Works by
May Sarton
(Poet, Writer)
[May 3, 1912-July 16, 1995]

Biography/Memoirs

• I Knew a Phoenix; Sketches for an Autobiography (1959, 1969)

• Plant Dreaming Deep (1968)

• A World of Light: Portraits and Celebrations (1976)

Children

• Punch's Secret (1974) with Howard Knotts, Illustrator

• A Walk Through the Woods (1976) with Kazue Mizumura, Illustrator

Fiction

• The Single Hound (1938)

• The Bridge of Years (1946)

• Shadow of a Man (1950)

• A Shower of Summer Days (1952, 1970)

• Faithful are the Wounds (1955)

• The Birth of a Grandfather (1957, 1989)

• The Fur Person (1957, Barbara Knox, Illustrator; 1978, David Canright, Illustrator)

• The Small Room (1961)

• Joanna and Ulysses: A Tale (1963), James J. Spanfeller, Illustrator

• Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing (1965, 1974)

• Miss Pickthorn and Mr. Hare: A Fable (1966)

• The Poet and the Donkey (1969), Stefan Martin, Illustrator

• Kinds of Love (1970)

• As We Are Now (1973)

• Crucial Conversations (1975)

• A Reckoning (1978)

• Anger (1992)

• The Magnificent Spinster (1985)

• The Education of Harriet Hatfield (1989)

Non-fiction

• I Knew a Phoenix: Sketches for an Autobiography

• Plant Dreaming deep

• Journal of a Solitude

• A World of Light

• The House by the Sea

• Recovering: A Journal

• At Seventy: A Journal

• Writings on Writings

• After the Stroke

• May Sarton - A Self-Portrait

• Encore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year

Poetry

• Encounter in April (1937)

• Inner Landscape: Poems by Mary Sarton (1939)

• The Lion and the Rose: Poems (1948)

• The Leaves of the Tree: Poems (1950)

• The Land of Silence, and Other Poems (1953)

• In Time Like Air: Poems (1958)

• Cloud, Stone, Sun, Vine: Poems, Selected and New (1961)

• A Private Mythology: New Poems (1966)

• As Does New Hampshire, and Other Poems (1967)

• A Grain of Mustard Seed: New Poems (1971)

• A Durable Fire: New Poems (1972)

• Collected Poems, 1930-1973 (1974)

• Selected Poems of May Sarton (1978), Lois Brynes and Serena Sue Hilsinger, eds.

• Halfway to Silence: New Poems (1980)

• Letters from Maine: New Poems (1984)

• The Silence Now: New and Uncollected Earlier Poems (1988)

• Collected Poems, 1930-1993 (1993)

• Coming Into Eighty (1994) -- Winner Levinson Prize

• Catching Beauty: The Earliest Poems (2002), Susan Sherman, ed.

See also:

• May Sarton, Woman And Poet (1982), Constance Hunting, ed.
  Includes Articles By Carolyn Heilbrun, Henry Taylor, Jane Bakerman, and Others

• World Of Light: A Portrait Of May Sarton, with Additional Poems And Comments (1982)
  Includes Transcript Of The Film: World Of Light

• May Sarton Revisited (1989) by Elizabeth Evans

• That Great Sanity: Critical Essays On May Sarton (1992) , Marilyn Mumford and Susan Swartzlander, eds.
  Includes "A Decade Of Creativity And Critical Reception: A May Sarton Bibliography" by Nancy S. Weyant and essays By William Drake, Mary K. Deshazer, and others

• A House Of Gathering: Poets On May Sarton's Poetry (1993), Marilyn Kallet, ed.
  Essays Written In Honor Of Sarton's Eightieth Birthday

• A Celebration For May Sarton: Essays And Speeches From The National Conference "May Sarton At 80: A Celebration Of Her Life And Work -- June 11-13, 1992 (1994), Constance Hunting. Orono, ed.

• May Sarton: A Bibliography. (Annotated) (1978, 2000) by Lenora P. Blouin

• Dear Juliette: Letters of May Sarton to Juliette Huxley (1999)  by Francis Huxley, Juliette Huxley, May Sarton, and Susan Sherman


May Sarton's love for Juliette Huxley, ignited that first moment she saw her in 1936, transcended sixty years of friendship, passion, silence, and reconciliation. In the extraordinary breadth and variation of these letters, we see Sarton in all her complexities and are privy to the nuances of her rich amitii amoureuse with Juliette, the preeminent muse and most enduring love of her life.
The letters chart their meeting; May's affair with Juliette's husband, Julian (brother of Aldous Huxley , before the war; her intense involvement with Juliette after the war; and the ardent and life-enhancing friendship that endured between them until Juliette's death. While May's intimate relationship with Julian had not been a secret, her more powerful emotions for Juliette had.

May's fiery passion was a seductive yet sometimes destructive force. Her feelings for and demands on Juliette were often overwhelming to them both. Indeed, Juliette refused all contact with May for nearly twenty-five years, the consequence of May's impulsive threat to tell Julian of their intimacy. The silence was devastating to May, but her love for Juliette never diminished. Their reconciliation after Julian's death was not so much a rekindling as it was a testament to the profound affinities between them. Although theirs had been a relationship rife with complications and misunderstandings, the deep love and compassion they shared for each other prevailed.

Included in this volume are original drafts of and notes for an introduction May Sarton was hoping to complete.

• May Sarton (2002) by Kenneth Pobo