Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Edna St. Vincent Millay, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 6509 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Customer Reviews (1)

Catalog Worthy of a Book
This 47 page catalog so thoroughly describes the materials in the New York Library's 1992 exhibition commemorating the anniversary of Edna St. Vincent Millay's 100th birthday as to tell the story of the poet's life. One can read reprinted letters and poetry. There are pictures of Millay not published in biographies of her. In particular the cover holds a rare photograph of Millay with her mother and two sisters. ... Read more

Book Description
This new addition to the elegant Library of Classic Poets series features selections from one of the best-loved poets of the early twentieth century. Elegantly packaged in a handsome edition with a satin ribbon marker, this volume is the perfect addition to any poetry library. Immerse yourself in the candid verse of Edna St. Vincent Millay, including such favorites as:

• "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"
• "Renascence"
• selections from A Few Figs from Thistles ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Enchanting poems from an enchantress
The introduction to this collection of poetry says that Edna St. Vincent Millay has been criticized for not being sufficiently "modernist".He poems are too sentimental, too easy-to-read, and borrow too much from 18th century styles.Well the critics might be right but I love this poetry and plan to read more.

Her most famous lines are here "My candle burns at both ends...it gives a lovely light", her first famous poem is here "Renascance"--this spooky poem gained her a mentor and an education at Vassar--and also present are poems from "Fatal Interview" and "Epitath for the Race of Man".My favorite poems are the short ones that talk of love: these are the easy-to-read poems dismissed by the critics.

If you read this poem then you must read the potrait of Edna St. Vincent Millay in "The New Yorker" and the memoir "The Shores of Light" by Edmund Wilson, the later book reviewer for The New Yorker magazine.

Edmun Wilson was just one of ESVM many jilted suitors.But she let him down gently her said.His book describes how he found work for her at Vanity Fair magazine.ESVM evidently charmed all the men she came in touch with.The editor of Vanity Fair complained that he could not have both of his editors in love with the same contributor to the magazine.

Many of the ESVM poems here have to do with nature, like the poem "Spring".Perhaps this is because she moved out of Greenwich Village to the country and there she wrote collections such as "The Buck in Snow".When she got married and left the city she didn't lose touch with her circle of fans and hangers-on including Edmun Wilson.Wilson describes here there at her farm reciting her poetry--she knew all her poems by heart--to wide-eyed admirers.

Alot of her poems here have no title.I imagine she might have felt that the title could be a distraction to a poem.If you can't think of a good one then don't create one at all.

Finally, feminists certainly will be upset with lines like "I, being born a woman and distressed By all the needs and notions of my kind..."But this is good stuff and lets us peer inside the female heart.They are just like us men it appears "...feel a certain zest to bear your body's weight upon my breast".This stuff is just as erotic and passionate as Shakespeare's sonnets and lyric poems--well not quite but good enough.

Beautiful Poetry
I first became intrigued with the life and writing of Edna St. Vincent Millay when visiting the region of her birth while vacationing in Maine. I picked up this book as an introduction to her work and was very pleasantly surprised. "Renaissance" is her best known work and it seethes with life, hope and evinces the young Ms. Millay's gift for creating beautiful prose! Many of the other poems, which often center around death and rebirth or the loss of a lover, are equally penetrating and stunningly written in lucid language and unique metaphor. Highly recommended!

...makes you want to read more, more...
I have just finished this, my first reading of Millay's poetry and I must say I enjoyed it. This anthology makes me want to read more, not less. Her poems convince me that a biography of her life would probably be a worthwhile read also.The escape she is longing for and never quite leaps into, her obvious disdain for anything artificial or constrained combined with her love and respect for the naturally occurring (freedom)... these are dominant themes. And everywhere, TREES and other growing things! It is amazing how often the trees, fruit, grain, the forest, orchards, mushrooms, moss and even weeds are the things which Millay uses to convey her philosophical reflections. In my opinion, her finest poem (Renascence) written when she was 19 reveals early on this connection she felt between revealed nature and transcendence. "God, I can push the grass apart/And lay my finger on Thy heart!"

