May
Sarton, the only child of George and Mabel Elwes Sarton, was born
in Wondelgem, Belgium in 1912. In that same year George Sarton,
a historian of science, founded the journal Isis and, as
May Sarton described, "My father always referred to us together
and dedicated one of his books to "Eleanor Mabel, mother of those
strange twins, May and Isis." From her father May learned
about discipline and a fierce dedication to work and from her
mother, an artist and designer, she learned about dedication and
creativity, whether applied to gardening or to life. In 1916 the
Sartons arrived in the United States after fleeing Belgium and
the advancing Germans, settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts where
George Sarton took up a post at Harvard as a part-time instructor
and, with financial assistance from the Carnegie Institute, as
a full time scholar, devoting his life to the study of the history
of science. May enrolled in the "progressive" Shady Hill School
and here, through the influence of Agnes Hocking, founder and
poetry teacher, developed her life long love for and interest
in poetry. May Sarton later wrote eloquently of these years in
her memoir I Knew a Phoenix. When she was twelve years
old Sarton traveled to Belgium for a year to live with the Limbosch
family, Celine, Raymond and their children, studying at the Institut
Belge de Culture Francaise. It was here she met Marie Closset,
its founder who wrote and published poetry under the name Jean
Dominique. Closset remained an intimate friend and mentor of Sarton's
and became the inspiration for her first novel, The Single
Hound.
The
Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, formerly Cambridge High
and Latin, where Sarton attended high school.
May Sarton graduated from the Cambridge High and Latin School
in Cambridge in 1929. Although winning a scholarship to Vassar,
she had been smitten, much to the chagrin of her father, by the
theater after seeing Eva Le Gallienne perform in The Cradle
Song. From that moment forward she was determined, upon graduation,
to join Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre in New York. Even
while spending a year as an apprentice, honing her speaking voice,
learning the basics of theater, and devoting herself to the study
of acting, Sarton wrote poetry. At the age of seventeen a series
of sonnets was published in the December, 1930 issue of Poetry
magazine, some of which were included in her first published volume,
Encounter, in 1937.
In 1931 at nineteen, Sarton traveled to Europe and lived in Paris
for a year while her parents were in Lebanon. This marked the
beginning of a lifelong adventure of annually visiting Europe,
where she would meet a series of extraordinary people, including
Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen, Julian and Juliette Huxley, Lugne-Poe,
actor and founder of the Theatre de l'Oeuvre, Basil de Selincourt,
and S.S. Koteliansky. It was in this electrically charged atmosphere
that she wrote and published her first novel, The Single Hound,
in 1938. Her aspirations to act and direct in the theatre were
dissolved in 1935 when her own Associated Actors Theatre failed,
a victim of the Depression. From that point forward, Sarton turned
to writing as her life's profession and never looked back.
The end of the 1930s was a rich, creative time for Sarton as
her second volume of poetry, Inner Landscape (1939) appeared
and the novel, Fire in the Mirror, was completed, although
never published. In 1940 Sarton undertook what was to become an
annual poetry reading/lecture tour of colleges throughout the
United States, beginning in Santa Fe, New Mexico. During the first
half of the 1940s she worked at Pearl Buck's East and West Society
in New York, writing documentary scripts for the United States
War Information Office, all while continuing to produce poetry
and novels. Finally, in 1946, her novel The Bridge of Years
was published, followed two years later by the volume of poetry,
The Lion and the Rose. Sarton continued to meet many prominent
artists and writers, including H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), and Bryher
(Annie Winifred Ellerman McPherson), Stephen Spender, W. H. Auden
and the Sitwells: Dame Edith and her brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell.
The
1950s, although filled with accomplishments, brought many tragedies,
beginning with the death of her mother in 1950 and of her beloved
Marie Closset in 1952. The losses, though great, would be tempered
by meeting Judith Matlack, the woman with whom she would live
for fifteen years, and to whom she would remain devoted until
Matlack's death in 1982. In these years, she published her third
and fourth novels, Shadow of a Man (1950), and Shower
of Summer Days (1952), as well as a volume of poetry, The
Land of Silence (1953) which won the Reynolds Lyric Award.
