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May Sarton (May 3, 1912-1995) Belgian-born American writer, best known for her poetry, memoirs, and novels.
Sarton was born in Wondelgem, Belgium.
May Sarton wrote some of the most beautiful lyric poetry of the 20th century. Her poems are accessible, free of self-conscious experimentation, and divorced from membership in any particular school of poetry. Many of them are pellucid reflections of the lesbian experience, as are many of her novels. Sarton's reputation was soundly established before she published her novel Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing 1965. She feared, rightly, that writing so strongly about lesbianism would lead to a diminution of the value of her work. "The fear of homosexuality is so great that it took courage to write Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing, " she wrote in Journal of Solitude 1973, "to write a novel about a woman homosexual who is not a sex maniac, a drunkard, a drug-taker, or in any way repulsive, to portray a homosexual who is neighter pitiable nor disgusting, without sentimentality . . . ."
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