May Sarton: Biography

From acclaimed writer Margot Peters comes the first, completely authorized biography of novelist, poet, and feminist May Sarton. Granted unprecedented access to personal papers and diaries, Peters gives us a compelling look at the woman who influenced a legion of readers with rich and intimate writings, and reveals the fascinating life that Sarton herself kept hidden.

Beginning with a young Sarton largely ignored by her parents, Peters traces the compulsive quest for recognition and artistic inspiration that would characterize most of Sarton's life. We witness her at nineteen as she chooses a life in the theater, only to discover later her real passion: writing. As her literary career takes shape, we watch her personal and professional struggles for acceptance, her intense relationships with such learned friends as Muriel Rukeyser and Louise Bogan, and her secret turmoil over her sexuality. But ultimately, we see Sarton begin to create in her works the image of a strong, independent woman who lived peacefully with solitude—an image that often contradicted the reality of her life.

From acclaimed writer Margot Peters comes the first, completely authorized biography of novelist, poet, and feminist May Sarton. Granted unprecedented access to personal papers and diaries, Peters gives us a compelling look at the woman who influenced a legion of readers with rich and intimate writings, and reveals the fascinating life that Sarton herself kept hidden.

Beginning with a young Sarton largely ignored by her parents, Peters traces the compulsive quest for recognition and artistic inspiration that would characterize most of Sarton's life. We witness her at nineteen as she chooses a life in the theater, only to discover later her real passion: writing. As her literary career takes shape, we watch her personal and professional struggles for acceptance, her intense relationships with such learned friends as Muriel Rukeyser and Louise Bogan, and her secret turmoil over her sexuality. But ultimately, we see Sarton begin to create in her works the image of a strong, independent woman who lived peacefully with solitude—an image that often contradicted the reality of her life.

Publishers Weekly

In her last years, Sarton (1912-1995) worried to a friend, "I have been so depressed at the way I may be massacred by a biographer." In this authorized life of the poet and novelist, Sarton's wounds are self-inflicted. Peters (The House of Barrymore) concedes that Sarton "will never be considered a great writer" and that she "literally made her own reputation" through personal appearances, wowing fervid campus, feminist and lesbian audiences. The most devastating testimony against her, however, emerges from Sarton's own words and from the anger of her many betrayed lovers, some of them discarded muses whose inspirational services were no longer required. As one companion put it, Sarton was "the ardent initiatorDa river of fire"Duntil their affair ruptured on the appearance of a new muse. The biography becomes a litany of book titles (19 novels, 15 poetry collections, 13 memoirs and journals) and descriptions, often striking, of the women sought after and usually subjugated by the "emotionally ravenous" Sarton, who was "incapable of spending more than a few consecutive days in her own company" yet was "impossible to live with." As fair to her subject as the facts permit, Peters, who interviewed Sarton at length in her last years, observes that her subject "never learned a code of honor or responsibility" and could seldom be self-critical. Nor could her publisher, Peters contends, accusing W. W. Norton of "promoting mediocrity" by rushing into print almost everything submitted by "their golden goose," even when written "on automatic pilot." The reader's interest fades as Sarton's "heavy psychic baggage" and overproduction prove too much for her biographer to overcome. Ninety-seven photos illustrate Sarton and the people in her tempestuous life. (Mar.)

Margot Peters has been Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin and holds a Ph.D. in Victorian literature. She is the author of Charlotte Brontë: Style in the Novel, Unquiet Soul: A Biography of Charlotte Brontë, Bernard Shaw and the Actresses, The House of Barrymore, and Mrs. Pat: The Life of Mrs. Patrick Campbell. She lives in Lake Mills, Wisconsin.