Malcolm?

The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm is essentially a review of the biographies that have been written about poet Sylvia Plath. Sylvia's short life and career ended prematurely when the thirty-year-old writer took her own life. Since that tragedy, at least five major biographies have been written as well as several other memoirs of note written by people who knew her on a personal level. When the biographers ventured into Sylvia Plath territory, they were met by Olwyn Hughes, older sister of Ted Hughes, who was married to Sylvia. Olwyn was the literary agent over the works of Plath and it was she who writers would have to contact for permission to include full versions of Sylvia's poetry and other works in their manuscripts. Buy Olwyn played a much bigger role than that. She became the protector of her younger brother Ted and she came at the writers like a pit-bull with fangs bared.