Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

Aug 29, 2007 Rosemary Titievsky rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is one long book and I wanted more. Not more pages. More poetry. And way more salaciousness. Alas, Nancy Milford is a patient professional who carefully presents well-documented facts with little innuendo.

The story of Edna is beyond fascinating. This sort-of homely girl from Maine uses her mind and ability to pierce through people's facades to seduce her way through life. But there's so much more to the story. She works hard and deserves her successes. She loves to be loved, cares to be car...more

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Nov 25, 2007 Leanna rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone looking for a psychological read

I will admit that I didn't know of Edna St. Vincent Millay before starting on this book and so I greatly enjoyed the introduction to her poetry - certain poems are excerpted at length in this book and I found them to be lovely and insightful. Moreover, the portrait of Edna and her entire family was detailed, layered and complex. In fact, the entire description of Edna's life called out for psychological interpretation at nearly every turn. Although I never felt that I really liked any of the cha...more

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Jan 08, 2008 Smallen rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who wants to learn what a tremendous asshole Vincent is

This book made me hate Edna St. Vincent Millay. No joke. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for some of her verses especially some from Conversations at Midnight, but she seems an awful, ugly, nasty person.

That aside, I wasn't really a tremendous fan of the book. I loved Milford's biography of Zelda Fitzgerald and expected a lot from the follow up that took 30 years to research and write. It was too choppy for me. There were so many letters and excerpts from letters that I never felt like...more

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Aug 01, 2007 Brekke rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: readitlovedit

I'm biased because Edna St. Vincent Millay is my absolute favorite poet. So learning more about her was very interesting to me.

The book itself is incredibly well researched, really delving into the wild life of this amazing women.

She's not really someone you can idolize or look up to, but she is someone you can fall in love with, and that shines through beautifully in this biography.

I will warn that it is a bit heavy, and getting through the entire thing does involve a little slogging, but for s...more

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Apr 19, 2009 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

What a riveting biography of a remarkable literary and feminist icon. It took Nancy Milford 30 years to write this biography of "Vincent" - and after you read it, you can understand why. Milford remains remarkably true to her sources - a vast treasure trove of at-that-point-unseen letters, journals, notebooks, unfinished works, and more from Edna St. Vincent Millay's estate. In the book, she lets the sources stretch their legs and breathe, allowing us readers to stew in Vincent's rich, impeccabl...more What a riveting biography of a remarkable literary and feminist icon. It took Nancy Milford 30 years to write this biography of "Vincent" - and after you read it, you can understand why. Milford remains remarkably true to her sources - a vast treasure trove of at-that-point-unseen letters, journals, notebooks, unfinished works, and more from Edna St. Vincent Millay's estate. In the book, she lets the sources stretch their legs and breathe, allowing us readers to stew in Vincent's rich, impeccable writing. We get to read full letters, full ten-page poems. We are transported into the thick of her sumptuous drama-laden life. Yet Milford allows Vincent's literary triumphs, her frank eroticism, her late-in-life petulance, addiction, and downward spiral to unfold quietly, without a hint of sensationalism. Above all, this book feels honest.

But It seems to me that Milford made a conscious methodological decision with this biog, one I ultimately lamented. Savage Beauty almost reads in real-time; that is, she revels in the details of Vincent's fantastic life in a way that makes you feel like you are watching it via hidden camera. Yet Milford does little in the way of contextualization.

As a historian, I walked away wondering why Milford failed to situate Vincent's life in the history of feminism during this time, changing sexual ideals and possibilities for American women, the history of New York's bohemia ... I could go on and on about the themes that could have been addressed here. Vincent's life seemed a perfect entry point onto these fascinating processes, but Milford declined to allow it to be so.

As someone who knows significantly less about poetry than I do about history, I longed for some analysis of Vincent's work ... Vincent's poems seemed so old fashioned during a time of striking experimentation with modernist forms. Wasn't she a throwback? Was she just a celebrity or was she truly deserving of the heaps of praise she received throughout her life?

