Journal of a Solitude [Paperback]

May Sarton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1992

In this, her bestselling journal, May Sarton writes with keen observation and emotional courage of both inner and outer worlds: a garden, the seasons, daily life in New Hampshire, books, people, ideas—and throughout everything, her spiritual and artistic journey.

"I am here alone for the first time in weeks," May Sarton begins this book, "to take up my 'real' life again at last. That is what is strange—that friends, even passionate love,are not my real life, unless there is time alone in which to explore what is happening or what has happened." In this journal, she says, "I hope to break through into the rough, rocky depths,to the matrix itself. There is violence there and anger never resolved. My need to be alone is balanced against my fear of what will happen when suddenly I enter the huge empty silence if I cannot find support there."

In this book, we are closer to the marrow than ever before in May Sarton's writing.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This journal is not only rich in the love of nature and the love of solitude. It is an honorable confession of the writer's faults, fears, sadness, and disappointments. . . . On the surface, Journal of a Solitude is a quiet book, but if you will read it carefully you will be aware of violent needs and a valiant warrior who has battled every inch of the way to a share of serenity. This is a beautiful book, wise and warm within its solitude.” (Eugenia Thornton - Cleveland Plain Dealer )

About the Author

May Sarton (1912-1995) was an acclaimed poet, novelist, and memoirist.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (October 17, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393309282
• ISBN-13: 978-0393309287
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.6 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Biographical

More About the Author

May Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 - July 16, 1995), an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. Her parents were science historian George Sarton and his wife, the English artist Mabel Eleanor Elwes. In 1915, her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. She went to school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and started theatre lessons in her late teens. In 1945 she met her partner for the next thirteen years, Judy Matlack, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They separated in 1956, when Sarton's father died and Sarton moved to Nelson, New Hampshire. Honey in the Hive (1988) is about their relationship. Sarton later moved to York, Maine. She died of breast cancer on July 16, 1995. She is buried in Nelson, New Hampshire.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars touching the soul June 25, 1999

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

I keep this book with me throughout my life. I first read it quite a few years ago, and felt it touch truths that I didn't dare go near previously. Thank you, Ms. Sarton, for sharing your world, for daring to articulate what really goes on in the mind. Everyone should give it a shot, and maybe another because its different each time I read her words. Sometimes I'm receptive, sometimes not; after all, we are all reading through our own lens.

87 of 98 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "The War Against The Unregenerate Self Goes On" April 28, 2003

By J. E. Barnes

Format:Paperback

Written over a period of twelve months, May Sarton's' Journal Of A Solitude' (1973) is an earnest meditation on life, living alone, romantic love, and the creative process.

Composed in diary form, the book was produced while Sarton was living alone in a small village in rural New Hampshire. But as her next published journal, 'The House By the Sea' will reveal, Sarton's New Hampshire home was right in the center of the village, making her claim to "solitude" rather specious, certainly relative.

By 1973, Sarton was fifty-eight years of age and an established novelist and poet who had known and corresponded with such literary luminaries as Virginia Woolf and Hilda Doolittle.

'Journal Of A Solitude' is a warm, touching, and very human book, which, after its successful publication, became the cornerstone upon which Sarton's uneasy reputation has settled. But 'Journal Of A Solitude' also reveals Sarton to have been something of an odd duck modestly dressed in the clothing, mores, and mannerisms of a gentile Belgian lady.

Sadly, what Sarton seems determined not to come to terms with is that she was a tepid, literal-minded poet as well as a less than first-rate literary novelist; this is important, because the lack of critical attention her work received ("What I have not had is the respect due what is now a considerable opus") is a constant theme of the book and source of tension.

As a result, "ornery" Sarton shifts continuously between states of creative over appraisal and damning self-recrimination. Sarton's quoted poems clearly reveal a lack of lyrical skill and an absence of any visionary power whatsoever....

Though she states, "Whatever peace I know rests in the natural world," 'Journal Of A Solitude' also reveals a tender-hearted animal lover and enthusiastic gardener who nonetheless appears to lack a higher sense of nature as a symbol, sign, or metaphor for the transcendent forces evident in human reality.

Badly advised by friend and poet Louise Bogan to "keep the Hell" out of her work, Sarton, accepting Bogan's suggestion, struggles daily with a devastating, irrational temper, depression serious enough to drive her to suicidal states, loneliness, and, at only fifty-eight, a sense of herself as "old, dull, and useless."

Sarton, who appears to have surprisingly little self-knowledge for a person of her age, is haunted by reoccurring image of "plants, bulbs, in the cellar, trying to grow without light, putting out white shoots that will inevitably wither," but doesn't consciously relate this image directly to herself or her difficult present.

When a close friend visits for several days, Sarton is incensed when the woman makes an offhand comment about the faded state of a vase of flowers (though as the photographs included reveal, flower arranging was not among Sarton's talents).

