Journal of a Solitude

Journal of a Solitude PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497646332
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
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 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 worlds. She shares insights about everyday life in the quiet New Hampshire village of Nelson, the desire for friends, and need for solitude—both an exhilarating and terrifying state. She likens writing to “cracking open the inner world again,” which sometimes plunges her into depression. She confesses her fears, her disappointments, her unresolved angers. Sarton’s garden is her great, abiding joy, sustaining her through seasons of psychic and emotional pain. Journal of a Solitude is a moving and profound meditation on creativity, oneness with nature, and the courage it takes to be alone. Both uplifting and cathartic, it sweeps us along on Sarton’s pilgrimage inward. This ebook features an extended biography of May Sarton.

Journal of a Solitude

Journal of a Solitude PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497646332
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Get Book Here

Book Description
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 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 worlds. She shares insights about everyday life in the quiet New Hampshire village of Nelson, the desire for friends, and need for solitude—both an exhilarating and terrifying state. She likens writing to “cracking open the inner world again,” which sometimes plunges her into depression. She confesses her fears, her disappointments, her unresolved angers. Sarton’s garden is her great, abiding joy, sustaining her through seasons of psychic and emotional pain. Journal of a Solitude is a moving and profound meditation on creativity, oneness with nature, and the courage it takes to be alone. Both uplifting and cathartic, it sweeps us along on Sarton’s pilgrimage inward. This ebook features an extended biography of May Sarton.

Recovering

Recovering PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497685451
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
An affecting diary of one year’s hardships and healing, by one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary memoirists For decades, readers have celebrated May Sarton’s journals for their candid look at relationships, success and failure, communion with nature, and the curious stages of aging. In Recovering, Sarton focuses on her sixty-sixth year—one marked by the turmoil of a mastectomy, the end of a treasured relationship, and the loneliness that visits a life of chosen solitude. Each deeply felt entry in the journal, written between 1978 and 1979, is laced with poignancy and honesty as she grapples with a cold reception for her latest novel, the sad descent of a close friend into senility, and other struggles. Despite the trials of this one painful year, Sarton writes of her progression toward a hard-won renewal, achieved through good friendships, the levity provided by her cherished dog, and peaceful days in her garden. A candid account of Sarton’s revival from personal darkness back into light, Recovering is another stunning entry in the author’s irrepressible oeuvre.

From May Sarton's Well

From May Sarton's Well PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
A book of photographs with excerpts from Sarton's verse and prose. They include one on the contemplative life, in which she writes: "loneliness is the poverty of the self ... solitude is the richness of the self."

At Seventy

At Seventy PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497685443
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
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 which Sarton—over the course of her decades-long career—became known. An enlightening glimpse into a time—the early 1980s—and an age, At Seventy is at once specific and universal, providing a unique window into septuagenarian life that readers of all generations will enjoy. At times mournful and at others hopeful, this is a beautiful memoir of the year in which Sarton, looking back on it all, could proclaim, “I am more myself than I have ever been.”

At Eighty-two

At Eighty-two PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393316223
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Finished before her death, these entries reflect back on Sarton's life and on her years as a teacher, poet, author, lover, and friend.

As We Are Now

As We Are Now PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497646316
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 93

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Book Description
Bestselling author “May Sarton has never been better than she is in this beautiful, harrowing novel about being old, unwanted, yet refusing to give up” (The Boston Globe). After seventy-six-year-old Caro Spencer suffers a heart attack, her family sends her to a private retirement home to wait out the rest of her days. Her memory growing fuzzy, Caro decides to keep a journal to document the daily goings-on—her feelings of confinement and boredom; her distrust of the home’s owner, Harriet Hatfield, and her daughter, Rose; her pity for the more incapacitated residents; her resentment of her brother, John, for leaving her alone. The journal entries describe not only her frustrations, but also small moments of beauty—found in a welcome visit from her minister, or in watching a bird in the garden. But as she writes, Caro grows increasingly sensitive to the casual atrocities of retirement-home life. Even as she acknowledges her mind is beginning to fail, she is determined to fight back against the injustices foisted upon the home’s occupants. This ebook features an extended biography of May Sarton.

Plant Dreaming Deep

Plant Dreaming Deep PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497646324
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 134

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Book Description
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 before taking the major step of signing the deed. She paints the walls white in order to catch the light and searches for the precise shade of yellow for the kitchen floor. She discovers peace and beauty in solitude, whether she is toiling in the garden or writing at her desk. This is a loving, beautifully crafted memoir illuminated by themes of friendship, love, nature, and the struggles of the creative life. This ebook features an extended biography of May Sarton.

Endgame

Endgame PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504017943
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
“A testament to the joys of nature from a courageous and loving woman . . . her cats, birds, garden and visitors keep her ecstatically anchored in life” (Publishers Weekly). “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 for her health. Coping with constant pain and increasing frailty, Sarton fears that the end is not far off. The story of what she calls the “last laps of a long-distance runner,” this yearlong journal addresses such familiar Sarton topics as her beloved garden, the harshness of Maine winters, and the friendships and intimate relationships that have nurtured and sustained her. She settles some old literary scores and paints a generous portrait of Virginia Woolf, who often shared tea with Sarton during the late 1930s. When illness saps Sarton’s ability to type, she dictates into recorders and has the tapes transcribed by devoted assistants. In spite of the loss of independence and the fear that she will never fully recover, she does her best to soldier on, taking pleasure in small things like a good meal; her cat, Pierrot, who loves the rain; and being able to sleep through the night. An enduring inspiration to millions of women, Sarton even finds the courage to achieve again.

Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing

Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497646251
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
Sarton’s most important novel tells the story of a poet in her seventies, whose life is retold episodically during an interview with two writers from a literary magazine Hilary Stevens’s prolific career includes a provocative novel that shot her into the public consciousness years ago, and an oeuvre of poetry that more recently has consigned her to near-obscurity. Now in the twilight of her life, Hilary, who is both a feminist and a lesbian, is receiving renewed attention for an upcoming collection of poems, one that has brought two young reporters to her Cape Cod home. As Hilary prepares for the conversation, she recalls formative moments both large and small. She then embarks on the interview itself—a witty and intelligent discussion of her life, work, and romantic relationships with men and women. After the journalists have left, Hilary helps a visiting male friend with his anxiety over being gay and imparts wisdom about channeling his own creative passions. This ebook features an extended biography of May Sarton.

After the Stroke

After the Stroke PDF Author: May Sarton
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504017935
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
The bestselling feminist author’s “lyrical, candid, sensitive” account of her efforts to regain her health, art, and sense of self after a stroke (Publishers Weekly). Feeling cut off and isolated—from herself most of all—after suffering a stroke at age 73, May Sarton began a journal that helped her along the road to recovery. She wrote every day without fail, even if illness sometimes prevented her from penning more than a few lines. From her sprawling house off the coast of Maine, Sarton shares the quotidian details of her life in the aftermath of what her doctors identified as a small brain hemorrhage. What they did not tell her was the effect it would have on her life and work. Sarton’s journal is filled with daily accounts of the weather, her garden, beloved pets, and her concerns about losing psychic energy and no longer feeling completely whole. A woman who had always prized her solitude, Sarton experiences feelings of intense loneliness. When overwhelmed by the past, she tries to find comfort in soothing remembrances of her travels, and struggles to learn to live moment by moment. As Sarton begins to regain her strength, she rejoices in the life “recaptured and in all that still lies ahead.” Interspersed with heartfelt recollections about fellow poets and aspiring writers who see in Sarton a powerful muse, this is a wise and moving memoir about life after illness.