write Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing," she wrote in Journal of a Solitude, "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 neither pitiable nor disgusting, without sentimentality ..." After the book's release, many of Sarton's works began to be studied in university level women's studies classes, being embraced by feminists and lesbians alike. Margot Peters' controversial authorized biography (1998) revealed May Sarton as a complex individual who often struggled in her relationships. Peters' book was often scathing ("People who had the misfortune to become her intimates almost universally came to regret it. On the slightest of pretexts, Ms. Peters has it, Sarton subjected them to 'terrible scenes, nights of weeping, rages, blowups.' She was expert at emotional blackmail, and behaved badly in restaurants. Self-absorbed and insensitive, May Sarton wooed others with extravagant attentions, only to betray and humiliate them later -- 'with scant regard,' Ms. Peters observes, 'for the chaos left in her wake.'"), but the biography was considered "thoughtful, even-handed, [and] well-written." A selected edition of Sarton's letters was edited by Susan Sherman in 1997 and many of Sarton's papers are held in the New York Public Library. Bibliography Poetry books Encounter in April (1937) Inner Landscape (1939) The Lion and the Rose (1948) The Land of Silence (1953) In Time Like Air (1958) Cloud, Stone, Sun, Vine (1961) A Private Mythology (1966) As Does New Hampshire (1967) A Grain of Mustard Seed (1971) A Durable Fire (1972) Collected Poems, 1930-1973 (1974) Selected Poems of May Sarton (edited by Serena Sue Hilsinger and Lois Brynes) (1978) Halfway to Silence (1980) Letters from Maine (1984) Collected Poems, 1930-1993 (1993) Coming Into Eighty (1994) Winner of the Levinson Prize From May Sarton's Well: Writings of May Sarton (edited by Edith Royce Schade) (1999) Nonfiction I Knew a Phoenix: Sketches for an Autobiography (1959) Plant Dreaming Deep (1968) Journal of a Solitude (1973) A World of Light (1976) The House by the Sea (1977) Recovering: A Journal (1980) Writings on Writing (1980) May Sarton: A Self-Portrait (1982) At Seventy: A Journal (1984) After the Stroke (1988) Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-Ninth Year (1992) Encore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year (1993) At Eighty-Two (1996) Novels The Single Hound (1938) The Bridge of Years (1946) The Return of Corporal Greene