Encore by May Sarton

Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition

First published: 1993

Type of work: Journal

The Work

Much of this journal represents May Sarton’s recovery and rejuvenation after a difficult year characterized by illness and frailty—as reflected in her previous journal, Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-ninth Year. In that journal, Sarton lacked the energy to work in her beloved garden, and she tired after only an hour or two of creative activity. She suffered several losses, including the deaths of old friends and lovers, a loss of independence and autonomy, and a loss of identity. She felt that the May Sarton people had come to know was now a stranger, someone very old and ill. She ended Endgame on her birthday, May 3, and she begins Encore two days later.

The first sign of Sarton’s rejuvenation appears in her response to her garden in the late spring on Maine’s coast. To Sarton, being able to work in the garden again is a major accomplishment after a year of frailty and medical concerns. Her garden represents an evolving, ever-changing work of art. She brings flowers in the house and is heartened by the blooms.

Sarton’s journal reveals her strengths and values in her old age. She is committed to the ideals of friendship, and many of the peak times in her year are based upon renewing several friendships by visiting old friends. She is a dedicated letter writer and maintains other longtime friendships through her correspondence. She is a voracious reader of literature and includes numerous passages of prose and poetry that have moved her. She continues to evolve as a person and refines her points of views on key social and political concerns.

Throughout the journal, her deepest friendship is with Susan Sherman, a professor of English who lives in New York City and is writing a book titled Among the Usual Days, based on unpublished Sarton works. Sherman visits Sarton numerous times during the year, and each time that she arrives, she brings flowers and other gifts. Sherman is a calming, loving presence in Sarton’s life, and she brings order out of chaos. She is an emotional anchor and confidant.

Unfortunately, Sarton’s medical concerns persist throughout the year. Despite trying various homeopathic cures, she suffers chronic pain in her abdomen. At the onset of winter, and for the first few months of 1992, she suffers from diverticulitis, an inflammation of the bowels, and must take antibiotics. On good days, she is able to work for only two hours on her many projects. She becomes increasingly anxious about the difficulty of completing all the tasks before her, including writing this journal, maintaining the garden, and visiting her doctor. These and other requirements of daily living conspire to sap her emotional energy and precipitate feelings of depression.

Yet her year is also filled with several peak experiences that provide strong emotional release, as well as comfort in the context of her aging and frail physical condition. At the end of June, she celebrates her first lengthy outing in more than a year. In July, she spends a week on Cape Cod and visits an old friend recovering from a stroke. During the year, Sarton meets and approves of her biographer, Margot Peters.

Throughout the journal, Sarton is revealed as a prominent American literary figure. She receives an honorary Ph.D. (her sixteenth) from Westbrook College in Maine. Her journal Endgame is published during the year, several of her new poems are published, and two new collections of her poetry are in process. After a rough winter and months of suffering severe chronic pain, she manages a two-week trip to England in March and visits one of her oldest friends, Juliette Huxley, aged ninety-five, and even some of her English cousins. In June, she gives a poetry reading on the final day of a three-day conference celebrating her work. She ends her year of journal writing feeling fulfilled, despite her continued ill health; feeling a sense of joy for her recognition as a significant literary figure; and feeling a deep and abiding love for her good friend, Sherman. Most important to this writer is that she does not fail her friends and that she begins to write poetry again after her creativity lay fallow for more than a year.

Bibliography

Berman, Harry J. “May Sarton and the Tensions of Attachment.” In Integrating the Aging Self: Personal Journals of Later Life. New York: Springer, 1994.

Blouin, Lenora P. May Sarton: A Bibliography. 2d ed. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 2000.

Braham, Jeanne. Crucial Conversations: Interpreting Contemporary American Literary Autobiographies by Women. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1995.

Fulk, Mark. Understanding May Sarton. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2001.

Ingersoll, Earl, ed. Conversations with May Sarton. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991.

Kallet, Marilyn, ed. A House of Gathering: Poets on May Sarton’s Poetry. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1993.

Peters, Margot. May Sarton: A Biography. New York: Knopf, 1997.

Sherman, Susan, ed. May Sarton: Selected Letters. 2 vols. New York: Norton, 1997-2000.

Swartzlander, Susan, and Marilyn R. Mumford, eds. That Great Sanity: Critical Essays on May Sarton. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.