Milford offers little in the way of judgment of Vincent, her poetry, and her life. While I think this was purposeful, and on some level admirable, it seemed as if she passed up a rare opportunity to explain the way that the early 20th century influenced Vincent, and vice versa.(less)

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Jul 25, 2008 Ned Ryerson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just started this, but so far so good. Millay was a very "out there" character for her time. She was promiscuous and not choosy about which sex she slept with. She smoked and drank and partied. She was politically vocal and active. She hated the Lindberghs and publicly spoke out against them when they were advocating the Nazis. People adored her, but also hated and feared her. Thomas Hardy once said that there were only two good things about America--the skyscraper and the poetry of Edna St Vinc...more

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Jul 02, 2008 Maggie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-books

Review: Savage Beauty written by Nancy Milford
I began this book not having the slightest idea about Edna St. Vincent Millay other than a few poems of hers I remembered from a poetry collection, and came away from it enthralled as much with the story as I was with the care Nancy Milford took in every detail, every analysis, every description. A biography has twin hearts: the first being the story, the life itself, and the second being the biographers interpretations- of not only the happenings, b...more

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Jun 06, 2008 Chrissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the second time I've picked this up and begun reading only to become intimidated by the subject and lay it aside. Biographies in general are difficult for me to read, because they make me feel guilty for reading rather than doing.

In this particular case, the biographer is careful to draw parallels down through three generations, ending with Edna Vincent Millay. The beginning of the book reaches backward through the life of Vincent's mother and grandmother, setting up the life to come as...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Taylor rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: writers, women, women writers

Shelves: non-fiction, own, given, favorites, real-people, just-like-a-woman, women-writers

This is a remarkable biography, for a multitude of reasons.

First, I must admit my own ignorance when it comes to much of Millay's work. I think I was surprised by how well-known she was in her day. I took advanced English courses in high school, studied English quite a bit in college, and yet my knowledge of her was so very limited, and the same went for my English nerd friends who I brought her up to. This either reflects poorly on the school systems, the way that fame of women is regarded, the...more This is a remarkable biography, for a multitude of reasons.

First, I must admit my own ignorance when it comes to much of Millay's work. I think I was surprised by how well-known she was in her day. I took advanced English courses in high school, studied English quite a bit in college, and yet my knowledge of her was so very limited, and the same went for my English nerd friends who I brought her up to. This either reflects poorly on the school systems, the way that fame of women is regarded, the way that poetry is regarded, or all three.

As with so many people who show promise so young - when she wrote her first acclaimed poem she was but a teenager - she was quickly thrust under the spotlight and cherished each moment it was on her. She led a very dramatic and alluring life, and as usually goes, it ended sadly and more quickly than it should've.

I've read some reviews complaining about how much the book focuses on her lovers, but I think each is very telling about Millay, particularly Ferdinand Earle, Arthur Ficke, Edmund Wilson and, of course, Eugen Boissevain. I was actually most interested in her relationship with Boissevain, as a result of the portrayal of her love life. It seemed like no one would ever be able to make her commit in anyway, so you grew curious about what it was that Boissevain had/did that the others didn't. I ended up breezing through reading about the "juicy" parts out of curiosity for what it was that thrust her into domestic life.

What he did was mother her - which made sense, considering Millay's relationship with her mother. Millay had an incredibly close - and odd - relationship with her mother, and it seemed as though there was no other woman that Millay was ever so close to, including her sisters, both of whom she also had very strange relationships with.

Getting back to Boissevain, their relationship was incredibly fascinating. For example, while Millay was addicted to morphine, Boissevain began taking the drug, as well, so that he could understand what she was going through. When she quit, he quit. When he was dealing with his lung cancer and had difficulties breathing, she mimicked this, trying to understand his pain. If that's not love, I don't know what is.

I do agree with the people who wanted more poetry in the book - but the book is so good, if you don't own any of her poetry, you won't have any problem in going out and buying one. Milford does do a good job of illuminating Millay's creative process, though, and I think that's more important in the context of this biography.