Colin Falck, in the Introduction comments that Millay was under-appreciated by those who considered her technique too traditional, and her content lacking in intellectual complexity. Did any of these critics read her sonnets I wonder? I agree with Falck's conclusion that "it is time we found a proper place for this intense, thoughtful, and magnificently literate poet." To the merciless critics I would send Millay's own words... "Cruel of heart, lay down my song./Your reading eyes have done me wrong./Not for you was the pen bitten,/And the mind wrung, and the song written."

Millay
Millay's poetry are so touching and inspiring to the soul.You can't experience poetry until you read "Rennaisance", and so many of her other poems that give you such a love for the human body and the nature around us.R.A.E. ... Read more

Book Description
"These are the poems that made Edna St. Vincent Millay’s reputation when she was young. Saucy, insolent, flip, and defiant, her little verses sting the page," writes Nancy Milford in the Introduction to The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. As one of America’s most beloved poets–and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1923–Millay defined a generation with her intoxicating voice of liberation. Most remembered for her passionate, lyrical voice and mastery of the sonnet form, Millay explores love, death, and nature in her poetry while deftly employing allusions to the classical and the romantic. In 1917, at the age of twenty, she burst onto the New York literary scene with the publication of her first book of poetry, Renascence and Other Poems, which is included in this volume.

Edited by Millay biographer Nancy Milford, The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay also includes the collections A Few Figs from Thistles and Second April, as well as "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver" and eight of Millay’s sonnets from the early twenties. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Worth it for the sonnets alone
Her shorter pieces are much better than her longer ones. Many of the sonnets are quite good.She may be unlucky or unhappy in love, but she is wry about it and not the least bit maudlin or self-indulgent.

The poems about the unbearable beauties of nature strike me as overwrought and do not work at all.

Her shortest bits sting the page. As an example, this two lines, the "Second Fig" from her collection A Few Figs From Thistles, describes quite neatly those whose ability to see facts are limited by their wishing them not so. She writes:

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!

Be Warned
Edna St. Vincent Millay is (in my opinion) one of the great 20th century poets, generally under-appreciated.Readers who buy this edition SHOULD BE WARNED that it's not a selection from her whole life's work, but only from her early poetry, which made her reputation but isn't necessarily her best.If you want a more comprehensive view of her work, including the later, more mature work, I think you'll have to get the Collected Poems and make your own 'selection'.

Millay--genius, Milford--idiot
Millay is one of those poets who can convey her passions succinctly.with detail, but a passionate brevity. a woman's perspective on love, friends, eternity, and humanity that can be read by any gender.The editor, however, mistakenly describes Millay's wellknown poem "Renescence" as a poem "about being buried alive".ridicuously misinterpreting Millay's theme of rebirth and reincarnation.I own this book and am happy to have the comfort of Millay's poetry.

that i love easily and pass the time
i will review this as a subset of her collected poems. millay was extremely talented, and had a resurgence in 2001 , she has
a memorial stamp from 1981. she is one of the best poets of american literature, this will be an excellent addition to your library, and an exciting opportunity to rediscover a very talented lady often neglected , i am comparing her sonnets to
shakespeares, since they are so well done

A Good Introduction
This book is a good introduction to the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay presenting many of her most memorable poems.It is not a comprehensive presentation of her writing (for example, some of her more erotic poems are not present) but it is not meant to be. The introduction is good and provides the highlights of her life and career.I would like to have had a chronology of her life and a list of her complete works in this book.Overall, this volume satisfied my curiosity but I would want a good biography to accompany this book in order to know more about St. Vincent Millay.

I must also comment on the book itself.My copy has many pages that were cut at an angle with the result that when they were bound the text becomes the margin!The end papers were also effected so the design is set on a slight angle, the edge of which comes close to being cut off.It was unsettling for me to find this book in this condition.I did not return it because I did not care to go to the expense (considering the price of the book) of packaging the book to send back. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Best of EdnaMillay - with wonderful commentary!
A very fine presentation of the early work of Edna St. Vincent Millay, one of our finest American poets. I find her work to
be in a class of its own, reaching out to the human spirit.

