Biography of Edna St. Vincent MillayEssay Preview: Biography of Edna St. Vincent MillayReport this essayMillay was born in Rockland, Maine to Cora Lounella, a nurse, and Henry Tollman Millay, a schoolteacher who would later become superintendent of schools. Her middle name derives from St. Vincents Hospital in New York, where her uncles life had been saved just before her birth. The familys house was “between the mountains and the sea where baskets of apples and drying herbs on the porch mingled their scents with those of the neighboring pine woods.” In 1904, Cora officially divorced Millays father for financial irresponsibility, but they had already been separated for some years. Cora and her three daughters, Edna (who called herself “Vincent”), Norma, and Kathleen, moved from town to town, living in poverty. Cora traveled with a trunk full of classic literature, including Shakespeare and Milton, which she read to her children. The family settled in a small house on the property of Coras aunt in Camden, Maine, where Millay would write the first of the poems that would bring her literary fame.
The three sisters were independent and spoke their minds, which did not always sit well with the authority figures in their lives. Millays grade school principal, offended by her frank attitudes, refused to call her Vincent. Instead, he called her by any womans name that started with a V. At Camden High School, Millay began developing her literary talents, starting at the schools literary magazine,The Megunticook. At 14 she won the St. Nicholas Gold Badge for poetry, and by 15 she had published her poetry in the popular childrens magazine St. Nicholas, the Camden Herald, and the high-profile anthology Current Literature. While at school she had several relationships with women, including Edith Wynne Matthison, who would go on to become an actress in silent films. Millay entered Vassar College at 21, later than usual, and had relationships with several fellow students during her time there. In January, 1921, she went to Paris, where she met and befriended the sculptor Thelma Wood.
Edna St. Vincent Millay at Vassar College in 1914, photographed by Arnold Genthe.Millays celebrity began in 1912 when she entered her poem “Renascence” in a poetry contest in The Lyric Year. The poem was widely considered the best submission and when it was ultimately awarded fourth place, it created a scandal which brought Millay publicity. The first-place winner Orrick Johns was among those who felt that “Renascence” was the best poem, and stated that “the award was as much an embarrassment to me as a triumph.” A second-prize winner offered Millay his $250 prize money.In the immediate aftermath of the Lyric Year controversy, Caroline B. Dow heard Millay reciting her poetry and playing the piano at the Whitehall Inn in Camden, Maine, and was so impressed that she offered to pay for Millays education
␅ to send her work to her friend, H.J. White, with a request for a copy of her unpublished manuscript. White agreed to send the poem, a collection of nine short poems by St. Vincent, in 1917. This included the lines:”A Little Heart”A Little Poems”The Last Evening.The poems are illustrated by a hand drawn drawing by George S. White.”The Little Poem”A Little Poems”The Last Evening.White added:”A Little Poem”A Little PoemᾹA Little PoemᾹA Little PoemᾹA Little Poem᾿A Little Poem῀A Little Poem᾿A Little Poem῀The Poem of the Seven Pines,῀A Little Poem;The Bodies of Three Dogs,῁A Poem of the Seven Pines,῁A Little Poem;Sorrowful TearsιAn Evening in the Woods,ιAn Evening in the Woods,ιAn Evening in the Woods,ᾳAn Evening in the Woods,ᾳAn Evening in the Woods,An Evening in the Woods,An Evening in the Woods,ᾴEager to Make a Stand,Eager to Make a Stand,ᾳCrowned with the Glory of Christ,ᾴCrowned with the Glory of Christ,ᾲEarls and Elvish,ᾲEarls and Elvish,ᾲEarls and Elvish,ᾲEarls and Elvish,ᾲA Little Poem of the Seven Pines,ᾲa Little Poem of the Seven Pines,ᾲA Little Poem of the Seven Pines,ᾲA Little Poem of the Seven Pines,ᾲA Little Poem of the Seven Pines,⃙The Last Evening, ⃙The Last Evening,⃙A Little Poem of the Seven Pines.>1⃘A Little Poem of the Seven Pines, ⃙A Little Poem of the Seven Pines, ⃘The Last Evening.⃙The Last Evening.White also wrote a poem ⃘A Little Poem of the Seven Pines, ⃘A Little Poem of the Seven Pines,⃘The Last Evening.