I Knew a Phoenix: Sketches for an Autobiography

by May Sarton

Sarton's memoir begins with her roots in a Belgian childhood and describes her youth and education in Cambridge, Massachusetts, her coming-of-age years, and the people who influenced her life as a writer.

Genres: Memoir, Autobiography, Nonfiction, Biography, Biography Memoir, American, Womens

242 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1988

About the author

May Sarton was born on May 3, 1912, 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. An accomplished memoirist, Sarton boldly came out as a lesbian in her 1965 book Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing. Her later memoir, Journal of a Solitude, was an account of her experiences as a female artist. Sarton died in York, Maine, on July 16, 1995.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the other nonfiction I’ve read by Sarton so far has been in journal form, so it was intriguing to read an account of her life that is structured thematically as well as chronologically and covers a longer sweep of time. A number of the chapters originally appeared in the New Yorker; the book came out when Sarton was 47. Her focus is on the mentors who guided her towards her career as a writer. She opens with several chapters on her parents: a Belgian historian of science and an English interior designer who met in Ghent and later settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although she only lived there for three years, Sarton has vivid memories of her childhood home in Wondelgem, Belgium. She and her mother spent a year as refugees in England during World War I, then went on to America, where they stayed with a Belgian inventor, Dr. Baekeland of future Bakelite fame.

In Cambridge Sarton attended the pioneering Shady Hill School, an open-air institute the students survived in winter by huddling in matching gray sleeping bags. They learned mathematics, went rock climbing, and memorized poems: “here poetry was made centrally active.” This was one of the seeds of Sarton’s future, and one of her teachers, Anne Thorp, was a major role model (and would later inspire The Magnificent Spinster).

I had never realized that Sarton never went to college. Instead, she was an apprentice in Eva Le Gallienne’s theatre company, then started her own acting troupe. When it collapsed after three years, she had to face “total failure at twenty-four.” However, she was resilient, talented and well-connected, and made the temporary move to London armed with letters of introduction. The Huxleys and S.S. Koteliansky became close friends. Julian Huxley lent her an apartment at Whipsnade Zoo while she wrote her first novel. She invited the Woolfs there for dinner once. The book ends on a somber note, with her learning of Virginia’s suicide.

This reminded me most of the earlier chapters of Claire Tomalin’s A Life of My Own. I valued it for the stark contrast between Europe and America, the glimpses of Sarton’s home life and schooling, and her choice of what were her key influences. It will be interesting to read Margot Peters’ biography of Sarton soon and see a) how much of this narrative she incorporates as fact, b) her assessment of the chief influences on Sarton’s early life, and c) what she makes of certain moments that seem ripe for psychoanalysis, like a Belgian psychologist offending the 12-year-old by telling her she had “a very small brain.” Had this been published a few decades later, we would expect Sarton to insert some first inkling of her sexuality; as this appeared in the 1950s, there’s no hint of unconventional impulses.

Favorite lines:

“For many years I was to have this feeling of exile wherever I went, to be pulled back to Europe as ‘home’ and then to feel a stranger there, after all.”

“As an only child I had fallen in love often with families; and now as an unmarried young woman I was falling in love with a marriage [the Huxleys’].”

[Francisca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quienes hemos leído antes a May Sarton sabemos que su escritura habla de la vida, de la soledad, del amor, de la esencia de las cosas. Estos Retazos para una autobiografía son eso mismo, retazos de la vida, de la soledad, del amor, de la esencia de las cosas. Y es que su vida, como toda la vida de toda persona, comenzaría antes de que ella naciera, nacería con sus padres, con sus abuelos, allá donde estuvieran cada uno.

