May Sarton

May Sarton charts her second act in Maine in this graceful elegy about life, love, work, and growing older When May Sarton uprooted her life after fifteen years in the refurbished New Hampshire house with the garden she tended so lovingly, she relied solely on instinct. And something told her it was time to move on. Accompanied by her wild cat, Bramble, and Tamas, a Shetland shepherd puppy-the first dog she ever owned-Sarton embarked on the next chapter...

May Sarton confronts the pleasures and compromises of old age in this deeply moving memoir completed a few months before she died In this poignant and fearless account, Sarton chronicles the struggles of life at eighty-two. She juxtaposes the quotidian details of life-battling a leaky roof, sharing an afternoon nap with her cat, the joy of buying a new mattress-with lyrical musings about work, celebrity, devoted friends, and the limitations wrought...

In this poignant and poetic novel, looking back on her sixty years, a dying woman examines the great relationships of her life  When she learns that she is dying, Laura Spelman vows to spend her final year only on what matters most. As she quickly realizes, this means coming to terms with her most fruitful and important bonds-her "real connections"-all of which have been with women. From her tempestuous daughter and beloved aunt, to a promising lesbian...

May Sarton's powerful and profound novel of an extraordinary life, and of one woman's efforts to preserve the force and vitality of her experiences on the pages of a book For the second time in my life-and I am now seventy-I am embarking on an effort which may well come to nothing but which has possessed my mind, haunts, and will not let me sleep.   From her opening statement, Cam, the narrator of The Magnificent Spinster, declares her grand intentions:...

In the hallowed halls of one of New England's most prestigious colleges, a young woman finds new and unexpected life as professor while a scandal brews just on the periphery On the train north from New York City, Lucy Winter takes inventory of her life. Twenty-seven and newly single, Lucy is headed toward a fate she never anticipated: professorship at a women's college in New England. Her doctorate degree, obtained from Harvard, was more of a hobby...

May Sarton discovers the liberation of old age in this life-affirming journal On the second day of her 80th year, May Sarton began a new journal. She wrote it because she wanted "to go on a little while longer;" to discover "what is really happening to me."   This triumphant sequel to Endgame-Sarton's journal of her 79th year-is filled with the comforting minutiae of daily life, from gardening to planning dinners and floral arrangements to answering...

As she battles debilitating illnesses, May Sarton looks back on her life, cherishes new and old friendships, and finds hope in the brave new world of old age "I always imagined a journal that would take me through my seventy-ninth year," May Sarton writes, "the doors opening out from old age to unknown efforts and surprises." Instead of musing calmly on the philosophical implications of aging, the writer found herself spending most of her energy battling...

May Sarton's first memoir: A lyrical and enchanting look at her formative years from the onset of the First World War through the beginning of the Second Author of a dozen memoirs, May Sarton had a unique talent for capturing the wonder and beauty of nature, love, aging, and art. Throughout her prolific career, she penned many journals examining the different stages of her life, and in this, her first memoir, she laid the foundation for what would...

A comprehensive volume collecting May Sarton's poetry from over sixty years of work. This collection spanning six decades exposes the charm and clarity of Sarton's poetry to the fullest. Arranged in chronological order, it follows the transformation of her writing through a wide range of poetic forms and styles. Her poetry meditates on topics including the American landscape, aging, nature, the act of creating art, and self-study. This compendium...

Set in the academic world of Harvard and Cambridge, this acclaimed novel dramatizes the plight of the embattled American liberal in the 1950s. Its central character is Edward Cavan, a brilliant English professor, who commits suicide. His death sets off a shock wave among Cavan's friends--and changes things for some of them forever.