Person Detail: Edna St. Vincent Millay

Is this YOU? Click here to request an update to your information.

General Information:
Full Name: Edna St. Vincent Millay
Biography: (1892-1950) Poet, playwright. One of the most popular poets of her era, Edna St. Vincent Millay was admired as much for the bohemian freedom of her youthful life style as for her verse. During the early 1920s she lived in Greenwich Village (some of her New York addresses include 75 ½ Bedford Street, Greenwich Village (There is a plaque on the house), 139 Waverly and 25 Charlton Street), and wrote satiric sketches for "Vanity Fair" under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd. Among her friends were Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop. "Renascence," Millay's first volume of poetry, appeared in 1917 and was praised for its freshness and vitality. It was followed by "A Few Figs from Thistles" (1920), "Second April" (1921), and "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver" (1922; Pulitzer Prize). She was a member of the Provincetown Players, a group that produced several of her verse dramas, including "Aria de Capo" (1920) and "Two Slatterns and a King" (1921). Among her later volumes are "Fatal Interview" (1931), a superb sonnet cycle; "Conversation at Midnight" (1937); and "Make Bright the Arrows" (1940). She also wrote the libretto for Deems Taylor's opera "The King's Henchman" (1927) and, with George Dillon, she translated Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil" (1936). After 1923, she lived out the rest of her life in Austerlitz, New York.
Author's Timeline:
1923		Columbia County After living and writing in Manhattan, she married Eugen Jan Boissevain, a Dutch coffee importer, in 1923 and moved to Steepletop, a farm near Austerlitz, N.Y. Although her socially conscious later poetry is generally considered inferior to her early work, it exhibits her absolute mastery of the sonnet form. Among her later volumes are "Fatal Interview" (1931), a superb sonnet cycle; "Conversation at Midnight" (1937); "The Buck in the Snow;" and "Make Bright the Arrows" (1940). She also wrote the libretto for Deems Taylor's opera "The Kings Henchman"(1927) and, with George Dillon, she translated Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil" (1936). Eugen Boissevain died in the autumn of 1949, and Millay died of a heart attack less than a year later. In February 1974, her sister, Norma Millay announced that Steepletop would become an arts colony, opening in 1976.
1914		Dutchess County Millay attended Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, from 1914-1917, then moved to Greenwich, New York City.
1892		(Unknown) County Edna Saint Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine, in 1892.
1950		Columbia County Edna Saint Vincent Millay died at her home near Austerlitz, New York, in 1950.
1917		New York County Renascence Millay's first volume of poetry, appeared in 1917 and was praised for its freshness and vitality.
1920		New York County A Few Figs from Thistles
1921		New York County Second April
1922		New York County The Ballad of the Harp Weaver Pulitzer Prize
1920		New York County Aria de Capo Verse dramas
1921		New York County Two Slatterns and a King Verse dramas
1931		Columbia County Fatal Interview A superb sonnet cycle.
1937		Columbia County Conversation at Midnight
1940		Columbia County Make Bright the Arrows
1927		Columbia County The King's Henchman She also wrote the libretto for Deems Taylor's opera "The King's Henchman" (1927) and, with George Dillon.
1936		Columbia County Flowers of Evil She translated Baudelaire's "Flowers of Evil."
1940		Columbia County The Buck in the Snow
1950		Columbia County Millay is buried at her home "Steepletop", near Austerlitz, New York.
?		New York County Millay lived in New York City.
?		Westchester County Millay had a home in Croton On Hudson, New York.