The Journals of May Sarton Volume One: Journal of a Solitude, Plant Dreaming Deep, and Recovering

by May Sarton

Now in one 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 Sarton’s bestselling memoir chronicles a solitary year spent at the house she bought and renovated in the quiet village of Nelson, New Hampshire. Her revealing insights are a moving and profound reflection on creativity, oneness with nature, and the courage it takes to be alone.  Plant Dreaming Sarton’s intensely personal account of how she transformed a dilapidated eighteenth-century farmhouse into a home is a loving, beautifully crafted memoir illuminated by themes of friendship, love, nature, and the struggles of the creative life.   In this affecting diary of one year’s hardships and healing, Sarton focuses on her sixty-sixth year, which was marked by the turmoil of a mastectomy, the end of a treasured relationship, and the loneliness that visits a life of chosen solitude.   By turns uplifting, cathartic, and revelatory, Sarton’s journals still strike a chord in the hearts of contemporary readers. Through them, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, “we are able to see our own experiences reflected in hers and we are enriched.”

Genres: Writing, Biography Memoir, Poetry, Nonfiction

666 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 8, 2017

About the author

May Sarton was born on May 3, 1912, in Wondelgem, Belgium, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her first volume of poetry, Encounters in April, was published in 1937 and her first novel, The Single Hound, in 1938. An accomplished memoirist, Sarton boldly came out as a lesbian in her 1965 book Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Her later memoir, Journal of a Solitude, was an account of her experiences as a female artist. Sarton died in York, Maine, on July 16, 1995.

Reviews

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite of the journals was Plant Dreaming Deep. Not a journal format. Some great chapters about her life in a big old house in the country. I found the other two journals to be pretty angst filled which journals sometimes are. Her thinking is deep and I marked many passages.

[Juan Rivera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solitude is something beautiful when we choose it: not because we have lost someone, not because we have been abandoned, not because our children have grown up. Once you truly feel it, it becomes very hard to let it go, because your freedom of thought and action feels almost complete.

In this book, May Sarton, at the age of 58, decides to live in a small house, far from the world and from society, trying to be alone. And yet, she can hardly achieve it: she has too many friends, receives letters, welcomes visitors, and is constantly being sought out. She wants solitude, but life keeps finding its way in.

And in that solitude — especially the solitude of not having a partner — she reflects on how she would have liked to share her life with someone, while also feeling she must grow accustomed to the possibility that this may never happen. She even wonders whether some of her relationships with women friends might be more than spiritual. That is how deep her loneliness as a partnerless woman feels.

This book made me think that, as we grow older, perhaps we must learn to face the possibility of being alone, of accepting that we may never again share our life with someone as a partner. But it also reminds us that social life remains essential: at the very least, we need friends with whom we can grow, confront ourselves, and keep moving forward as human beings. Whoever stops growing is, in some sense, already dead.

May’s solitude left me with a question that lingers: what is it that I truly want in life?

[Suzanne Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend recommended this book because I was talking to her about scheduling time. The author talks about how she found time to write while caring for a house and large garden. But what I loved most was her discussion about integrating her parents' furniture and possessions into her new home and how she felt about creating a home that speaks to the past as well as her present. I also loved her descriptions of her relationships with her old and new friends.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved reading about May Sarton’s settling into her life of solitude in nearby Nelson NH. She writes exquisitely. In spite of that, there were times when my attention flagged.