In 1954 Sarton wrote her first memoir, I Knew a Phoenix,
excerpts of which first appeared in the New Yorker. This genre
became an important one for Sarton and brought her a tremendous
audience of readers and correspondents. Her next novel, Faithful
Are the Wounds was published in 1955 and eventually led, in
1958, to a dual nomination, together with her volume of poetry,
In Time Like Air, for a National Book Award. Although neither
won the award, In Time Like Air is considered by some critics,
including poet and scholar Constance Hunting to be one of Sarton's
best books of poetry.
By this time Sarton's father had died and in 1958 she sold her
parent's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts and bought an old house
in Nelson, New Hampshire, the subject of which became the basis
of her next memoir, Plant Dreaming Deep (1968). It was
only when she owned her own house and land in Nelson that Sarton
first came to feel more American than European. Before the publication
of this memoir, Sarton had published two novels, The Small
Room (1961) and Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing
(1965). Frequently referred to as her "coming out novel," the
latter was embraced not only by "feminist" scholars but by lesbians
as well and marked a turning point in Sarton scholarship; her
work began to be studied in colleges and universities, especially
in Women's Studies programs. Articles appeared in feminist journals
and books, and much would be written about this novel in the years
to come. For Sarton this posed a dilemma; she celebrated the serious
recognition her work was beginning to receive yet shunned the
label "lesbian writer" which she felt narrowly limited the perception
and focus of her work. She was and wanted to be seen as a universal
writer and had, in fact, already written many novels about family
and married life.
Three volumes of poetry appeared during these years: Cloud,
Stone, Sun, Vine (1961), A Private Mythology (1966)
and As Does New Hampshire (1967). A Private Mythology
contained her first published free verse.
In
1968 Sarton's landmark memoir Plant Dreaming Deep, appeared,
a book Carolyn Heilbrun believed represented some of Sarton's
best writing and which led to their friendship. With the publication
of this memoir Heilbrun credited Sarton with opening vistas for
creative women by suggesting that a single woman, living alone,
can have universal truths to tell.
In 1971, after the publication of Sarton's novella The Poet
and the Donkey (1969), (referred to by Carolyn Heilbrun as
"a commentary on Plant Dreaming Deep,") and her generational novel,
Kinds of Love (1970), the book of poetry, A Grain of
Mustard Seed appeared.
In
1973 a new chapter in Sarton's life began with the sale of her
house in Nelson, New Hampshire and with her move to Wild Knoll,
the house in York, Maine. Although the first full length study
of her works by Agnes Sibley was published in 1972, it did not
necessarily bring greater critical acclaim. Ten years passed before
serious critical recognition as a writer and poet developed, precipitated
by the publication of May Sarton: Woman and Poet, edited
by Constance Hunting. (1982).
In 1973 Sarton produced one of her most influential books, Journal
of a Solitude, written to counteract the benign picture projected
in Plant Dreaming Deep. Journal of a Solitude would
become a key text in women's studies courses, influencing generations
of feminists and opening the doors to a wider reading audience.
Of it Heilbrun wrote: "I would name 1972 as the turning point
for modern women's autobiography ... the publication of Journal
of a Solitude in 1973 may be acknowledged as the watershed
in women's autobiography." Her novel, As We Are Now, published
the same year, also made an impact by its stark depiction of how
society treats the elderly.
Sarton's first of two children's books, Punch's Secret,
was published in 1974. A Walk Through the Woods followed
in 1976. 1974 also marked the appearance of May Sarton: Collected
Poems 1930-1973, important for many reasons, not the least
of which was that many of Sarton's earlier poems, and ones in
volumes now out of print, were made available to a whole new generation
of readers. In 1978, Serena Sue Hilsinger and Lois Byrnes published
their Selected Poems of May Sarton.
It is clear that the end of the 1970s marked an increasingly
fertile period for May Sarton in which she honed the journal style
and produced her third memoir, A World of Light: Portraits
and Celebrations. As in the first two memoirs, Sarton delineated
memorable portraits of the people who had most influenced and
inhabited her life. With this publication she wrote, "I wanted
to fill the gap between I Knew a Phoenix (which ends when
I was twenty-six) and Plant Dreaming Deep (which begins
when I was forty-five) by celebrating the great friendships that
flowered during those years." Included among these portraits are
Elizabeth Bowen, Louise Bogan and Jean Dominique (Marie Closset).
With
the reissue in 1974 of her novel Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids
Singing in which Carolyn Heilbrun contributed an important
introduction, Sarton's work gained renewed recognition, especially
by feminist critics. Her novel A Reckoning, published the
same year, foreshadowed her own impending battle with cancer.
