May Sarton

May Sarton's bestselling memoir of a solitary year spent at the house she bought and renovated  "Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self." -May Sarton May Sarton's parrot chatters away as Sarton looks out the window at the rain and contemplates returning to her "real" life-not friends, not even love, but writing. In her bravest and most revealing memoir, Sarton casts her keenly observant eye on both the interior and exterior...

May Sarton's poetic celebrations of the American landscape. Written in Santa Fe, New Mexico, May Sarton's third collection of poems takes inspiration from the land, the light, and the palette of the American Southwest. With archaeological precision, Sarton uncovers American history and heredity. "Plain grandeur escapes definition," begins one poem. But Sarton's America is alive with history and is continually redefined by its own settings and mythology....

Now in one volume: Three exquisite meditations on nature, healing, and the pleasures of the solitary life from a New York Times–bestselling author. In a long life spent recording her personal observations, poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton redefined the journal as a literary form. This extraordinary volume collects three of her most beloved works. Journal of a Solitude: Sarton's bestselling memoir chronicles a solitary year spent at the house...

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...

A professor's suicide is the catalyst for this novel about politics and ideals set at Harvard during the 1950s When Harvard professor Edward Cavan commits suicide by throwing himself under a subway train, his death sets off shock waves both across campus and in the hearts of his loved ones. To Edward's estranged sister, Isabel, her brother represented the dangers she sought to escape through the security of marriage. His student George Hastings saw...

After a peripatetic life, forty-five-year-old May Sarton longed to put down roots and found them in New Hampshire in the form of a dilapidated eighteenth-century farmhouse with good bones . . . It was the realization of a dream that had been a long time coming In Plant Dreaming Deep, Sarton shares an intensely personal account of transforming a house into a home. She begins with an introduction to the enchanting village of Nelson, where she first...

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 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...

To their close friend Philip, Poppy and Reed Whitelaw's marriage appears stable and happy. Their ritual Sunday tennis matches and dinners are a highlight of his week, and the Whitelaws' repartee is an object of wonder and admiration. But beneath the surface, the marriage has slowly been unraveling for years. An artist, Poppy feels the weight of time, calculating that she has twenty good years left for her work and little remaining tolerance for her...

Three compelling volumes of poetry from a feminist icon, poet, and author of the groundbreaking novel Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. A Durable Fire: This collection borrows its title from Sir Walter Raleigh, who wrote, "Love is a durable fire / In the mind ever burning." It is a fitting sentiment for a collection on solitude, wherein the author finds herself full of emotion even in seclusion. A Durable Fire is a transformative work by a...