I found all too many similarities between myself and Millay, which made it an interesting read, but I think any young, ambitious writer will see a bit of themselves in her... which is probably why my Grandmother had the smarts to give it to me.

All in all, a fascinating read, even for someone who was rather unfamiliar with Millay's work. I have a strong appreciation for who she is, and I think this was a nice introduction. Like any long non-fiction book, it can take quite a bit of time to read through, and it has its sluggish moments - I'm a fast reader and it took me about a month and a half - but it's worth reading, all the same.

Note: I'm still thinking about this, even weeks later, so it gets bumped up to five stars.(less)

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Jul 11, 2012 Kerry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: everything

I was introduced to the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay this past semester when I took an Intro to Poetry class. We read “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed” and “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why.” From that point on, I have been a major fan of Millay’s work and I wanted to know more about her. So I looked around for a good biography to read and found Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Vincent (as Millay was known by family and friends) was a fascinating wom...more I was introduced to the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay this past semester when I took an Intro to Poetry class. We read “I, Being Born a Woman and Distressed” and “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why.” From that point on, I have been a major fan of Millay’s work and I wanted to know more about her. So I looked around for a good biography to read and found Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Vincent (as Millay was known by family and friends) was a fascinating woman, living in a fascinating time period. She was bold, creative, and charismatic, drawing people to her with her child-like beauty, her voice, passion and sheer talent. Reading excerpts from her letters and diaries was interesting and entertaining. (At times, especially when she was a college student at Vassar, she comes across almost like a character from a Lucy Maud Montgomery book (like Emily Byrd Starr) albeit one that smokes, acts out, and has a LOT more sex that any character Montgomery would ever have written about).

Having said all that, Nancy Milford’s Savage Beauty was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Milford is fairly successful in recounting Vincent’s early years from childhood, up through college and into the beginning of her career and marriage but the book eventually gets bogged down and lags more than a little towards the end before abruptly stopping in a rather unsatisfying conclusion. Also the author lacked a certain sympathy with her subject that would have allowed her to discuss some of the more sensitive parts of Vincent’s life without coming across as gossiping, judgmental and exploitative. She also allowed her personal hostility towards Norma Millay, Vincent’s sister and her source for much of the book, to be painfully obvious in the text. Even as she depends on Norma to provide access to Vincent’s papers and to recount her own recollections, Milford also makes not-so-subtle digs at her and questions Norma’s accuracy and motivations in providing the stories. It makes the narrator of the book come across as an unlikeable, sneering, insinuating, condescending gossip. During the parts of the book where Milford doesn’t intrude too much and allows Vincent to speak for herself through the documents she left behind, I enjoyed the book. I just wish there had been more of it.

I would love to read another, better biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.
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Dec 20, 2011 Jee Koh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Savage Beauty does not dispel the impression that Edna St. Vincent Millay was a major life but a minor poet. This well-written biography quotes many poems in full, including "Renascence," which early won Millay warm admiration from poets and editors, and financial support for an education at Vassar. The biography occasionally grades the poems it quotes, saying of one "extraordinarily lovely" and of another "masterful." It is, however, more interested in identifying the addressee of the poems, an...more Savage Beauty does not dispel the impression that Edna St. Vincent Millay was a major life but a minor poet. This well-written biography quotes many poems in full, including "Renascence," which early won Millay warm admiration from poets and editors, and financial support for an education at Vassar. The biography occasionally grades the poems it quotes, saying of one "extraordinarily lovely" and of another "masterful." It is, however, more interested in identifying the addressee of the poems, and other details from Millay's life. A discussion of the style of "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver" begins insightfully but ends too quickly by linking the harp with a woman's head to the lap loom on which Clara Millay, Vincent's mother, wove hair for a living. Interesting identification, but it is surely not the last word on the poem.

