The Education Of Harriet Hatfield
(May Sarton)
Is it possible for someone to begin a new life at sixty? Well, Harriet Hatfield is about to do just that. Vicky, her life partner for thirty years has just died. The death of her lover carries Harriet on a wave of sadness, loneliness, emptiness and self-doubt as Vicky was dominant and self-assured and she is shy and self-effacing.
Vicky has left her well off financially and she decides to pursue her dream of opening a women''s bookstore in a working class area near Boston. But when she opens Hatfield House, Harriet is bombarded with anonymous, threatening phone calls and obscenities are written on her windows.
These events prompt the Boston Globe newspaper to send a reporter for an interview. Harriet, who is considered to be an "innocent abroad" by her friends, is very open with the reporter about her lifestyle and her reason for opening the bookstore. The reporter seemed sympathetic during the interview but when it was printed, the headline screamed, "Lesbian Bookstore Owner Threatened."
Harriet is shocked by the word "lesbian." She has never considered herself a member of a scorned, persecuted minority. Now that she has "ventured out of the closet" she becomes a target for some and a heroine for others.
On the one hand the persecution intensifies and her beloved dog is killed. Even the police are unwilling to offer her protection. On the other hand, women who are afraid to "come out" because the risk is too great, see her as their mouthpiece. Her brother, who has been secretly gay all his life, now feels brave enough to admit it openly. People who are discriminated against, befriend her.
Harriet now stands in the door that she herself has opened, ready to take on the world of homophobia that she has been sheltered from all her life.
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