La autora nos habla de sus padres. Su padre, de origen belga-estadounidense, científico e historiador, y su madre, inglesa, artista y decoradora, son aquí los principales protagonistas de este libro. En una primera parte, May Sarton nos habla de la vida de cada uno, de cómo crecieron, qué estudiarían, a qué se dedicarían hasta conocerse. De este modo la vida de May ya se vería influenciada por ellos incluso antes de nacer. En la segunda parte, la autora nos habla de su infancia y su juventud, nos habla de ella y nos conmueve el pensar cómo esos recitales de poesía que ella misma reconoce que aprendía por osmósis destacarían por y sobre todas las cosas en su infancia en el colegio. Más tarde se vería influenciada por sus maestros y profesores y ya en el instituto mostraría un gran interés por la literatura. Pero una vez terminado todo cambió:conocería el teatro, su primer amor, y se haría aprendiz en el Civic Repertory. Viajaría a París y se enamoraría perdidamente de ella, introduciéndose en los círculos literarios.

Sin duda estamos ante una autobiografía en la que destacan los detalles, los hechos que la cambiaron y que la hicieron ser como era. Para aquellos que ya la conocíamos se vuelve un libro estupendo como introducción a su vida más pasada, como introducción a lo que la haría ser como es. Y es que la infancia y la juventud ya ponemos esa semillita que más tarde brota y brota hasta convertirse en árbol, o en ave fénix.Hay una busqueda de lo cotidiano aquí, de lo que subyace bajo las apariencias y lo que nos mueve hacia el mundo exterior.

Me maravilla sobretodo su pasión por el teatro, que yo no conocía y que me parece primorosa y especial. Pues el teatro es otro modo de vivir la vida y es la mejor manera de entenderla. May desde muy joven ya escribiría poesía y eso la hizo una gran poeta. A base de escribir y escribir, de vivir y vivir, de experimentar y experimentar con amor y pasión la vida que le fue dada. Fue una vida buena, pues no vivió penurias, pero ante todo fue una vida que dedicó al arte y tesón de la palabra dada. Es esta una autobiografía de la palabra, de cómo no es dada y cómo la da May Sarton. En ella encontramos su tesoro más oculto: lo que siempre quiso ser, lo que nació para ser, sus antecedentes familiares que tanto le influenciarian.

Leamos a May. Maravillémonos de su vida, sus actos, su parsimonia y alegría. Es esta la vida de una artista de pies a cabeza, que ya desde pequeña estaría interesada en los jardines y la botánica (ah, ese jardín de su casita de infancia y lo mucho de lo que habla de él en este libro...) No neguemos la palabra como no negamos su palabra, la palabra aquí es cura y la palabra aquí es pura alma. Alma que siente y que vive, que deslumbra allá por donde va.

[Tanya Marlow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this better than her Journal of a Solitude, and her writing is so masterful that I keep highlighting things. As a memoir, it places you like a seagull over the action, rather than in the middle of it, and really there isn’t much action, more a beautiful description of several epochs in her parents’ and her life. It’s the kind of book that isn’t a page-turner, but one I like to read when I need good writing flowing through my head.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love May Sarton’s writing. It’s always so clear and insightful, and I find it a joy to become immersed in it. This memoir I found particularly enjoyable, more so in fact than her journals which inevitably are more episodic. Here she recounts her childhood and youth, and her early career as an actress. Her meetings with so many of the great and good in London – Virginia Woolf, Julian Huxley, George Bernard Shaw to name just a few – give rise to many an anecdote, in which she brings all of them to life with her usual acuity. I wish I’d read this at the start of my acquaintance with her as it sheds much light on the woman she matured into – but better late than never. Highly recommended for all Sarton fans.

[Nicholas Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written, at times melancholic memoir about May Sarton's younger years. It ends in 1937 with Virginia Woolf's death. Even though she struggled at times economically and lived through WW1 as a refugee and as a theatre director through the depression, she seemed to have an almost miraculous ability to meet people who could shepherd her through the hard times and provide financial resources until she was able to solidify her career as a writer first in poetry and then fiction.
I shall certainly read more of her work based on these sketches of her early career.

[Betty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow I don't think of May Sarton as a WW1 baby; she just seemed younger than that to me. In any case, this memoir of her early years reveals a magical young life during the depression. Other people are in bread lines, and somehow May is able to be an actor and write poetry. And summer in England and meet Virginia Woolf. If that isn't magical, I don't know what is.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

She is a beautiful writer. Her descriptive ability is stunning. I did not know of May Sarton before reading this; the title appealed to me. She was a happy find for me. I loved everything about this book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love May Sarton's books. This was good, but not nearly as good as The House By the Sea.

