May Sarton Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

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May Sarton
May Sarton, born May 3, 1912 as Eleanore Marie Sarton, and she grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was an American novelist, poet, and memoirist that was born in Wondelgem, Belgium. A lot of her poems and novels are pellucid reflections of the lesbian experience.

She was born the only child of George Sarton, historian of science, and Mabel Eleanor Elwes, the English artist. May, along with the rest of her family were required to flee after the Reichswehr’s invasion in the year 1915, and the family settled in Massachusetts, when she was only four years old.

During her late teens, she began taking theater lessons, while continuing to write poetry throughout all of her adolescence.

May attended the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, one of the country’s first progressive schools, for eight years. By the time she graduated high school, she decided she would become an actress after she saw Eva Le Gallienne perform in a play called “The Cradle Song”. When she was seventeen she left home in order to join New York’s Civic Repertory Theater. After the company’s dissolution and May’s own company, the Associated Actors Theater, failed, she abandoned her acting dreams and turned all her attention to writing.

At the age of nineteen, May traveled to Europe in the year 1931, and lived in Paris for one year. During this time, she met some prominent cultural and literary figures like Elizabeth Bowen, Virginia Woolf, Lugne-Poe, S.S. Koteliansky, Julian and Juliette Huxley, Basil de Selincourt. Sarton had affairs with both of the Huxleys. Within this community and environment, she published “The Single Hound”, her first novel.

In the year 1945, while she was vacationing in Santa Fe, she met Judy Matlack (professor of English at Simmons College), who became her lover and her companion of thirteen years. The two separated after Sarton’s dad died, when May moved to Nelson, New Hampshire. May wrote about her time with Judy in her book “Honey in the Hive” (released in the year 1988). She relocated to York, Maine where she spent the final twenty years of her life.

Early in her career, May enjoyed a good deal of critical acclaim, however, later reviews were often harsh and would get vicious at times. May suffered from bouts of depression in her life, during this time she would question her talent. One time, she came close to giving up writing altogether.

At the same time, her audience continued growing steadily, often by word of mouth, and May continued to produce prolifically. In the year 1967, she got a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In the year 1993, she won the Levinson Prize for Poetry.

May’s debut novel, called “The Single Hound”, was released in the year 1938. Her work is from the literary fiction and inspirational fiction genres.

She died from breast cancer at the age of 83 on July 16, 1995 in York, Maine.

“Shadow of a Man” is a stand alone novel and was released in the year 1950. It is the death of Francis’ mom, Persis Bradford, who was the oddest of women with her intense feeling for living, that begins the son down his road of maturity. Grief opens up his eyes, not just to himself, however, to Alan Bradford, the stepdad that he never liked.

One summer in Paris is to Francis a journey of the spirit that he learns, through, Solange Bernard, to love and is able to find through love, how to integrate his mixed heritage and make some use out of it. This odd summer, partly miserable and party idyllic, brings him to himself and sends him back home to Ann, the young lady whom he never had enough courage to love.

Some readers enjoyed this book, liking May’s utterly compelling writing and the way she allows this story to slowly unfold. Her writing is simply beautiful and the book is meant to be read slower in order to savor the sublime sentences she writes.

“A Shower of Summer Days” is a stand alone novel and was released in the year 1952. Dene’s Court, an Irish estate home, has stood empty for years now. Its shuttered windows, icy visage, and the overgrown tennis court are quite the burden for all its caretakers and is a curiosity for the local townspeople. So the announcement that Violet Dene Gordon, and Charles, her husband, are coming back from British Burma in order to settle in the long-dormant estate sends out a ripple of major excitement through this sleepy village.

For Violet, Dene’s Court is a monument to her childhood, however, lingering doubts persist about whether she and her husband are going to be happy there. Adding some complexity to this arrangement is Violet’s American niece who shows up, she is a college student called Sally. She was sent by her mom to try to put an ocean between this impetuous young woman and the object of her affections, some actor.

Tempers, anxiety, and some long-buried emotions start flaring up while the estate’s new residents look for a sense of belonging and some peace between its serene and hallowed walls.

Fans of this novel enjoyed getting into the heads of each of the characters so deeply, while their relationships constantly change and while they are getting to know themselves better.

“The Magnificent Spinster” is a stand alone novel and was released in the year 1985. Jane Reid is the “magnificent spinster” and a teacher that became not just a revered role model but also a dear friend to Cam, who narrates this novel within in a novel.

After Jane dies, the accidental discovery of poetry that Cam wrote during her youth to Jane brings on a flood of memories. It also frees Cam to imagine in fiction Jane’s passionately vibrant life.

“The Education of Harriet Hatfield” is a stand alone novel and was released in the year 1989. Harriet Hatfield opens a bookstore for women in one blue-collar neighborhood close to Boston, she gets bombarded by some anonymous threats. The Boston Globe reports that “Lesbian Bookstore Owner Is Threatened”, her education in the narrow-mindedness of her fellow man, as well as woman, starts.

One Response to “May Sarton”

1. Justine Plympton: 1 year ago

   Thank you❤️❣️‼️

   Reply