Faithful are the Wounds

Faithful Are the Wounds is May Sarton's powerful meditation on intellectual courage, political principle, and the devastating cost of idealism during the McCarthy era. Published in 1955, the same year it was written, this bold and timely novel directly confronted the political repression sweeping American universities. Inspired by the 1950 suicide of Harvard professor and literary critic F.O. Matthiessen, Sarton explores a question that haunted her generation: "How can a man be both wrong and right at the same time?"

The story centers on Edward Cavan, a brilliant English professor whose uncompromising political convictions and mounting sense of isolation lead him to throw himself under a subway train. Rather than beginning with his life, Sarton opens with his death, then unfolds the narrative through the perspectives of those who knew him—his estranged sister Isabel, his devoted student George Hastings, his friend Damon Phillips who betrayed him out of fear, and others—each wrestling with what his suicide means for their own compromised positions.

Set against the backdrop of Harvard and Cambridge, the novel dramatizes the plight of embattled American liberals in the 1950s with remarkable immediacy. The Atlantic Monthly called it "by all odds [Sarton's] best" novel. Critics have noted Sarton's psychological acuity, particularly in the pivotal dinner party scene where Edward's friend Damon makes a last desperate attempt to reconcile with him—a chapter that evokes Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway in its subtle exploration of consciousness and social dynamics.

The book's title, taken from Proverbs 27:6 ("Faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy"), captures the paradox at its heart: that Edward's most loyal friends remained faithful even as they wounded him with their caution and pragmatism. The book was a National Book Award finalist in 1956.

About Rinehart & Company: One of America's major mid-century publishers, Rinehart & Company (founded 1946) was formed through the merger of Farrar & Rinehart with the John Day Company. The firm published significant literary fiction throughout the 1950s before merging with Holt in 1960 to become Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Their 1955 first editions are highly regarded for their quality production.

About May Sarton: Belgian-born American poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton (1912-1995) was one of the most prolific writers of her generation, producing 53 books over her lifetime. While known for her bold examination of women's artistic lives and her courage in addressing lesbian themes (particularly in her 1965 novel Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing), Faithful Are the Wounds stands as her most overtly political work and one of her finest achievements in fiction.