A Friend of the Work: My Correspondence with May Sarton

In 1969, Joan Jansen was a 34-year-old mom living in suburban Long Island when she first encountered May Sarton's Plant Dreaming Deep. Enthralled, Jansen felt compelled to pen a fan letter to the popular and prolific poet, novelist, and memoirist. What followed was a gig as Sarton's manuscript typist and a cache of 52 revelatory personal letters and other memorabilia published now for the first time. Jansen and Sarton enjoyed a close friendship of more than 20 years ending with Sarton's death in 1995. In her periodic letters, Sarton shares intimate details of her daily life and sounds many of the themes notable throughout her career--her workaholic schedule and perseverance in the face of poor health, her financial insecurity, her fragile self-image and agony at negative reviews, her serial and stormy relationships with her lover muses, and her infamous rages. Sarton's missives also reveal an endearing interest in Jansen's endeavors and in those of her daughter, Cecilia. As annotated by Jansen, this epistolary collection creates a tapestry of the lives of two, very different women woven together by their pains and passions.