May Sarton

I used to love going to the Fogg to look at this striking portrait of an intensely creative woman, May Sarton, with a huge sense of integrity. She is very inspiring to many.

May Sarton was born in 1912 in Belgium. She was a prolific poet, novelist and memoirist. She lived in New Hampshire and Maine in her adult life. She guarded her solitude carefully.

Her novel Mrs. Stevens Hears The Mermaids Singing from 1965 was a watershed novel about lesbianism. May Sarton wanted to write about women who lived normal lives and who were healthy and happy as well as lesbian.
Her grave is a stone Phoenix.

She shares her birthday with my grandmother who meant a great deal to me.