The presentation in this book of her first three published works really exposes the reader to Millay at the top of her form.

For me, the notes and commentary of Editor Holly Peppe helped greatly.Dr. Peppe's analysis is extremely readable and shows
a wonderful understanding of her subject.In her introduction
Holly Peppe gives an excellent overview of Ms. Millay's life as well as her art. And I found her notes in this book on Millay's
writing to be interesting and insightful. HIGHLY recommended!

It's an important and lovely book.
This book is a lovely way to return to Edna St. Vincent Millay's early radiant poetry or to read it for the first time. Editor Holly Peppe'simportant and knowlegable introduction answers many lingering questionsabout Millay's place as a poet, her experience as a woman, and heroriginality as an artist. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Fans of Zelda, Nancy Milford's groundbreaking (and bestselling) biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald's tortured wife and muse, have been waiting impatiently since 1970 for Milford's promised follow-up about poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950). It's finally here, and they will not be disappointed. Milford's vivid narrative limns an electric personality with psychological acuity while capturing the freewheeling atmosphere of America in the turbulent years following World War I. After "Renascence" was published (when she was only 20) and she moved to Greenwich Village, Millay was the queen of bohemia, taking lovers with zest and voicing the reckless gaiety of a generation in her famous lyric, "My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends-- / It gives a lovely light." With her flame-red hair, milk-white skin, and a voice that thrilled audiences (making her poetry readings a welcome source of income), Millay was the archetypal "new woman": powerful, passionate, and not to be ignored. But Milford makes it clear that her first loyalty was to her mother and sisters, and her deepest commitment to her writing. This juicy chronicle has famous names aplenty--critic Edmund Wilson and Masses editor Floyd Dell were among the men devastated by her refusal to be faithful--and lots of dissipation: Millay drank heavily and became addicted to morphine. It also takes a perceptive look at how an artist draws material from her life and at the strategies she uses to protect the wellsprings of creativity. Brief passages interspersed throughout delineating Milford's interactions with Norma Millay, the poet's younger sister and literary executor, might have been self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing; instead they offer intriguing snapshots of the complex process by which biography is made. The resulting book is a tour de force, and wildly entertaining as well. --Wendy SmithBook Description
Thirty years after the smashing success of Zelda, Nancy Milford returns with a stunning second act.Savage Beauty is the portrait of a passionate, fearless woman who obsessed American ever as she tormented herself.

If F. Scott Fitzgerald was the hero of the Jazz Age, Edna St. Vincent Millay, as flamboyant in her love affairs as she was in her art, was its heroine.The first woman ever to win the Pulitzer Prize, Millay was dazzling in the performance of herself.Her voice was likened to an instrument of seduction and her impact on crowds, and on men, was legendary. Yet beneath her studied act, all was not well.Milford calls her book "a family romance"--for the love between the three Millay sisters and their mother was so deep as to be dangerous.As a family, they were like real-life Little Women, with a touch of Mommie Dearest.

Nancy Milford was given exclusive access to Millay's papers, and what she found was an extraordinary treasure.Boxes and boxes of letter flew back and forth among the three sisters and their mother--and Millay kept the most intimate diary, one whose ruthless honesty brings to mind Sylvia Plath.Written with passion and flair, Savage Beauty is an iconic portrait of a woman's life.Download Description
Thirty years after the smashing success of Zelda, Milford returns with a stunning second act. Savage Beauty is the portrait of Edna St. Vincent Millay, a passionate, fearless woman who obsessed America even as she tormented herself. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (46)

Too heavy on the research to be a good read
I was looking forward to this book, having enjoyed Milford's "Zelda" very much. But boy, you have to plow your way through seemingly every letter Millay ever wrote or received. Some details are relentlessly spelled out while other, more salient points don't get the attention they deserve. (What physical or mental problems were really at the root of her most serious breakdown? When, exactly, and why did her morphine addiction take root?) And I don't know what anyone else thought about it, but I felt Milford paid far, far too much attention to Millay's anatomy. It was off-putting to me. I also find it annoying when photographs are described in detail in the text but do not appear in the picture sections.