Matters are not helped when emphasis is placed on the astonishing attraction of Millay's low reading voice. In returning to this over and over, Nancy Milford is but tracing the strong reactions of Millay's listeners. But this obsession with her voice has the unfortunate effect of marking Millay as a performer. Not only did she reach thousands through her reading tours, she also read on radio, reaching many other thousands. Her celebrity played a part, surely, in her decision to write propagandistic poetry against Fascism and American isolationism in the run-up to War World II. She was sincere in her political beliefs, but sincerity does not by itself create poetry. In a letter from that period, she talked about the need of a lyric poet to engage the world if she is not to say the same things again and again. Her political engagement, to my mind, is insufficiently self-doubtful. Her longtime friend and a poet Arthur Ficke expressed his reservations about her war effort "The Murder of Lidice" in a way that resonates for me:

I cannot, I will not, believe that this war is an ultimate conflict between right and wrong: and though I do not doubt for a moment that we are less horrible than the philosophy and practice of Hitler, still I think we are very horrible: and I will not, I must not, accept or express the hysterical patriotic war-moods of these awful days.

Millay's poetic sympathies lie with the High and Late Victorians. Her influences, as she describes them, are Tennyson, Browning, Hardy and Housman. She seems to have little to say about Eliot, Pound and Auden, and nothing to say about her female contemporaries like Marianne Moore, Gertrude Stein and H.D.. Milford refers to a satire in verse she wrote against T.S. Eliot that targeted "The Waste Land," but does not describe its contents, let alone delineate its poetics. Late in her career, Millay became the darling of the people and of collectors who lapped up the expensive special editions of her books. She seemed divorced from the poetry debates that raged around her, in Europe as well as her native America, and so the avant-garde, which she appeared to embody in the 1920s in the form of the New Woman, left her behind.

Still, belonging to no party or school, she found the freedom, and spared the time from her work, to recommend poets whom she believed in for the Guggenheim. What she said about the sanctity of a writer's work, apart from whatever politics he or she chooses to profess, is still generous and relevant:

Of the six writers I am recommending this year, three are definitely revolutionists, one is definitely a classicist, one is probably mad and the other is doubtless trying to recover from shell-shock. What are you doing to do about them? ... I have come loudly out into the open, and am running the risk of making an utter fool of myself. I think the Guggenheim Foundation cannot properly be administered on any other terms; we may not foster the conservative at the expense of the experimental; the solid at the expense of the slippery; we must take chances; we must incur danger. Otherwise we shall eventually become an organization which gives prizes for acclaimed accomplishment, not fellowships for obscure talent, tangible promise, probable development, and possible achievement.

Was she thinking of her own history when she wrote the last sentence? She emerged from the abysmal poverty of a small-town Maine childhood, after her mother sent her good-for-nothing father packing and undertook to bring up the three daughters, Vincent, Norma and Katherine, by herself. Clara Buzzell Millay took up the job of a home-nurse and had to be away from her family most of the time. Besides suffering the absence of a beloved mother, Vincent at a young age was responsible for the two younger sisters. Milford is very good at conveying the power of this family romance for all the women involved, and scrupulous in detecting the darker undertones of abandonment, jealousy and anger.

Also detailed and interesting is her depiction of Millay's unusual marriage with Eugen Jan Boissevain, a Dutch American importer. He believed completely in her poetic gift and strove to provide an environment for its flourishing. Unwilling to play the part of the possessive husband, he gave Vincent the freedom to pursue her romantic obsessions, in particular, her love affair with the younger George Dillon, the future editor of Poetry magazine. It is true, however, that the balance of power in the marriage shifted when Millay's writing began to bring home the bacon. Boissevain became the manager of the household at Steepletop, the estate they bought, releasing his wife to focus entirely on writing. I am reminded here of Leonard Woolf, who spared Virginia of the many distractions against writing too. Leonard, however, had Hogarth Press. Eugen had nothing, but the protection of Vincent, whom he guarded with perhaps overbearing vigilance. Like many partnered writers, Millay could dedicate herself to writing because she could bank on others' dedication to her. (less)

