SOURCE: A review of Encore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year, in The Bloomsbury Review, Vol. 13, No. 5, September-October, 1993, p. 22.

[Schwartzkopff is an American editor. In the review below, she provides a favorable assessment of Encore.]

May Sarton will never be a candidate for sainthood. She's crabby when she feels ill, snaps at people when she's under stress, and is vulnerable to the relentless undertow of depression. But her way of sharing herself, warts and all, has won her journal fans around the world. She takes the writing of journals seriously, feeling an obligation to be truthful with her readers.

Knowing my journals would be read has provided a certain discipline for me. It has forced me to try to be honest with myself and thus with my readers, not to pretend that things are better than they are, but learn to evaluate without self-pity or self-glorification what has...