Edna St. Vincent Millay's life certainly mirrored that of her most famous poem, "First Fig"; she did burn the candle at both ends. Her personal life was largely a sad one, but she brought a lot of her personal woes upon herself. Better to read the poems. . . they remain fresh as ever, revealing and possessed of a remarkable clarity and gift for the turn of phrase.

Enlightening
Surprised to find out she had a very active and interesting life. Would not know it by the writings she composed.

I loved this book.
I picked this book up for the first time in a summer rental house.I couldn't put it down and I had to run out and buy my own copy when I got home.I was not familiar with Millay before reading this book, so I cannot compare it to the million other opinions of her, but as a narrative on its own I have been mesmerized.I think this is an extremely well written biography that captures the essence of the relationships we nuture and cherish.Everytime I pick it up again I slip effortlessly into a different place in time when one could simply be an artist, a genius, and be celebrated.The descriptions are vivid and the narrative is strong and engaging.It's simply a well written book and I loved it.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, Subject of Nancy Milford (oh, and she was a poet, too)
In this biography, Milford seems to be an historian first and a writer second.Or, perhaps, a prima donna first, an historian second, and then a writer.There is nothing wrong with either order unless one's prerogative in reading happens to be pleasure.Then, dear reader, it seems you have been "punk'd."
While I reveled in the details of Millay's life there were a few I wish Milford would have omitted: the "dramatic natural beauty" of the New England where Millay grew up; the lack of transition between paragraphs; and, perhaps the most aggravating, Milford herself!While the author has undoubtedly waded through a great deal of documents and interviews, one feels she doesn't quite know what to do with them.Other reviewers have noted that Milford hasn't processed or analyzed much of the material, but simply dumps it on the reader to sort out.And I agree.Further, she parades Millay's surviving sister, Norma, about as a primary source.However, while Norma's reflections and recollections are used when convenient, she seems to serve largely as the vehicle for Milford to infiltrate her own subject's biography!Indeed, while Norma is portrayed as a loving and level-headed sister and human being in the text, the prologue paints her as fickle, selfish, and maniuplative while Milford is the one righteous and serene.Other scenes and dialogues involving Norma seem random until one realizes Milford is characterizing Norma or inserting herself (once, as the object of Norma's sexual advance. The vixen!) One is reminded of Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" which scholars joke ought to be renamed, "Samuel Johnson, Friend of James Boswell."If Milford could get out of her own way, this would likely be a very fine read. Truthfully, I did not dislike it.Not entirely.I only wish it were friendlier to those of us not preparing for assignments on great American poets.And an homage to Millay rather than to Milford.

Edna deserved better
I have always loved the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and eagerly looked forward to reading Milford's book, as a matter of fact I was extremely happy to see the size and heft of the book thinking that Milford must have clearly explored all the facets of Millay's life. humpf

Milford was given access to a tremendous amount of Millay's papers/letters/journals/photos and even was able to interview Millay's sister, Norma.With the wealth of material at her hands about a truly fascinating, gifted, and tragic woman this biography should have been an insightful, mesmerizing page-turner. . . key words here are SHOULD HAVE BEEN!

Instead I was bored. Lots of facts. Lots and lots of long excerpts of letters to and from Millay - minus comments or analysis from Milford. No delving into Millay's philosophy on life and men. No exploring the depth of emotion in Millay's poems.

Oh, and another thing, the book provides photos but many of them are never addressed in the book. Now if the pic was just of Millay's face, ok, I don't need background BUT when a photo says "Recovering from her operation . . ." and the book never mentions an operation then we have a problem. And there were many problems. Yes, I know I sound cranky and this review may even seem disjointed but that is because I am so frustrated and angry over being cheated.