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Jan 06, 2011 Sophia rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a fan of her poetry I was naturally interested in her life, and to that extent this book is just amazing. Nancy Milford sort of hit the jack pot (for the second time) by having unprecedented access to Millay's journals, work books, estate papers, and of course, most importantly, reams and reams of personal correspondence. And so this book for the epistolary wealth alone is a knock out. I knew that Millay was something of a scandalous bohemian and a champion of free love, but I really had no i...more

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Sep 18, 2010 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've been reading the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay lately, so I was pleased to find this book in one of the boxes that my aunt sent at the beginning of the winter. I knew very little about the poet and her life, so this biography, thirty years in the writing, makes me want to take a new look at the poems. Although I feel that there are some faults in Milford's biography, seeing the poetry against the background of a life, often troubled but always adventurous, added a new dimension to my un...more I've been reading the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay lately, so I was pleased to find this book in one of the boxes that my aunt sent at the beginning of the winter. I knew very little about the poet and her life, so this biography, thirty years in the writing, makes me want to take a new look at the poems. Although I feel that there are some faults in Milford's biography, seeing the poetry against the background of a life, often troubled but always adventurous, added a new dimension to my understanding.

Millay spoke for a new generation of women, those of the Jazz Age that were stepping across boundaries and breaking into new territory. Millay smoked in public and made no secret of her many lovers, both male and female. Marriage vows, her own or another's, had little effect on her behavior. Her troubled life began in Maine, where her father abandoned the family early and her mother felt obliged to leave her three small daughters alone for long periods of time while working as a nurse. The relationship between the four women affected much of "Vincent's" life, with turmoil between herself and a difficult younger sister who felt overshadowed by Vincent's talent. Cora Buzzell Millay, Vincent's mother, seems to struggle with pride and jealousy in Milford's portrayal of her, and it sometimes seems that Vincent and her sisters go to great lengths to pacify Cora's demands, perhaps from fear of abandonment. There is a hint at one point that Vincent may have been molested by a man Cora was involved with.

What struck me most about Vincent Millay's life is that genius so often comes out of such a life. Talented people often seem to be driven toward a need for experience, and the depth of their work reveals an understanding of experience that so many of us lack. We need these people to speak for us, out of their pain, to say what we cannot find words to reveal.

Milford disappoints me occasionally throughout her work. She isn't a particularly organized writer; the book is unsettling in the manner that the material is presented, sometimes in an almost haphazard fashion. It is difficult to capture a life, of course, but the best biographers understand the "why" behind the "what happened" and these reasons elude Milford. Reading between the lines of the numerous excerpts of Millay's works, journals and letters is up to the reader, and Milford offers no interpretation or analysis. I felt sometimes that Milford was overwhelmed with the material, and perhaps intimidated by Millay's sister, Norma.

Savage Beauty has some flaws, but so did Edna St. Vincent Millay. The biography is well worth reading for the facts presented and the excerpts from Millay's journals and less accessible writing beyond her poetry. The biography has encouraged me to go back to the poems, with a better understanding of their author, and maybe this is accomplishment enough.(less)

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Feb 27, 2011 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

A linear treatment of Millay's life, structured by dates and settings, acquaintances, and correspondence. Little or no analysis or cultural context: this is not a cultural biography, which I generally prefer to read (two admittedly disparate titles: Gopnik's Angels and Ages or Chase's Harvard and the Unabomber) - and world events do not appear to impinge on Millay's consciousness until the advent of World War II in Europe (though Milford merely reports this and quotes documents, rather than expl...more

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Feb 16, 2010 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio-autobio-memoir, read-2010, book-club-selection

A few thoughts as I continue to reflect on this book and ESVM.

There was so little social/historical context until ESVM marched in protest for Sacco and Vanzetti- so little sense that the poet was aware of and engaged in a world beyond what gave her immediate pleasure. Little mention of WWI, the flu (except for ESVM's ode to a lost college mate), the women's suffrage movement- I felt a little lost in trying to place the poet's open sexuality, her college and young adult affairs in relation to wh...more A few thoughts as I continue to reflect on this book and ESVM.

