Now in her vigorous seventies, May Sarton has produced fourteen books of poetry, as well as eighteen novels, several nonfiction "journals," books for children, and autobiographical works. Her range is unusually wide, and she continues to experiment within each genre. Paradoxically, the diversity of her approaches to literature, and her broad and varied readership, may have affected the responses of major critics to her achievements. Only in the past few years has serious attention begun to be paid to what is an oeuvre in the fullest sense. But it is as a poet that Sarton would most wish to be known.

Eléanore Marie Sarton (whose name was later Anglicized to Eleanor May) was born in Wondelgem, Belgium, to George Sarton, an eminent philosopher and scientific historian, and Eleanor Mabel Elwes Sarton, a gifted furniture and fabric designer. Her father was Belgian, her mother English, and when...