Millay deserves better. Readers deserve better. ... Read more

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Poet, playwright, and translator Daniel Mark Epstein certainly has the right background to understand and evaluate poet, playwright, and translator Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)--though Millay didn't write biographies. Readers of Epstein's Sister Aimee and Nat King Cole will recognize the intense personal engagement the author brings to his task. He's not afraid to express an almost physical fascination for his subjects, which is especially appropriate for the flamboyant Millay, who insisted on the right to take as many lovers as she pleased and to write about them in some of the greatest erotic poetry in American verse. Epstein focuses on that poetry, deciphering the affairs that fueled it and elucidating the boldly iconoclastic, almost cynical acceptance of love's fleeting nature that informs it. (Of the last sonnet in A Few Figs from Thistles, with its notorious putdown, "I shall forget you presently, my dear / So make the most of this, your little day," he remarks: "For a woman, not yet thirty, to compose and market such a poem... was a scandal, an alarm, and a red flag to censors.") While the Edna St. Vincent Millay who emerges in Nancy Milford's Savage Beauty is indelibly shaped by her upbringing, particularly her relationship with her mother and sisters, Epstein's Millay is a self-created goddess of love and literature. It's fascinating to compare these two biographies, published nearly simultaneously and each with considerable merits. Milford's lengthy book, the product of three decades of research, is lavish with details and comprehensive in scope. Epstein's more selective work excels in cogent summaries and forcefully stated opinions. Either book will satisfy readers with an interest in Millay or American literature; really passionate aficionados of the art of biography will want to read both. --Wendy Smith Book Description
Using letters, diaries, and journals of the poet and her lovers that have only recently become available, Daniel Mark Epstein tells the astonishing story of the life, dedicated to art and love, that inspired the sublime lyrics of Edna St. Vincent Millay. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Edna St. Vincent Millay
This is an intimate portrait of Millay that I cherish.It is also a valuble historical account of many aspects of Maine life.The location and circumstances of Millay's estranged father and the inhabitants of the small town of Kingman in Northern Penobscot County are invaluable in my research of the area.Henry Millay lived in my house in Kingman and no doubt some of Vincent's work was conceived, if not written from my house.It is this connection which has led to my current collection of Millay's work and life.Thank you for this offering on your invaluable site.

A Poet's Life Unfurled
It's not easy being a poet, and Daniel Mark Epstein's biography of Edna St.Vincent Millay in What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, confirms this.From love affairs with men and women to excessive drinking, this book has it all.
However, there were some things in the book that could have been elaborated on.For example, Epstein had my attention from the very first chapters about Millay's young life as a poet.He mentions how she would conduct candlelight seances in her rooms at night, and would use them as inspiration to write her poetry.He also mentions how close she was with her mother, Cora.I think Epstein should have gone into further detail on both Millay's life as a young poet, and her relationship to her mother.Instead, the book focuses on her love affairs with many men (and a few with some of the women she met at Vassar), as well as the ups and downs she experienced within these relationships and within her life as a poet.Now granted, the book might not be successful if it tried to incorporate the points I would have liked to have seen, but I think especially concerning Millay's feelings of great love for her mother, it might make the book a stronger one.
What I admired about the book was the feeling I got of Epstein's concern as a present-day writer looking into Millay's steady decline as poet throughout.As a reader, I sensed a certain kind of admiration and esteem for her in the tone of the book, especially at the start of her career as a writer.I was saddened at the end of the book to learn that Millay died from an intake of too much alcohol as well as a fall from her steps. Epstein's concern at the end, too, only strengthened my view that poets do not lead the kinds of high-roller lives that people would like to believe they do.
When I finished the book, I found myself wanting to know more of the sensitive and acclaimed poet.I wanted to know what drew her so much to alcohol and morphine that she was so wont to abuse.I wanted to know why exactly her husband Eugen's reasoning was in briefly trying morphine in an attempt to make her realize that morphine was indeed not the solution to her problems.I wanted to know what Millay's reasoning was in having extra-marital affairs with other men while being married to Eugen.And I wanted to know more about Millay's sisters; why Kathleen went mad, and why she seemed to stay more in touch with her other sister, Norma, more than Kathleen.I wanted more answers than I got from reading this book.
In short, while this book is interesting and well-organized, it does not offer a complete look into Millay's psyche and way of perceiving her world.It is most probably a book that would support research done on the poet's life, rather than being a book that can stand on its own.If you want to read a book about Millay's love affairs, read this book.If you want to read about her life as a whole, look elsewhere.

