Fembio Special: Famous Lesbians
May Sarton
born on May 3, 1912 in Wondelgem, Belgium
died on July 16, 1995 in York, Maine, United States
American writer
30th anniversary of her death on July 16, 2025
Biography • Quotes • Literature & Sources
Biography
Over the course of 83 years, May Sarton published over 50 books. Among these were novels, poetry collections and – in the last third of her life – the diaries that made her famous. In the 1970s, the second-wave feminists of the women's liberation movement that had emerged could not get enough of the clever, honest and sensitive journals the independent writer kept and published. Eagerly read by the women during the self-discovery phase of the movement, the journals contained details of the author’s everyday life; Sarton chose to remain generally discreet, however, about the relationships she had with numerous women lovers.
Very little of Sarton's work has been translated into German. Frauenoffensive-Verlag published A Reckoning in German in 1985 (Eine Abrechnung) after having published Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing in 1980 (Mrs, Stevens hört die Meerjungfrauen singen, currently out of print). The main character of the classic novel first published in the United States in 1965 is a lesbian poet – in all probability, Mrs Stevens represents the first lesbian to be positively portrayed in modern literature.
It is difficult to understand the reluctance of German publishers given that the best-selling author attracted a steadily growing community of readers in the United States. Starting in the 1970s and until well into the 1990s, she read to sold-out, packed auditoriums, and received dozens of letters every day. The fan mail delighted and depressed her in equal measure – she felt obligated to answer every single letter.
But perhaps German publishers are more oriented towards literary critics and less towards enthusiastic readers. May Sarton complained all her life that the established literary critics did not take her seriously, and even deliberately ignored her. This complaint runs through all her diaries; “official” recognition only came during the very last years of her life.
May Sarton was a very beautiful woman who effortlessly captivated people with her charm and temperament, her sensitivity and enthusiasm. She broke countless women's hearts in the course of her long life, and occasionally men's hearts as well. Her biographer Margot Peters attributes this to the fact that as a child May had not experienced much warmth from her parents and that as an adult, she was thus always morbidly anxious to “refute” the painful notion of being unwanted by making as many conquests as possible. In addition, May Sarton needed a “muse” for poetic inspiration; when she wasn't in love, no poems came.
However, she did not want to be labeled a “lesbian writer”: “My work is universal. I think I am important as a bridge-builder between two worlds, homosexuals and heterosexuals, old and young, women and men.”
(Text from 2001; translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2025.
Please consult the German version for additional information, pictures, sources, videos, and bibliography.)
Quotes
I'm proud of the fact that I came out in 1965, long before anyone else, but it cost me two jobs. It was easier for me because I didn't have a family. I don't know if I would have done it if my parents were still alive. (May Sarton)
Literature & Sources
Sarton, May. 1968. Plant dreaming deep. New York. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1973. Journal of a Solitude. New York. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1974. Collected poems (1930-1973). [1st ed.] New York. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1974. Mrs. Stevens hears the mermaids singing; a novel. Introd. by Carolyn G. Heilbrun. 1965. New York. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1984. At Seventy: A Journal. New York. W.W. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1986 [1980].Recovering: A Journal. New York. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1988. After the Stroke: A Journal. New York. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1991. Sarton Selected: An Anthology of the Journals, Novels, and Poems of May Sarton.Hg. Bradford Dudley Daziel. New York. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1995. At Eighty Two : A Journal. New York. Norton.
Sarton, May. 1997. Correspondence: Selections. Hg. und Einleitg. Susan Sherman. New York. Norton.
Peters, Margot. 1997. May Sarton: A Biography. New York. Knopf.
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