Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was renowned for her traditional poetry and bohemian life, becoming one of the premier twentieth-century lyric poets. At the age of seven, Edna's parents separated, and she saw little of her father. Edna (who insisted on being called Vincent, even entering writing contests under that name) and her sisters were encouraged in their literary, musical and dramatic leanings by their mother. Millay's free-spirited childhood led to an unconventional adulthood, and inspired much of her creativity. In 1912, she entered her poem 'Renascence' into a poetry contest, winning fourth place and a scholarship to Vassar. Millay's first book of poetry was published in 1917 and well-received. Her next volume, 'A Few Figs from Thistles' in 1922, sparked attention and controversy with its feminist leanings. In 1923 she won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and in the 1930s published sonnets that earned a lasting place as exemplars of the form. She later moved to the free-thinking and artistic borough of Greenwich Village. An acknowledged bisexual, her affections for women are sometimes evident in her poems and plays. She married Eugen Boissevain, who managed her career and was a great source of support. Their marriage was an "open" one, and Millay carried on several affairs, most notably with English actress 'Edith Wynne Matthison.' Infusing conventional forms with a fervent contemporary spirit, Edna later wrote several plays and an opera libretto. In later years she applied her art to the Allied war effort and other social causes. A heavy smoker, she succumbed to heart failure at the age of 58. Her upstate New York farmhouse, Steepletop, is now a National Historic Landmark.