Poet May Sarton 1983

This week we celebrate National Poetry Month with the American poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton recorded in College of Marin, 1983 by the KPFA Women’s Department.

Born in Belgium in 1912, May Sarton was the daughter of the well-known scientist, George Sarton, and an English artist, Mabel Elwes Sarton. She grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts where her father joined the faculty of Harvard University.

After failed attempts at acting and running her own theater, in 1935 she devoted her life to writing. She went on to produce over fifty volumes of poetry, novels, journals, essays, and children’s books before she died in 1995, at York, Maine. Sarton was an open lesbian but rejected the narrow label of lesbian writer.
Sarton was 71 years old at the time of this recording and draws from her entire canon of poetry from 1934 to 1980 to express her chosen theme of the evening; the hazards and joys of being a poet.

poems featured: Sun Boat, The Beautiful Pauses, At Muzot, Where Dream Begins, Binding the Dragon, The Godhead as a Lynx, Death and the Turtle, the Muse as Medusa, At Lindos, The Frog That Naked Creature, Of Molluscs, The Lady and the Unicorn, Dr Abshchied, and On a Winter Night.

Produced in 1983 for the KPFA women’s magazine.
produced by Penny Rosenwasser with assistance by Ginny Z. Berson.

FTV: 0361 written and produced by Brian DeShazor
From the Vault series is produced by Brian DeShazor and Mark Torres

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