Odyssey of a Wandering Mind: The Strange Tale of Sara Mayfield, Author

Sara Mayfield was a talented but troubled daughter of the Old South who battled gender, class, family, and sanity constraints while surviving to forge a creative life of her own. She was born into Alabama's ruling class in 1905 and grew up in a social circle that included Zelda Sayre, Sara Haardt, and Tallulah and Eugenia Bankhead. After winning a Goucher College short story contest, she became friends with H. L. Mencken and his circle and visited with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. During World War II, she returned to her family home in Tuscaloosa and pursued a bizarre series of military and intelligence schemes. Her mother and brother committed her to Bryce Hospital for the Insane, where she remained for seventeen years. She kept journals, wrote fiction, and produced thousands of letters, hoping to write and publish books. At 59, she was released from Bryce and obtained a decree of "having been restored to sanity," enabling her to manage her own financial affairs and live how and where she pleased.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 29 February 2024
Publisher: The University of Alabama Press

Sara Mayfield was born into Alabama's ruling elite in 1905 and grew up in a social circle that included Zelda Sayre, Sara Haardt, and Tallulah and Eugenia Bankhead. After winning a Goucher College short story contest judged by H. L. Mencken, Mayfield became friends with Mencken and his circle, then visited with Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and hobnobbed with the literati while traveling in Europe after a failed marriage. Returning to Alabama during the Depression, she briefly managed the family landholdings before departing for New York City, where she became involved in the theater. Inventing a plastic compound while working on theatrical sets, she applied for a patent and set her sights on a livelihood as an inventor and businesswoman.

With the advent of World War II, Mayfield returned to her family home in Tuscaloosa, where she expanded her experiments, freelanced as a journalist, and doggedly pursued a bizarre series of military and intelligence schemes, prompting temporary hospitalization. In 1945, she mingled with a host of cultural figures, including Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth, and even a young John F. Kennedy, while reporting on the creation of the United Nations from Mexico and California. Back in Tuscaloosa after the war, however, she struggled to find her way with both work and family, becoming increasingly paranoid about perceived conspiracies arrayed against her. Finally, her mother and brother committed her to Bryce Hospital for the Insane, where she remained for the next seventeen years.

Throughout her life, Mayfield battled against the conventions of gender, class, family, and ultimately of sanity. She survived to define a creative life of her own, leaving a lasting legacy as a pioneering inventor and a trailblazer for women in science and technology. Despite her struggles, Mayfield's determination and resilience remained unwavering, and her story continues to inspire generations of women who seek to break barriers and pursue their dreams.

Weight: 486g
Dimension: 153 x 230 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780817361365