There was so little social/historical context until ESVM marched in protest for Sacco and Vanzetti- so little sense that the poet was aware of and engaged in a world beyond what gave her immediate pleasure. Little mention of WWI, the flu (except for ESVM's ode to a lost college mate), the women's suffrage movement- I felt a little lost in trying to place the poet's open sexuality, her college and young adult affairs in relation to what was happening in society at the time- or at least the society in which she operated.

The same could be said for the behavior of her mother and grandmother- the courage it must have taken to walk away from marriages at the turn of the century and earlier.

I found the style of speaking- in correspondence between ESVM and her sisters, mother, lovers, friends, so bizarre, cloying, slightly deranged. Was this typical of the era, of people in these social strata (ESVM straddled high and low society)? Her poetry seems so old-fashioned for her time- 19th century wind swirling through dark English moors kind of stuff. I know very little of poetry, so would perhaps benefit from an analysis of ESVM works.

Yet, after reading this bio, I have little desire to explore her poetry. If Milford's portrayal is an accurate one, the poet is a creature I find repulsive- so needy, manipulative, little deserving of sympathy. What is fascinating is her obvious charisma- the wand of charm she wielded was so powerful that everyone swooned in her presence, with little to show but heartbreak and strangely-written letters.
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It's difficult to assign this stars- I thought it was very well-written, but didn't care a whit for EsVM- who was mostly a self-absorbed, nasty, ill, manipulative wench. But I need to think about it all for a bit.
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PCC-Chicks Book club read for March. (less)

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Jan 26, 2013 El rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: hear-me-roar, early20th-centurylit, poetry, vincent

For your ears. You can thank me later.

I've decided that I like Edna St. Vincent Millay more as a person than as a poet. I feel bad about that, to a certain degree. Because how would I know about her if not first for her poetry? She gained popularity for her writing, and her personal life was secondary (sorta).

Nancy Milford does a great job here of researching Vincent's life, primarily through talking with Vincent's sister, Norma, who passed away in 1986. (One note of serious annoyance: Nowhere i...more For your ears. You can thank me later.

I've decided that I like Edna St. Vincent Millay more as a person than as a poet. I feel bad about that, to a certain degree. Because how would I know about her if not first for her poetry? She gained popularity for her writing, and her personal life was secondary (sorta).

Nancy Milford does a great job here of researching Vincent's life, primarily through talking with Vincent's sister, Norma, who passed away in 1986. (One note of serious annoyance: Nowhere in the Acknowledgements does Milford thank Norma, or the memory of Norma, or make any reference whatsoever to Norma. I'm a bit disgusted by that. Milford likely wouldn't have gotten nearly as much personal information if it had not been for Norma. Jeebus.) There were two large segments of b/w photos from Vincent's life - some from her years at Vassar, some with her sisters, later with one or two or three lovers, later still with her husband, outside their home, Steepletop, and even later, looking rather sickly (as she was). The photos help bring Milford's writing to life, and I enjoyed flipping through the photos as they came up in Milford's biography.

Vincent's life was clearly lived to her fullest. She had no qualms with falling in love/lust/bed with whomever showed her the slightest bit of attention. These experiences are also detailed in Daniel Epstein's What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay, but are also written about in great detail in Milford's biography.

Here's the main thing I've learned about Vincent - she was a dependent and co-dependent person. She was (from what I can tell) never actually alone. From the time her father left and she had to take care of her mother and two younger sisters, to her studies at Vassar where she experiences for the first time the lubbins of another woman, to her later years with her husband and a line of various men. I think she actually lived and thrived because of the attentions lavished on her by just about everyone. Normally I would hate this about her, but while I'm not thrilled about it, it sort of contributes to what I find so interesting about her.