The decade of the seventies ended with the production of the
film," World of Light." A Portrait of May Sarton,
produced by Martha Wheelock and Marita Simpson. Filmed in her
house by the sea, described so eloquently in the 1977 journal
by the same name, Sarton talks about her vision of life, her work
and the muses who influenced her. Familiar themes such as solitude,
poetry, the natural world, and love in its many forms are all
here. Unbeknownst to its producers though, at the time this film
was being made, Sarton was facing a mastectomy which was performed
shortly after the film's completion. This surgery ushered in the
beginning of serious physical challenges, which intensified during
the next decade.
Ironically, despite these circumstances, the 1980s were to be
years of great productivity and acclaim. She discovered the thrill
of "standing-room only" crowds at poetry readings and her readership
grew dramatically. Also in 1980 a new book of poems, Halfway
to Silence, and another journal Recovering appeared.
In 1981 she collected some of her essays on the art and craft
of writing, published by Puckerbrush Press as Writings on Writing.
Included are the important pieces, "The Writing of a Poem" (1957)
and "The Design of a Novel" (1963) previously delivered as addresses
at Scripps College and published in pamphlet form by that university.
1982 brought the death of Judith Matlack. Theirs had been rich
years together and her loss was keenly felt. Years later Sarton
expressed the depth of her feelings for Matlack in a special edition
publication entitled Honey in theHive, consisting
of poems and writings by Matlack with Sarton's comments interspersed.
It was through Matlack's own writings, which Sarton had not seen
before Matlack's death, that she more fully realized how complex
this wonderful woman had been, and what a rich, secret self she
had possessed.
This year also included the publication of May Sarton: Woman
and Poet edited by Constance Hunting, an important collection
consisting of twenty-three critical essays by such scholars as
Carolyn Heilbrun, Henry Taylor, Jane Bakerman, Constance Hunting,
and an updated bibliography by Lenora P. Blouin.
By
1984 Sarton could publish her journal, At Seventy, with
a sense of renewal. She had recovered from the mastectomy and
was again looking to the future. In the face of growing older
and experiencing the limitations of illness, she wrote, "I am
more myself than I have ever been." Poems came again and were
published in the volume, Letters From Maine.
During the 1980s Sarton wrote three more novels: Anger
(1982), The Magnificent Spinster (1985), based on the life
of her dear friend Anne Longfellow Thorpe who had died in 1977,
and The Education of Harriet Hatfield (1989).
As the decade closed, Sarton moved from being "halfway to silence"
to experiencing a greater silence expressed in poems in The
Silence Now. The absence and death of beloved friends and
animals would push her towards the "country of old-age." Nevertheless
the decade closed with the first of a new wave of important critical
works which would appear in the 1990s. Elizabeth Evans,'' May
Sarton Revisited, published in 1989 opened the door to further
critical studies as well as the publication, for the first time,
of an anthology of collected works, Sarton Selected (1991),
edited by Bradford Dudley Daziel. Excerpts from the journals,
memoirs, novels and selected poems were introduced to new readers
and reintroduced to faithful followers. An expanded edition of
her collected poetry also appeared in 1994, covering the years
1930 to 1993. Other major critical works followed: That Great
Sanity: Critical Essays on May Sarton, edited by Susan Schwartzlander
and Marilyn R. Mumford and A House of Gathering: Poets on May
Sarton's Poetry, edited by Marilyn Kallet both of which came
out in 1993. A national conference, "May Sarton at Eighty: A Celebration
of Her Life and Work," was held at Westbrook College/University
of New England. A Celebration For May Sarton (1994), a
collection of selected essays presented at the conference, was
edited and published by Constance Hunting.
As
a result of the stroke and its consequences, by 1990 Sarton found
herself unable to write or even concentrate, a state which lasted
for months. Gradually she began to experience periods of strength
and the drive to create began to stir in her again. Both writing
or typing were difficult so she turned to a tape recorder and
her journal, Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-Ninth Year
(1992) was recorded and transcribed from a cassette. Although
she became increasingly dependent in certain outward ways, she
refused to lose her independence. Endgame was followed
by an even stronger Sarton dictating her 1993 journal Encore:
A Journal of the Eightieth Year. In this affirmative work
she once again celebrates her life, in spite of the many limitations
imposed by what she now refers to as old age. Poetry had returned,
resulting in a last volume of verse Coming Into Eighty.
