Savage Beauty

by Nancy Milford

  1. “And what the hell”: Vincent Sheean, interview with author, Dec. 19, 1974.

  2. “I want to propose”: Peter Kurth, American Cassandra: The Life of Dorothy Thompson (Boston: Little, Brown, 1990), p. 308.

  3. “ ‘appeasers’ ”: Ibid., pp. 308–10.

  4. “In this country”: “Edna St. Vincent Millay Warns of Internal Perils for America,” New York Herald Tribune, n.p., n.d., c. October 1939. Helen Adair Bruce scrapbook.

  5. “I can’t resist”: Helen Rogers Reid to EB, Oct. 11, 1939. St. Coll.

  6. “Lulu, my poor”: Ls., p. 306.

  7. “They are dragging me”: Malcolm Elwin and John Lane, The Life of Llewelyn Powys (London: The Bodley Head, 1946), p. 271.

  8. “Alyse”: Ls., p. 306.

  9. “Vincent has not”: EB to GD, Sept. 19, 1939.

  10. “Dear Mr. Boissevain”: Dr. Connie M. Guion to EB, Nov. 21, 1939. St. Coll.

  CHAPTER 36

  1. “This is the first”: New York Hospital, Summary, History No. 252461. Millay, Miss Edna St. Vincent.

  2. “She’d look them straight”: Dr. Leila Wallice, telephone interview with author, Aug. 1, 1991.

  3. “Menopause” notes: New York Hospital— Cornell Medical Center, Medical Archives, Dr. Connie M. Guion, box 3, f. 3, Medical Notes Misc., c. 1937–54.

  4. “It is not quite”: Dr. Leila Wallice, telephone interview with author, Aug. 1, 1991.

  5. “This place has been”: EB to NM, n.d., PM March 2, 1940. St. Coll.

  6. Nembutal, a barbiturate: Goodman and Gilman, The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, 8th ed. (New York: Pergamon Press, 1990), p. 358.

  7. “financial call”: Eugene Saxton to ESVM, July 12, 1939. St. Coll.

  8. During 1939: Royalty statement, Harper & Row, June 30, 1939. St. Coll.

  9. “What worries me”: Eugene Saxton to ESVM, April 12, 1940. St. Coll.

  10. “I don’t care”: KM to “The Millay Family,” n.d., PM Nov. 6, 1918. St. Coll.

  11. “Were there no Edna”: Chicago Evening Post Literary Review, Dec. 9, 1927. St. Coll.

  12. “Look where I am!”: KM to ESVM and EB, n.d., c. spring 1939. St. Coll.

  13. “If possible”: KM to ESVM and EB, April 28, 1939. St. Coll.

  14. “The doctor insists”: KM to ESVM and EB, Aug. 10, 1939. St. Coll.

  15. “Dear Kathleen”: EB to KM, Aug. 14, 1939. St. Coll.

  16. “Please thank Ugin”: KM to ESVM, n.d., c. mid-August 1939. St. Coll.

  17. “to stay”: EB to KM, Aug. 18, 1939. St. Coll.

  18. “HEAT HERE TERRIBLE”: KM to EB, Aug. 22, 1939. St. Coll.

  19. “As to Kathleen”: EB to NM, Aug. 23, 1939. St. Coll.

  20. she was suffering: S. Bernard Wortis, M.D., to EB, Sept. 7, 1939. St. Coll.

  21. “This poem, written”: Eugene Saxton to EB, July 9, 1940. St. Coll.

  22. “Once-dear Edna Millay”: FE to ESVM, June 14, 1940. St. Coll.

  23. “As she has been”: EB to FE, June 15, 1940. St. Coll.

  24. “I am sorry”: ESVM to FE, Aug. 3, 1940. Ls., pp. 307–8.

  25. “… for something over”: ESVM to George [Dillon], draft, n.d.

  26. Professor Irwin Edman: Irwin Edman, “The Role of the Man of Letters in War Time,” New York Herald Tribune Books, Sept. 8, 1940. p. 6, IX.

  27. He had visited: A. Scott Berg, Lindbergh (New York: Berkley Books, 1999), pp. 337, 404–7.

  28. “I am filled”: Anne Morrow Lindbergh, War Within and Without (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), p. 68. Nov. 27, 1939.

  29. “a moral argument”: Ibid., pp. 141–43.

  30. “for 25 years”: “Edna Millay, Academician, Perfectionist Feels She Must Write Fast Now,” New York Post, Nov. 16, 1940.

  31. “It was a book”: GD to Allan Ross Macdougall, Feb. 4, 1951. Ls., pp. 309, 310. UVa.

  32. “And if this book”: ESVM to Charlotte Babcock Sills, Jan. 2, 1941, Ls., pp. 310–12. Susan Schweik, A Gulf So Deeply Cut: American Women Poets and the Second World War (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), p. 64.

  33. “Edna Millay had come”: Vincent Sheean, The Indigo Bunting: A Memoir of Edna St. Vincent Millay (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951), pp. 57–61.

  CHAPTER 37

  1. “Not having taken”: Dorothy M. Leffler to author, May 10, 1976.

  2. “Find out how many”: Dorothy M. Leffler to author, Feb. 2, 1976.

  3. “the world in which” and other quotes by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Anne Morrow Lindbergh, The Wave of the Future: A Confession of Faith (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1940), pp. 9, 22, 33–35.