She's often compared to a modern Lord Byron, that whole "mad, bad, and dangerous to know" thing (which also defines Dylan McKay in Beverly Hills, 90210). She wasn't heartless, though. She genuinely loved everyone she was with, but often made poor choices; she was entirely too self-centered and concerned only with making herself happy. Train wreck, that's what Millay was, a freaking train wreck and I love every minute of learning about her life.

Not quite sure what this says about me. But maybe someone can write a biography of me and delve into that issue.

She was a lovely woman, and for most of her years, she was a hard worker, something I will always appreciate and respect. She wrote more than just poetry, so she wasn't just a one-trick pony. But I think her life got in her way in more ways than one, and she probably could have been even more. We'll never know, but that's my impression.(less)

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Sep 01, 2007 Jessi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

The thing about biographies is that I float around the house for days, pretending to be the dowdy best friend of the subject. Or alternatively the glamorous best friend, if my biofeedback is in alignment. And I floated on this one for WEEKS. Just a great combination of interesting circumstances, genius, weird personalities and all things fabulous. And a darn good poet.

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Jul 08, 2012 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wonderful literary biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Not being a huge poetry fan, I never knew anything about "Vincent" except the opening lines "My candle burns at both ends It will not last the night ...." Now I know she was a remarkable woman, who lived a very unconventional life - especially for her times (she was born in 1892). Her childhood was poverty stricken, but her strong and determined mother gave her encouragement in her writing and to be herself. Vincent and her mother and two...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Edna is, as always, seductive. Even the mundane details of her life were interesting, partly because I know all of the physical settings quite well: Maine, Vassar, Manhattan, upper Hudson River New York. Reading this was a sort of therapeutic visitation of my own life choices and of the importance of keeping ideals high. I was often disappointed with all of Millay's selfish choices, but her whole life is like an exaggerated fable of living primarily for oneself and for one's art. Sometimes, it i...more

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Jan 12, 2013 Dawn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

An Enlightening Expose of the Life of One of America's Most Famous 20th Century Poets

This is an exhaustive treatment of the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay. So exhaustive, in fact, that I believe the author was overwhelmed by the amount of material she had to work with. The result was that in several sections the writing is disjointed and I became lost in a mountain of details and chronological hiccups. It seemed to this reader that the book lacked a good editor who could have pulled the main st...more

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Jun 23, 2010 Meghan Pinson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: writing

As a third grader, I read every biography our school library held. They were all library-bound, olive drab or dull blue, stamped on the spine in white or black letters with a name and a subtitle. My favorites were Benjamin Franklin and Helen Keller; from then on, I wanted to get into publishing and Radcliffe College, and the astronaut dream was jettisoned. After I exhausted those two or three library shelves, though, I let the biographical form go, and only a few have passed through my hands sin...more As a third grader, I read every biography our school library held. They were all library-bound, olive drab or dull blue, stamped on the spine in white or black letters with a name and a subtitle. My favorites were Benjamin Franklin and Helen Keller; from then on, I wanted to get into publishing and Radcliffe College, and the astronaut dream was jettisoned. After I exhausted those two or three library shelves, though, I let the biographical form go, and only a few have passed through my hands since then. The only one that comes to mind is a disappointing biography of Salinger, read in the hope that it might lay some new salvaged planks in the floor of my heart. It did not. The writer couldn't get his hands on the good stuff, and spent most of the book recounting his frustrated research process. It left me wanting, my heart still tacky with the glue I'd laid down in anticipation, but still, I was reassured by Salinger's stubbornness.

This one is different.

Nancy Milford made friends with Norma Millay, Edna's sister, in the 1970s, and convinced her to sign a contract allowing her unrestricted access to all of Edna's papers. All of them. Every draft of every letter, every journal entry, every working copy of every poem, every telegram, every photograph; the only things Norma seems to have held out of Milford's reach are a stack of nude photos. Nancy even moved into Steepletop, the house Edna and her husband shared, while working on the book, piecing together Edna's life and napping on the living room couch, taking down Norma's injections of commentary, sometimes with a grain of salt, sometimes with a pound of it.

