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 ch...

This transcript from the film World of Light: A Portrait of May Sarton illuminates the life and writing of the poet while celebrating the joys of creativity, love, and solitudeIn June of 1979, May Sarton answered the questions of two filmmakers and read to them from her poetry. This four-day "jam session" ultimately became an acclaimed documentary about her life and work.For Sarton, the muse has always been female...

The author and poet's graceful elegy about life, love, work, and growing older: "The most moving and the most thoughtful [of her] journal-memoirs" ( The Plain Dealer, Cleveland).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 pup...

The poet and author's "beautiful . . . wise and warm" journal of time spent in her New Hampshire home alone with her garden, her books, the seasons, and herself (Eugenia Thornton, Cleveland Plain Dealer )."Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self." —May SartonMay Sarton's parrot chatters away as Sarton looks out the window at the rain and contemplates returning to her "real" life—not friends,...

May Sarton's 7th novel is about marriage, family, life's cycles, and the regeneration of loveFrances and Sprig Wyeth have come to the old Wyeth house in Maine for the summer. In a house filled with lively members of her husband's extended family, Frances feels alienated from everyone, including Sprig. A night of passion breaks down the growing barriers between them, yet Frances feels it is more a "desperate moment of possession" than the true "flowing together of tw...

Three luminous novels from a New York Times–bestselling author and National Book Award finalist whose "prose leaves compelling echoes in one's mind" ( The New York Times Book Review).Throughout her long and acclaimed career, May Sarton refused to be categorized. As a memoirist, poet, and novelist, she broke new ground by openly exploring homosexuality, gender inequality, and other once taboo social issues. Gathered here in one volume are three of ...

Spending their first winter away from the city, an aging married couple finds renewed friendship and love in the New Hampshire hillsChristina and Cornelius Chapman have spent their summers in Willard for years, shunning the city's hottest months in favor of New Hampshire's rocky, rolling hills. In Willard, Christina looks forward to spending time with Ellen, enjoying forest walks and the easy conversation that come with longstanding friendship. But while Christina a...

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 bookFor 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 in...

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 peripheryOn 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 than a professiona...

Three celebrated volumes of verse from a feminist icon, poet, and author of the groundbreaking novel Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing.Letters from Maine: A rugged coastline provides a stark background for Sarton's images of a tragically brief love. With vulnerability and emotional depth, she explores the willingness to devote everything to a new love, as well as the despair at the memory of what is left over when it fades.Inner ...

The author's tribute to the 18th-century New England farmhouse she called home: "[A] tender and often poignant book by a woman of many insights" ( The New York Times Book Review).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 meets her house. Sarton finds she must "dream the house alive" inside herself befor...

Winner of the American Book Award: May Sarton's honest and engrossing journal of her seventieth year, spent living and working on the Maine coast.May Sarton's journals are a captivating look at a rich artistic life. In this, her ode to aging, she savors the daily pleasures of tending to her garden, caring for her dogs, and entertaining guests at her beloved Maine home by the sea. Her reminiscences are raw, and her observations are infused with the poetic candor for ...