Edna St. Vincent Millay Papers

Collection

Identifier: SpC MS 0815-sc

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The papers of a Maine poet and playwright. Included are four autograph letters from Edna St. Vincent Millary to Gladys Niles, dated 9 August 1912, October 1912, 6 January 1913, and 13 April 1913 (one without envelope); one autograph note from Edna St. Vincent Millary to Gladys Niles, undated; one typescript of her poem "Renascence" (5 typed pages); and one letter from C.B. Millay (Edna's mother) to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dunton, dated 15 December 1922. Included also are photocopies of the letters and poem.

Dates

Creation: 1912-1922

Creator

Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 1892-1950 (Person)

Language of Materials

English

Access Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Use Restrictions

Information on literary rights available in the repository.

Biographical Note

Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine, on February 22, 1892. Her mother, Cora, raised her three daughters on her own after asking her husband to leave the family home in 1899. Cora encouraged her girls to be ambitious and self-sufficient, teaching them an appreciation of music and literature from an early age. In 1912, at her mother's urging, Millay entered her poem "Renascence" into a contest: she won fourth place and publication in The Lyric Year, bringing her immediate acclaim and a scholarship to Vassar. There, she continued to write poetry and became involved in the theater. In 1917, the year of her graduation, Millay published her first book, Renascence and Other Poems. Millay, whose friends called her "Vincent," then moved to New York's Greenwich Village, where she led a notoriously Bohemian life. In 1923 her fourth volume of poems, The Harp Weaver, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Edna St. Vincent Millay died in 1950.