[Sherri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude when I was in my early 20s and fell in love with her. I read a few of her novels, but then never read any of her journals and I have no idea why. I have decided to read them all, in order, and this is her first. While I found her discussion of her education quite dry, I very much enjoyed the discussion of her parents and her telling of her meeting with early literary giants such as Virginia Woolf and others. Looking forward to the rest.

[Marouan Abed · Rating 4 out of 5]

The autobiography "I knew a Phoenix" was written by the British poet and novelist May Sarton and it was published in 1959. This book is considerably an attempt to investigate in the writers early years in Belgium, where she has been born and raised.
The book consists of two parts, each one contains several chapters and sketches that describe different events from the writer's life or the life of her beloved ones.
May Sarton begin the first part her autobiography called “The fervent world” by a sketch titled “In My Father’s House”. She starts by introducing both her father and grandfather, describing their relationship to be unstable, intolerable, narrating how her father George was born and raised. After his mother’s death an atmosphere of hostility has been created toward him from his father.
The writer takes us on a journey to encounter her family members. They are a clan of liberals and intellectuals – except her aunt Elisa who found in religion a refuge for her comfort –, which would explain Sarton’s sophisticated theme.
This first chapter is reserved to be a biography for her father, his ideas and the principals he lived by. Starting by his earlier school years, till he became the first American professor for a new discipline called History of Science. As well as he inherited her his poetic skills which would take root and reappear in his daughter, a generation later.
The second chapter however was about the writer’s mother and her life story. In “A Wild Green Place” May Sarton tells her mother’s childhood, which essentially was about how her parents have abandoned her to a foster parents in order for this little girl to set free from all that had bruised and harassed her in the genteel atmosphere of home, and roam in “a wild green place” of Wales landscapes. The fact she was English and they were Walsh had her being regarded as a “foreigner”. We get to see from the mother’s perspective how she was treated occasionally with tenderness from Grannie, and the unbearable unjustifiable cruelty from aunt Mollie. As well as, we get to enjoy Sarton’s description on the captivating landscapes and orchards.
The third and the fourth chapter titled respectfully "The fervant world" and "Wonderlgem: The house in the Country" were reserved to May Sarton's parents, their encounter and their early years.
It started by revealing George Sarton's university life, intellectualism, his writing themes, and political affiliations. Unlike the first chapter, this time we get a closer look to the the father's adopted ideology, which is socialism. He argues that every idea that could not give birth to an action, is not worth having. He imposed an intellectual authority over his daughter, she jots down one of his quotes every now and then. She took the liberty to describe in few pages a fraternity he has co-founded with his dearest friend a influenced Mr.Limbosch called "Reiner leven", which has eventually been collisioned with a female fraternity named "Flinken". This mashup was the occasion in which George Sarton met his future spouse Mabel Elwis.
Later on, the writer takes us on an enjoyable journey of the long letters, what was in May Sarton's words "It was the beginning of an ardent and argumentative correspondence, ardent in its longing to communicate which each other on a deep, but not all amourous level, argumentative because Sarton and Elwis disagreed hotly about a great many things"
The writer style was highly intellect. Serious, yet she still draws a smile on the readers face with delecate jocks occasionally. her expressions are quite authentic, and like what has been mentioned above. The extreme pricese of the choice of vocabulary reflect a high mastering of the English language like the poet she is.
Due to my primarly knowledge of George Sarton's historical studies, I have found it intersting to discover his love life and several personal matters.
The autobiography is a worth reading work

[Maryjoamani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straightforward autobiographical sketches of May's early childhood in Belgium and the U.S., in primary school, her foray into the theater, and her close friendships with the Huxleys and writers of the time. Delightful glimpses into May's growing understand of her destiny as a writer.

[Claudia Douris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another gem by Ms. Sarton.

[Stefanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

good autobiography

[Marjorie Blackman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written and fascinating view into the time period.

[Sofía · Rating 5 out of 5]

una auténtica delicia. intimista y amable, a la vez que bello y cerrero. gracias May.

[Judy Gacek]

1986