May Sarton | |
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| Born | Eleanore Marie Sarton (1912-05-03)May 3, 1912 Wondelgem, Belgium |
| Died | July 16, 1995(1995-07-16) (aged 83) York, Maine, US |
| Occupation |
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| Nationality | Belgian, American |
| Genre | Fiction, poetry, non-fiction, children's literature |
| Partner | Judy Matlack |
May Sarton was thepen name ofEleanore Marie Sarton[1] (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), a Belgian-American novelist, poet, andmemoirist. Although her best work is strongly personalised with erotic female imagery, she resisted the label of ‘lesbian writer’, preferring to convey the universality of human love.
Sarton was born inWondelgem, Belgium (today a part of the city ofGhent),[1] the only child ofhistorian of scienceGeorge Sarton and his wife, English artist Mabel Eleanor Elwes. WhenGerman troops invaded Belgium after theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, her family fled toIpswich, England, where Sarton's maternal grandmother lived.[citation needed]
One year later, they moved toBoston, Massachusetts, where her father started working atHarvard University. Sarton started theatre lessons in her late teens but continued writing poetry throughout her adolescence. She went to school inCambridge, Massachusetts, graduating fromCambridge Latin High School in 1929.[citation needed]
Sarton won a scholarship toVassar but felt drawn to the theater after seeingEva Le Gallienne perform inThe Cradle Song. She joined Le Gallienne'sCivic Repertory Theatre in New York City and spent a year working as an apprentice. However, Sarton continued to write poetry. When she was seventeen, she published a series of sonnets in December 1930, some of which were featured in her first published volume,Encounter in April (1937).[2][3]
When she was nineteen, Sarton traveled to Europe, living in Paris for a year. In this time, she met such literary and cultural figures asVirginia Woolf,Elizabeth Bowen,Julian Huxley andJuliette Huxley,Lugné-Pöe,Basil de Sélincourt, andS. S. Koteliansky. Sarton had affairs with both of the Huxleys.[4] It was within this environment and community that she published her first novel,The Single Hound (1938).[3]
In 1945 inSanta Fe, New Mexico, she met Judith "Judy" Matlack[5] (September 9, 1898 – December 22, 1982), who became her partner for the next thirteen years. They separated in 1956, when Sarton's father died and Sarton moved toNelson, New Hampshire.Honey in the Hive (1988) is about their relationship.[6] In her memoirAt Seventy, Sarton reflected on Judy's importance in her life and her (Sarton's)Unitarian Universalist upbringing.[7] She was elected a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958.[8]
Sarton later moved toYork, Maine. In 1990, she was temporarily debilitated by astroke. Since writing was difficult, she used atape recorder to record and transcribe her journalEndgame: A Journal of the Seventy-Ninth Year (1992). Despite her physical difficulties, she maintained her sense of independence.Endgame was followed by the journalEncore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year (1993), a celebration of Sarton's life. She won the Levinson Prize for Poetry in 1993. Her final book,Coming Into Eighty (1995), published after her death, covers the year from July 1993 to August 1994, describing her attitude of gratitude for life as she wrestled with the experience of aging.[9]
She died ofbreast cancer on July 16, 1995, and is buried in Nelson Cemetery,Nelson, New Hampshire.[10]
May Sarton wrote 53 books, including 19 novels, 17 books of poetry, 15 nonfiction works, 2 children's books, a play, and additional screenplays.[11][12] According toThe Poetry Foundation, Sarton's style as defined by critics is "calm, cultured, and urbane."[11] In much of her writing, Sarton maintains a politically conscious lens, but what is considered May Sarton's best and most enduring work lies in her journals and memoirs, particularlyPlant Dreaming Deep (about her early years at Nelson, ca. 1958–68),Journal of a Solitude (1972–1973, often considered her best),The House by the Sea (1974–1976),Recovering (1978–1979) andAt Seventy (1982–1983). In these fragile, rambling and honest accounts of her solitary life, she deals with such issues as aging, isolation, solitude, friendship, love and relationships, lesbianism, self-doubt, success and failure, envy, gratitude for life's simple pleasures, love of nature (particularly of flowers), the changing seasons, spirituality and, importantly, the constant struggles of a creative life. Sarton's later journals are not of the same quality, as she endeavored to keep writing through ill health and by dictation.
Although many of her earlier works, such asEncounter in April, contain vivid erotic female imagery, May Sarton often emphasized in her journals that she didn't see herself as a "lesbian" writer: "The vision of life in my work is not limited to one segment of humanity...and has little to do with sexual proclivity".[13] Rather she wanted to touch on what is universally human about love in all its manifestations. When publishing her novelMrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing in 1965, she feared that writing openly aboutlesbianism would lead to a diminution of the previously established value of her work. "The fear of homosexuality is so great that it took courage to writeMrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing," she wrote inJournal of a Solitude, "to write a novel about a woman homosexual who is not a sex maniac, a drunkard, a drug-taker, or in any way repulsive, to portray a homosexual who is neither pitiable nor disgusting, without sentimentality ..."[14] After the book's release, many of Sarton's works began to be studied in university level women's studies classes, being embraced by feminists and lesbians alike.[2]
Margot Peters' controversial authorized biography (1998) revealed May Sarton as a complex individual who often struggled in her relationships.[15] Peters' book was often scathing ("People who had the misfortune to become her intimates almost universally came to regret it. On the slightest of pretexts, Ms. Peters has it, Sarton subjected them to 'terrible scenes, nights of weeping, rages, blowups.' She was expert at emotional blackmail, and behaved badly in restaurants. Self-absorbed and insensitive, May Sarton wooed others with extravagant attentions, only to betray and humiliate them later -- 'with scant regard,' Ms. Peters observes, 'for the chaos left in her wake.'"[16]), but the biography was considered "thoughtful, even-handed, [and] well-written."[17] A selected edition of Sarton's letters was edited bySusan Sherman in 1997[4] and many of Sarton's papers are held in theNew York Public Library.[18]
Poetry books[edit]
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Novels[edit]
| Children's books[edit]
Play[edit]
Letters[edit]
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