Customer Reviews

A World of Light: Portraits and Celebrations

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May Sarton was an only child. The family lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father was absorbed in his work. The author's father, George Sarton, wrote a history of science. He spent his Saturday afternoons at the Museum of Fine Arts. He founded and edited a scholarly journal, ISIS, for forty years. He had a poor relationship with Harvard University, he had been unpaid or ill-paid for years, but a good relationship with the staff of Widener Library. He read THE NEW YORKER with intense interest. His first ambition had been to become a poet and novelist.

Mabel Sarton, the author's mother, was an early-morning person. In essence she was an artist. She ws born near London. Her father worked as an engineer in India. After her father died she worked as a designer at an interior decorating firm, La Maison Dangotte. The city of Ghent was a ferment of political and artistic life. When May Sarton's mother was over thirty, the couple moved to the United States. The life-giving group she had found in Belgium was never replaced. The family, now three, settled in Cambridge in 1918. May attended the Shady Hill School there.

Elizabeth Bowen entered fully into relationships with others. She seemed to be more absent-minded at Bowen Court in Ireland than she was in England. Edith Forbes Kennedy did some work at Shady Hill in order to gain tuition breaks for her sons' schooling. Conversation for her was important, really rising to the level of art.

S.S. Koteliansky was responsible for the publication of May Sarton's first book. He told the Huxleys she had some glimmerings of talent. Louise Bogan was a true poet. She lived with a minimum of comfort.

Other portraits include a Swiss winemaker and the granddaughter of a Harvard President. Love and respect are conveyed. One discerns in these pieces some of the models for Sarton's fictional creations.

I became a big May Sarton fan last fall, after a total knee replacement, when I had lots of time to read.
Someone had given me "Journal of a Solitude", which is generally thought to be May's best book ~ the one that made her "famous", altho' she'd been around a pretty long time. If you like May, one book leads to another. I've gotten all her journals (here on Amazon, "used" for about a dollar or two apiece ~ wonderful)and thought I knew her. But then I ordered Margot Peters biography of May, and found out there is a lot that is not in her journals, plus a whole earlier life that is only referred to in the journals. Supremely interesting. So I ordered "A World of Light" and also "I Knew a Phoenix", both by May herself, and very informative regarding her early life. And just about all of the people referred to in the journals are "explained" ~ how May met them and how they became entwined in her life. With each book I've read either by her, or that other people have written about her, the more I understand. I really identify with May, and love all her work. I still have some novels and books of poetry to buy, but within the year, I should have almost all her works. It goes without saying, I enjoy them all and recommend them all....May was very unique.

Good book, interesting author. Book in very good shape and arrived sooner then expected. Would recommend seller. Thank you.