Clearly, some or most of Sarton's "hell" should have gone into and fueled her creative work, as it does in the case of most artists. Is appears that there were many things in her life that Sarton simply didn't want to confront or acknowledge.

Sarton makes contradictory statements about God and her religious beliefs, commenting first that writing poetry is her method of communicating with God, but later states, "I am not a believer."

Though she frequently writes at length about the emancipation of women and the need for the abolition of gender roles, she also makes generalized statements like "nurturing is women's work," and believes that "blacks" have the "grace and instinct and intuitive understanding" necessary for the nursing profession.

Today, Sarton's expression "we have so much to learn from them ("blacks")" sounds something like well-intended but unconsciously smug pandering.

Sarton was not an intellectual, but the limited perspective cumulatively elaborated in her novels and poetry found a ready audience in "nice" like-minded women for whom more challenging female authors like Muriel Spark, Isak Dinesen, Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, Katherine Anne Porter, or Jane Bowles apparently represented an arduous uphill climb.

What 'journal of a Solitude' does illustrate is the danger of making an unquestioning habit of "impeccable" WASP manners and politeness over a lifetime. Sarton, her close friends, and colleagues all appear to exist in a brittle world where truthful communication and direct, honest criticism are to be strenuously avoided in the name of continued social niceties.

Sadly, the success of' Journal Of A Solitude' had an ultimately negative effect on Sarton's career, as she began producing journal volume after journal volume ('Recovering,' 'At Seventy,' 'After The Stroke,' 'Endgame: A Journal Of The Seventy-Ninth Year,' etc.), of which only 'The House By The Sea,' which immediately followed the present volume, had the same freshness, integrity, and lack of self-consciousness.

Sarton was soon to become a cottage industry for her publishers, turning out further volumes of banal poetry--"Moose In The Morning"--and, like Edith Sitwell in old age, simply publishing too much without due editorial consideration.

'Journal Of A Solitude' does reflect a genuine, shadow-casting human presence as well as a state of being which many people, especially the creative, the introverted, and those moving uncertainly towards later life may respond to fully.

Sarton's moments of anxiety, despair, and doubt, as well as her stoicism, fortitude, and courage, are sincerely expressed, touching, and inspiring. Sarton accurately perceived herself to be country-loving, intelligent, and serenity-seeking individual who put a high premium on the simpler aspects of life.

But for an author who had over twenty books published by 1973 and who was on a first-name basis with some of literature's most notoriously critical figures, Sarton was a surprisingly unsophisticated person.

As a result, it is the fallible human being, and not the creative writer, who shines most brightly in 'Journal Of A Solitude.' Read more ›

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing introduction to Sarton January 25, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The first of Sarton's Jornals, this one introduces the readers to the players -- both human and animal -- that make return appearances in her subsequent journals. In these pages, Sarton provides us with a view of one who looks closely at the everyday. She examines larger themes as well creating a journal that speaks plainly of the seasons and the cycles of life.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars soothing reading July 11, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

reading this book was like meditation for me. She is a wonderful writer. I keep her journals close to my bed. If I've had a particularly stressful day I will pick up her journal and start reading. Like a Matisse painting, her words are "mental rest for the weary."

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! May 3, 2006

By Seehorse72 VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you're into reading memoirs, this is exceptional. Her clarity of thought and her ability to portray her feelings into words is unsurpassed, in my opinion. I enjoy her prose so very much. I can find myself relating to so many of her feelings and thoughts despite the difference of age and time. This is a great read.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring January 26, 2006

By Jo Singel

Format:Paperback

I read Journal of a Solitude shortly after giving birth to my first child. I was alone in a new neighborhood with few family and friends around me and felt completely estranged from my former life as a professional woman working in New York city. May Sarton's story - shared in such a real and heartfelt way - has always stayed with me. Where are the May Sarton's in today's world? She was an extraordinary woman who was able to connect with a broad audience of readers, through the authentic sharing of her thoughts, feelings and experiences. I miss her work but am thankful that she left behind a wonderful legacy.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars captivating January 15, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

She's a person who's not afraid to touch the least glamorous aspects of our inner life! Absolutely captivating!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Discretely out December 3, 2000

By Lois Henderson

Format:Paperback

How refreshing to find a work written by a woman who, though unafraid to state exactly who she is, nevertheless does not need to stand and SHOUT IT OUT! As a fellow lesbian and poet, I would like to commend May Sarton's journal both for its discretion and lack of temerity. To think that she wrote her most meaningful work several decades ago, yet one can so easily relate to it today! Her universality speaks for itself - I am sure that very few women will be unable to resist responding to her revelations, whatever their standpoint on sexuality. I just wish so very much that I could have had the privilege of corresponding with her.