Many of the poems, in which Sarton radically changed her form,
had earlier appeared in Poetry magazine which awarded her
the Levinson Prize for Poetry in 1993. Sarton's final book, At
Eighty-Two: A Journal, published posthumously in 1995, covers
the year from July, 1993 to August, 1994. Although she admits
she is a "stranger in the land of old age," as she struggles with
daily setbacks, there is still her intense love for life and all
its challenges.
Many friends, near and far, communicated with and helped May
Sarton in the final years of her life, but one stands out among
these: Susan Sherman, to whom Sarton's journal, Encore,
is dedicated. Her loving care included not only preparing meals,
bringing flowers, reading, and sharing movies, but as editor of
Sarton's collected letters, she was involved in working on and
planning for the eventual publication of the vast body of Sarton's
letters and unpublished poems. Ms. Sherman provided a quality
to Sarton's life which had, through illness and pain, been diminished.
As a gift for her eightieth birthday, Sherman produced a remarkable
festschrift, Forward Into the Past, which assembled tributes
from sixty-seven professional and intimate friends, many of whom
Sarton knew from the 1930s, like Sir John Summerson and Irene
Sharaff. Sherman published the first of her Sarton projects in
1993, May Sarton Among the Usual Days and later, the first
volume of a projected multi-volume set of letters
entitled May Sarton: Selected Letters 1916-1954. In 1999
W. W. Norton will publish Dear Juliette, Sarton's letters
to Juliette Huxley, "the most enduring muse of her life" according
to Sherman. Sarton had first met the Huxleys in the 1930s while
visiting England and from this first meeting their relationship
developed. Although interrupted by years of silence and misunderstanding,
their correspondence resumed in the 1970s and Sarton was finally
reconciled with Juliette whom she had never stopped loving.
Susan Sherman's devotion to May Sarton, the woman and the writer,
is most poignantly depicted in the video "Signs of
Love: Honoring the Final Voyage," produced by the
University of New England. In it Sherman talks about Sarton's
experiences as she moved towards death. In Sherman's words, "I
think in a very important way May was ready to die. But the truth
is, she was not ready to stop living..."
During her lifetime Sarton rued the fact that
for most of her writing life, the major critics and the literary
establishment had ignored or dismissed her work. The massive number
of letters she received each week from her "fans" could not assuage
the hurt over this neglect and yet even now after her death, more
than forty of Sarton's books are still in print; Journal of a
Solitude has never gone out of print since it was first published
in 1973. Critical recognition, having come late in her life, has
grown and will continue to grow into the future, positioning May
Sarton in her rightful place in literary history.
The indispensable reading
is the corpus of May Sarton's own writings. The first biography
to be published was: May Sarton: A Biography, Margot Peters (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1997).
May
Sarton, the only child of George and Mabel Elwes Sarton, was born
in Wondelgem, Belgium in 1912. In that same year George Sarton,
a historian of science, founded the journal Isis and, as
May Sarton described, "My father always referred to us together
and dedicated one of his books to "Eleanor Mabel, mother of those
strange twins, May and Isis." From her father May learned
about discipline and a fierce dedication to work and from her
mother, an artist and designer, she learned about dedication and
creativity, whether applied to gardening or to life. In 1916 the
Sartons arrived in the United States after fleeing Belgium and
the advancing Germans, settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts where
George Sarton took up a post at Harvard as a part-time instructor
and, with financial assistance from the Carnegie Institute, as
a full time scholar, devoting his life to the study of the history
of science. May enrolled in the "progressive" Shady Hill School
and here, through the influence of Agnes Hocking, founder and
poetry teacher, developed her life long love for and interest
in poetry. May Sarton later wrote eloquently of these years in
her memoir I Knew a Phoenix. When she was twelve years
old Sarton traveled to Belgium for a year to live with the Limbosch
family, Celine, Raymond and their children, studying at the Institut
Belge de Culture Francaise. It was here she met Marie Closset,
its founder who wrote and published poetry under the name Jean
Dominique. Closset remained an intimate friend and mentor of Sarton's
and became the inspiration for her first novel, The Single
Hound. 
With
the reissue in 1974 of her novel Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids
Singing in which Carolyn Heilbrun contributed an important
introduction, Sarton's work gained renewed recognition, especially
by feminist critics. Her novel A Reckoning, published the
same year, foreshadowed her own impending battle with cancer.