Vincent's is a dangerous life to write, beautiful and vicious and full of longing and desperation; and full of unwavering dedication to poetry. Inspiring. Chastening. Violently liberating.

Though I have to admit, I skipped the second-to-last chapter. I just couldn't bear to watch her demise, the drug abuse, the weakness. Some things are better left alone; I had to avert my eyes. Even so, I can only hope that my own life and work will warrant a biographer as deft and searing as Nancy Milford. Now back to that poem....(less)

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Sep 21, 2010 Tristy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, creativity, historical, poetry, women

This is quite a tome, weighing in at 550 pages. I was doubtful that I could find the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay interesting enough to stick it out until the end, but surprisingly, I did. Nancy Milford has a way with sharing the facts and fictions of Millay's life in a lively and engrossing way. She obviously did her research and then some, and I love the connection she makes with Norma Millay, Edna Millay's sister, who was at the end of her life but still a delightful character. Milford's c...more

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Oct 12, 2009 Jeff rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved this account of an extraordinary -- and extraordinarily driven -- poet. Her story is riveting if you can forgive her refusal to be born in a more accessible age. Had she been a beat poet of the 1960s, for instance, these stories of free love and a dazzling stage presence (she sold out audiences to her poetry readings wherever she went) would have long ago been made into a Major Motion Picture.

Instead, she wrote in an unpopular form: careful, often classical rhyme. And she too intoxicants...more

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Jun 11, 2008 Cheryl S. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, biography

Although I am not a big fan of poetry this was a fascinating read. Millay's life is more intriguing than most fiction.

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Nov 10, 2012 Frandy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having purchased "Savage Beauty" several years ago, now I ponder why I waited so long to actually take it off my bookshelf. It struck me almost as soon as I started what an impact it would have on me. My grandmother had had many of her volumes of poetry in her library, which I noticed as I grew up. They beckoned me and I found them profound. Little did I know, but my grandmother might actually have been on campus with her at Vassar. That part of this impactful biography -- her (my maternal grand...more

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Sep 07, 2011 Lisa Van Oosterum rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

I love biographies so much and a well researched and very well written one is hard to come by. Edna St Vincent was such a fascinating woman, albeit totally self obsessed...but no more than, say, Picasso. Thank god for these brave artistic geniuses that dare to live so extreme and live for their art. That being said, the unromantic parts of this brilliant life are sad to peak into. The author has received a lot of first hand information from Vincent's sister and the interviews are inter-weaved in...more

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Dec 15, 2008 Courtney rated it 4 of 5 stars

Im actually starting a big report on ESVM and found this book as one of my resources. I got it at first just because it had her name in it and i wanted to know more about her. However, I came to find, in reading through the intro and much of the first three chapters, Millay wasn't the person I had thought. Many other writers had commented on her outward behavior and so wrote of such. However, the author of Savage Beauty (which seems to have escaped me at the moment), did an excellent job in rese...more

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Dec 29, 2009 Dorianne Laux rated it 5 of 5 stars

So far, amazing.

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Oct 10, 2011 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

First of all, this was a REALLY LONG book. Secondly, you have to really like Edna St. Vincent Millay to get through the book. Having studied her poetry and even having stayed at the Whitehall Inn in Maine where she did her poetry readings, I was really interested in learning more about this poet. And boy did I learn more about her! I found her to be immature, self-centered, and very promiscuous. I often felt bogged down by repetitive and unrelenting information. Or maybe it was just the personal...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, gender, non-fiction, poetry, sexuality, women, war

It's funny to me that I was not familiar with her poetry before I read her biography. Secondhand knowledge of her work was enough of a draw for me to read Nancy Milford's book. I like how Milford balanced the content: interviews from people who knew Millay, letters of correspondence to and from the poet, and (where it made sense) samples of her poetry. I believe the book has made me a more mindful reader of Edna St. Vincent Millay's poetry and I know her biography has helped me to more deeply ap...more

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Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay

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