- unitid
-
{"value"=>"186028", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Berg Coll MSS 186028", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b22749707", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1932-1985", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1932/1985"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"May Sarton letters and poems"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1 box", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"0.21 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"May Sarton (1912-1995) was a writer, novelist, and poet born in Wondelgem, Belgium, and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This collection dates from 1932 through 1985 and contains newspaper clippings, poems, correspondence, and photographs. The majority of the correspondence is with Sarton's friends, sisters Roswell and Margaret Hawley."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Sarton, May, 1912-1995", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>May Sarton (1912-1995) was a writer, poet, and novelist. Sarton was born Eleanore Marie Sarton in Belgium, but her family fled the country in 1914, first to England, then to Massachusetts. Sarton became interested in theatre and writing poetry and traveled throughout Europe in the late 1930s. During this time Sarton met several literary figures, including Virginia Woolf, and published her first novel. Upon returning to the states in 1939, Sarton continued writing novels, poems and screenplays. During this time, Sarton supported herself with her writing and also gave lectures and taught poetry classes for colleges around the country. However, she expressed interest in learning to work at a factory because, at times, she struggled to find teaching jobs or paid speaking opportunities.</p> <p>Through the 1940s and early 1950s Sarton published several novels and books of poetry, while continuing to give lectures and teach poetry. While in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Sarton met her partner, Judith \"Judy\" Matlack. Later, the couple established a home together in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Matlack was a professor at Simmons College in Boston. In 1956 Sarton's father, George Sarton passed away and left an inheritance to Sarton, including the family home. No longer required to supplement her writing income with teaching and speaking engagements, Sarton sold her parents' home and moved to Nelson, New Hampshire in 1958. During this time Sarton and her partner of nearly fifteen years, Judith Matlack separated.</p> <p>Sarton died of breast cancer in 1995. Her last book, <span class=\"title\">Coming into Eighty</span>, was published posthumously and described her gratitude for life.</p>"}
- custodhist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gift of Roswell Hawley to Phyllis Fenn Cunningham (1903-2003); by descent to Stanhope Cunningham.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The May Sarton letters and poems date from 1932 through 1985, with most materials from 1939 through 1960. The collection contains newspaper clippings about Sarton, typewritten copies of her poems, correspondence with sisters Roswell (\"Roz\") and Margaret Hawley, and photographs of Sarton and her parents. The collection is loosely arranged by type: newspaper clippings, correspondence, Christmas poems, and typewritten poems. These groupings have been arranged chronologically.</p> <p>From the 1930s until the mid-1960s, Sarton would write to her friend Roswell Hawley and later her sister Margaret Hawley. Sarton would describe her personal and professional life and often included a typewritten copy of one her poems in addition to her letter. Roswell Hawley was interested in writing, with Sarton often asking Hawley's opinion about current theatre and plays. Margaret Hawley was interested in the visual arts, and Sarton mentions her admiration for Margaret Hawley's paintings despite her distaste for modern visual art.</p> <p> During her correspondence with the Hawley sisters, Sarton mentions several projects including publishing books and poems while also teaching or giving lectures throughout the United States. Their correspondence also covers different milestones in Sarton's life, including the death of both of Sarton's parents, meeting her partner Judy Matlack and their eventual breakup, and moving to a house in Nelson, New Hampshire in 1956.</p> <p> The collection includes two photographs. One is inscribed to Roswell Hawley showing May Sarton in a field in Austria, holding a flower. The second is an undated photograph of her parents and cat sent to Roswell Hawley after the death of Sarton's father.</p> <p> Sarton's letters also include several ideas for stories and plays, and give an incomplete chronology of some of the poems and pieces published during this time, including novels, plays, and stories submitted to magazines including <span class=\"title\">Cosmopolitain</span>, <span class=\"title\">Today's Woman</span>, <span class=\"title\">The New Yorker</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Town and Country</span>.</p> <p> The collection also holds several poems that are undated, but likely from the 1940s. The poems include an untitled submission to <span class=\"title\">Atlantic Monthly</span> in March of 1940 and \"The Scholar Mourns,\" published in <span class=\"title\">Nature</span> in June 1940. Several other poems are in the collection, including \"Airman's Mother,\" \"Villanelle,\" \"This Gift of Passion,\" \"Out of a Desolate Source,\" and \"These Images Remain.\"</p> <p> In addition to her personal correspondence with the Hawley sisters, Sarton would send an annual card with a New Year's or Christmas poem. The Christmas poems in this collection date from 1941 through 1963. Sarton explored themes of the global impact of World War II, her experiences living in New Mexico with her partner, friendship, and later living alone in a home in Nelson, New Hampshire. In 1963 the annual poem included a note stating that the Christmas poems' mailing list had grown to be almost eight hundred recipients, and she would be scaling back the mailings.</p> <p> The clippings in this collection include two articles detailing some of her professional accomplishments of Sarton in the 1940s and 1985. The other clippings include poems originally published in <span class=\"title\">Atlantic Monthly</span>, <span class=\"title\"> Lyric</span>, and <span class=\"title\">Voices</span>, then reprinted in local newspapers.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gift of Stanhope Cunningham in 2021.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Emily P. Dunne</span> in <span class=\"date\">2022</span>.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Materials in folder 7 are restricted due to preservation concerns.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1932
- keydate
-
1932
- date_end
-
1985
- date_inclusive_start
-
1932
- date_inclusive_end
-
1985
- extent_statement
-
0.21 linear feet (1 box)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"May Sarton letters and poems, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library"}