The best so far
This is simply a great biography.

Apparently Epstein was able to gain access to a vast Library of Congress collection of documents on Millay that won't be released to the public until 2010. And he seems to have done an unusually good job of sorting through all this information and putting it in order.

Perhaps it's due to Epstein being a poet himself, but he's able to give a wonderfully sensitive and intelligent account of Millay's life. He's done lots of detective work, and it seems to all hold together.

It's an unbelievable story -- so American in some ways: the gilded age to ragtime to the Jazz Age, the World Wars, anti-war and women's rights, passion, poetry, Greenwich Village and the Left Bank, genius, narcissism, money, fame, sex, alcohol, drugs, a skyrocket ride from poverty to success to destruction.

And yet so un-American in its calm, well-behaved, almost English manner: no shooting, no fist-fights, no one calling the cops, a time when books of poetry sold 50,000 copies and folks jam-packed auditoriums to hear poetry readings -- think Bloomsbury secretly on meth and Virginia Woolf quietly dedicating herself to nymphomania.

Really a well-written book, and surely the best biography of Millay so far.

What Lips My Lips Have Kissed.....
Mr. Epstein's passion for his subject was the first attractor for me upon reading this well written, intriguing biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, specifically focusing on her very tumultuous love life and the poetry which was birthed due to her romantic and [physical relations].

The prose reads like Mr. Epstein has fallen in love with Edna just as the many men in her path fell in love with her.

I also found the diversions which came later (like the horse Chaladon) and her well known descent into alcoholism and drug addiction were very compelling to dive into: I would have appreciated more of these times, although the limited documentation available would explain why there isn't more information here.

This book does its job well: makes me more curious about Edna St. Vincent Millay: from her poetry, her plays and her life outside the written word.

Terrific reading
Daniel Mark Epstein brings a special understanding to Edna St Vincent Millay's biography by virtue of being a poet himself. I think that's why this book is in many ways superior to the Nancy Mitford book.

Edna St Vincent Millay was not only a great person of words, but a great seductress and everyone, male and female alike, fell under her spell. Apparently, accordingly to this book, she managed to live up to their expectations quite well. Mr Epstein matches the love poems to the folks they were written for and gives the details of the various affairs. It may not sound interesting, but it is quite interesting - especially since M's Millay seemed to have a weakness for men who were not quite as talented as she was. The background behind "Fatal Interview" and the story of her (apparently) one love she lost before_she_ was ready to is quite an interesting read by itself.

Mr Epstein focuses on M's Millay as sort of a self made goddess and how her various affairs shaped her writing. M's Mitford focuses on how M's Millay's relationship with her mother shaped her life. Both of these are very interesting and I'd advise reading them consecutively and draw your own conclusions. In some respects, I think Mr Epstein is correct in what he presumes, but the same can be said of M's Mitford.

Throw yourself into the words and life of Edna St Vincent Millay - you'll find yourself awash with her beautiful poetry and prose and this book will help you make sense out of it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Vincent - An Early 20th Century Poet Defined
This portrayal of Edna St. Vincent Millay is not only a solid biography, but a finely crafted novel in itself.Bringing you through her artistically bohemian childhood through to her wildly aware college years and beyond, this is a book filled with a most vivid depiction of the poet's life while attempting to recreate her views of growing up on the east coast in Penobscot and attending school at Vassar.I would suggest it to anyone who enjoys biographies, literature, Millay's work, or early 20th century history. ... Read more