- unitid
-
{"value"=>"187979", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Berg Coll MSS 187979", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b23976465", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1950s-2002", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1950/2002"}
{"value"=>"1975-1994", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1975/1994"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"May Sarton letters to Huldah Sharp"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"4 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1.46 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 Belgian-American poet and writer. Her personal correspondence to Huldah Sharp (1915-2000), daughter of a prominent Nashville family, dates from 1975 to 1994 and chronicles their romantic relationship; their domestic lives; and their travels together and separately in the later years of Sarton's life. The collection also reveals Sarton's professional life through typescripts and letters, especially her extensive teaching, reading, and lecture schedule."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Sarton, May, 1912-1995", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>May Sarton (1912-1995) was the pen name of Belgian-American poet, novelist, memoirist, and playwright Eleanor Marie Sarton. Her work explored themes of sexuality, feminism, and social issues of the day.</p> <p>Sarton was born in Wondelgem, Belgium to science historian George Sarton and English artist and designer Mabel Elenore Elwes Sarton in 1912. She developed an early interest in theatre that led her to apprentice at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre in New York City from 1929 to 1934. Around the time of the Great Depression, she founded the Apprentice Theatre. When the theatre closed, Sarton decided to focus on being a writer.</p> <p>In the 1930s, Sarton traveled around Europe and lived in Paris, France for a year. During this time she met literary and cultural figures, including Virginia Woolf, Juliette and Julian Huxley, and Elizabeth Bowen. She published her first volume of poetry, <span class=\"title\">Encounter in April</span> in 1937 and her first novel, <span class=\"title\">The Single House</span>, in 1938.</p> <p>Sarton eventually published over fifty books, including collections of poetry, journals, memoirs, novels, children's books, and scripts. Some of her best-known works include the journals and memoirs <span class=\"title\">Plant Dreaming Deep</span> (1968) and <span class=\"title\">Journal of a Solitude</span> (1973), as well as the novel <span class=\"title\">Mrs. Stevens Hears Mermaids Singing</span> (1965), one of the first to positively feature a lesbian character. She also taught, lectured, and read extensively throughout the United States and received honorary degrees and awards in the later part of her career.</p> <p>Sarton met Judith \"Judy\" Matlack (1898-1982) while she was in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She and Matlack eventually established a home together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sarton moved to Nelson, New Hampshire in 1958 after receiving an inheritance from her parents. During this time, she separated from Matlack after nearly fifteen years together. Sarton moved to a house called Wild Knoll in York, Maine in 1973.</p> <p>Sarton met Huldah Warfield (née Cheek) Sharp (1915-2000), the daughter of a prominent Nashville family, in 1975. Around 1977, Sarton and Sharp developed a private long distance romantic relationship that lasted many years. While their friendship was known to family members and friends, the nature of their relationship was kept relatively confidential, specifically to the family and social circle of Sharp.</p> <p>In 1995, Sarton died of breast cancer in York, Maine.</p>"}
- custodhist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Letters by descent to Huldah Sharp's niece-in-law Ann Sharp Street; thence by descent to Margaret Martin Street.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The May Sarton letters to Huldah Sharp, dating from the 1950s to 2002, chronicle Sarton and Sharp's romantic relationship, their respective domestic and personal lives, their travels, and Sarton's professional life. The collection of approximately 150 mostly typewritten letters also holds correspondence written by Sharp's relatives and friends about Sarton, three typescripts written by Sarton as well as some photographs, flyers, clippings, postcards, and a published book.</p> <p>The bulk of the letters in the collection date from 1975 to 1994 and consist of Sarton's letters to Sharp. These letters often include typewritten or printed poems along with some photographs, clippings, flyers, and postcards. The letters offer insight into Sarton's feelings about aging and health, love, gardening and plants, muses and writing poetry, responding to letters, her fame, pets, solitude, friends, and the fluctuations in her relationship with Sharp.</p> <p>Sarton wrote Sharp almost three times a week from February 1977 to April 1980. Sarton's letters from this period mention her honorary degrees and commencement speeches; poem drafts (some of which appear in <span class=\"title\">Halfway to Silence</span>); comparison of her and Sharp's upbringings; pets (Tamas the shetland sheepdog and Bramble the cat); the ups and downs of her relationship with Sharp; daily life in York, Maine; their zodiac signs; and her social life, including dinner with Madeleine L'Engle. Her missives also discuss the publication of <span class=\"title\">The House by the Sea</span>; seeing Eva La Gallienne perform; Susan Sherman's work on <span class=\"title\">May Sarton: Selected Letters 1955-1995</span> (2002) and Sarton's archive; Knopf getting Sarton's biography rights; her biographer Margot Peters; and writing poems for <span class=\"title\">Coming Into Eighty</span>. Of note are Sarton's letters detailing her 1977 trip to Brussels, Belgium; London, England (where she visited Juliette Huxley); Suffolk, England; and the Channel Islands.</p> <p>While most of the letters are written from Sarton to Sharp, there are approximately five letters written by Sarton to Ann Sharp Street (Sharp's niece-in-law), two letters from Sharp to Sarton, a letter from Jesse Phillip to Sharp, and a letter from Sharp to Street. All the letters not written by Sarton are mostly about the letter writer's relationship with Sarton.</p> <p>The collection also holds three typescripts: a three act play titled <span class=\"title\">The Music-Box Bird</span>, a collection of thirty-five poems signed and dated by Sarton titled <span class=\"title\">The First Year</span>, and a collection of forty-five poems titled <span class=\"title\">Halfway to Silence</span> that includes some annotations in Sarton's hand.</p> <p>Additional materials include candid photographs of Sarton and Sharp taken in the late 1980s, a clipping about Sarton's writing career, a flyer announcing the posthumous publication of three Sarton works, and a highlighted copy of Sherman's <span class=\"title\">May Sarton: Selected Letters 1955-1995</span>.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The collection is arranged topically into correspondence, typescripts, and additional material. Correspondence is arranged by writer, then chronologically.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gift of Margaret Martin Street, 2024.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Amy Lau</span> in <span class=\"date\">2026</span>.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Other materials about Sarton and Sharp's romantic relationship are held in the May Sarton papers (Berg Coll MSS Sarton).</p>"}
- date_start
-
1950
- keydate
-
1950
- date_end
-
2002
- date_inclusive_start
-
1950
- date_inclusive_end
-
2002
- date_bulk_start
-
1975
- date_bulk_end
-
1994
- extent_statement
-
1.46 linear feet (4 boxes)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"May Sarton letters to Huldah Sharp, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library"}