May Sarton

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Story of two proper Bostonians whose marriage survived age and crisis.

From the back cover: From the first, MAY SARTON has been passionately committed to her art, and thus to her craft, of writing. Poet, novelist, essayist, she has through all her books taken the risks of responsibility: to poetry, to prose, to herself as an instrument. As actress, she reads and lectures superbly to ever-increasing audiences; as gardener, she nurtures the beginning writer; as world traveller, she opens new landscapes to her companions on her literary odyssey. Now MAY SARTON has gathered her WRITINGS ON WRITING into this volume for readers and writers who have long been awaiting such an invaluable gift. With rare insight and warm honesty she shares her unique knowledge of her craft and art.

Still writing and growing in her early eighties, May Sarton long ago established a unique niche for herself in twentieth-century American literature: in numerous volumes of poetry, fiction, and personal journals she has created a body of work that is both artistically beautiful and comforting, while always testifying to the importance of courage and love in the survival of the perceptive individual. May Sarton: Among the Usual Days is a treasure trove of her unpublished writing, carefully selected by longtime friend Susan Sherman from almost seventy years of correspondence and journals stored in the New York Public Library's Berg Collection, in May Sarton's own files, and in other archives. Thematically arranged, these passages reflect the seasons of her flowering as writer, teacher, daughter, lover, friend, and fiercely independent thinker. Lavishly illustrated with previously unpublished photos of Sarton and her closest companions from her infancy to the present, in May Sarton: Among the Usual Days all of the great abiding themes of her craft recur and expand: her respect for poetic form, hunger for love, appreciation for the centrality of solitude, commitment to enduring friendship, unabashed relish for the natural world in all its aspects, and zeal in pursuit of honesty above all, no matter what the cost. Her canny eye and ear bring alive her encounters with such luminaries as Virginia Woolf, Eva Le Gallienne, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Elizabeth Bowen, Andre Malraux, Rebecca West, and Julian and Juliette Huxley. May Sarton: Among the Usual Days is finally a celebration, a cornucopia of earned wisdom and ardent candor that reveals over and again, in Sherman's words, the distinguished writer May Sarton's own "sacramentalization of the ordinary."

Sarton’s most important novel tells the story of a poet in her seventies, whose life is retold episodically during an interview with two writers from a literary magazine Hilary Stevens’s prolific career includes a provocative novel that shot her into the public consciousness years ago, and an oeuvre of poetry that more recently has consigned her to near-obscurity. Now in the twilight of her life, Hilary, who is both a feminist and a lesbian, is receiving renewed attention for an upcoming collection of poems, one that has brought two young reporters to her Cape Cod home. As Hilary prepares for the conversation, she recalls formative moments both large and small. She then embarks on the interview itself—a witty and intelligent discussion of her life, work, and romantic relationships with men and women. After the journalists have left, Hilary helps a visiting male friend with his anxiety over being gay and imparts wisdom about channeling his own creative passions. From the Back Cover: May Sarton's ninth novel explores a woman's struggle to reconcile the claims of life and art, to transmute passion and pain into poetry. About the Author: May Sarton (1912-1995) was an acclaimed poet, novelist, and memoirist.

Author and poet, May Sarton, chronicles her battles for "real life" and health after suffering a stroke.

A woman vacationing on Santorini provides care for a maltreated donkey.

Beginning her first teaching job, at a New England women's college, Lucy Winter is embroiled in a scandal that tests the personal and academic lives of teachers and students alike.

A novel in the form of a diary, this story tells of Caroline Spencer, a 76-year-old retired schoolteacher who has suffered a heart attack and been deposited by relatives in an old people's home. Subjected to subtle humiliations and petty cruelties, she fights back with all she has, and in a powerful climax wins a terrible victory. "I shared the anger and the righteous indignation which I felt behind every line".--Madeleine L'Engle.