The poetic tale of a fleeting love affair
In her sixty years in literature, May Sarton has taken her readers through all of her emotions and pushed us to explore new places within ourselves. But her feelings are never more raw or exposed than in Letters from Maine.
The rugged coast provides a stark background for Sarton’s images of a tragically brief and newfound love. She describes the willingness to give anything and devote everything to a new love, as well as the despair at the memory of what is left over. As Sarton grew older, time became an increasingly prominent factor in her life, but as Letters from Maine shows, it is never too late to love.
May Sarton (1912–1995) was born on May 3 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. Her novels A Shower of Summer Days, The Birth of a Grandfather, and Faithful Are the Wounds, as well as her poetry collection In Time Like Air, all received nominations for the National Book Award.