  4. “Once again”: ESVM to Eugene Saxton, March 10, 1941. Ls., pp. 312–13, 314.

  5. “Eugen has lost”: While Millay is referring to money trapped in occupied Holland, there is no information I could find in either the Boissevain family records in Holland or Mil-lay’s collection of papers that Eugen had ever received a regular income from Holland.

  6. “We’ve just had”: Eugene Saxton to EB, June 6, 1941. St. Coll.

  7. “Shakespeare—yes”: ESVM, notebook, no. 50. Library of Congress.

  8. “Attention Snig, Esq.”: ESVM to EB, n.d., c. summer 1941.

  9. “I am sorry”: EB to Eugene Saxton, n.d., c. summer 1941. St. Coll.

  10. “You know, Vince”: ADF to ESVM, n.d., c. summer 1941. St. Coll.

  11. “of recent years”: ADF, notes, Sept. 4, 1941. Beinecke.

  12. “On the way”: Joseph Freeman to Floyd Dell, May 18, 1958, pp. 6–14. Newberry.

  13. “Miss Millay’s public”: Rolfe Humphries, “Miss Millay as Artist,” The Nation, Dec. 20, 1941, p. 644.

  CHAPTER 38

  1. “and will show”: NM to_______, March 22, 1940. St. Coll.

  2. “As to myself”: This is unsigned and may exist only in draft. St. Coll.

  3. “that is if the bitch”: EB to Charles Ellis, n.d., c. 1941. St. Coll.

  4. “I was pleased”: EB to KM, n.d., c. 1941 (draft). St. Coll.

  5. “I asked Edna”: EB to KM, n.d., c. June 1941. St. Coll.

  6. “both girls for me”: KM to EB, July 4, 1941. St. Coll.

  7. The New York Times picked up: The New York Times, July 1942, n.p., n.d. St. Coll.

  8. “Lidice, they proclaimed”: Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Foreword,” The Murder of Lidice (New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1942), p. v.

  9. “When Woollcott’s voice”: NM to ESVM, October 28, 1942. St. Coll.

  10. “Tonight Edna Millay’s poem”: ADF, journal, Oct. 19, 1942. Beinecke.

  11. “Well, of course”: Rex Stout, interview with author, c. spring 1974.

  12. the Germans had actually: Susan Schweik, A Gulf So Deeply Cut: American Women Poets and the Second World War (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), p. 61.

  13. “yes, of course”: ESVM to Witter Bynner, Ls., p. 316.

  14. “Your sonnets”: NM to ESVM, Nov. 9, 1942. St. Coll.

  15. “Listen Darlings”: NM to ESVM and EB, n.d., c. fall 1942.

  16. “Your letter was”: ESVM to NM, Dec. 3, 1942. St. Coll.

  17. “Me, with my Savile Row”: ESVM, n.d., c. 1942 (draft). St. Coll.

  18. “Gene was to meet me”: NM, interview with author, Nov. 21, 1976.

  19. “They found there”: NM to ESVM, n.d., c. September 1943. Typescript with note: “To Vincent. Then I didn’t send it, it seems.”

  20. “for a week”: NM to ESVM, c. January-February 1944.

  21. “He really got sick”: Alice Blinn, interview with author, Nov. 5, 1975.

  22. “Toward the end” and other quotes from Sheean: Vincent Sheean, The Indigo Bunting: A Memoir of Edna St. Vincent Millay (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951), pp. 34–55.

  23. “She had passed”: Dinah and Vincent Sheean, interview with author, Dec. 19, 1974.

  24. “And besides”: Ls., pp. 322–23.

  25. “And you as well”: CP, p. 579.

  CHAPTER 39

 
1. “verdict was like”: ESVM to EW, Ls., p. 333.

  2. “It is sheer”: ESVM to EW, Ls., p. 334.

  3. “The House”: Ls., pp. 335–36.

  4. “The effect of writing”: ESVM to Cass Canfield, Ls., p. 338.

  5. “The Love Poems”: ESVM to Arthur Rush-more, Ls., p. 348.

  6. “Trusting, however”: ESVM to Cass Canfield, Ls., p. 347.

  7. “You can’t go on”: ESVM to Cass Canfield, July 27, 1944 (draft). St. Coll.

  8. to everyone’s delight: Edward C. Aswell to EB, March 8, 1945. St. Coll.

  9. “It occurs to me”: ESVM to Cass Canfield, Ls., p. 334.

  10. “unconditional surrender”: Cass Canfield to ESVM, Jan. 16, 1946. St. Coll.

  11. Marie Bullock: Mrs. Marie Bullock to author, May 31, 1982.

  12. “wished you had not”: ESVM to Marie Bullock, Ls., p. 346.

  13. “but now the birds”: Edmund Wilson, The Shores of Light, pp. 783–84.

  14. “after having read”: ESVM to Cass Canfield, Ls., p. 353, and ms. pages. UVa.

  15. “I thought the verses”: Cass Canfield to ESVM, July 8, 1949.

  16. “Dear Kid”: NM to ESVM, July 7, 1948. St. Coll.

  17. “Oh, little sister”: NM to ESVM, n.d. St. Coll.

  18. “Hunk”: ESVM to NM, Ls., p. 352.

  19. “I wanted to see her”: NM, interview with author, Sept. 3, 1976.

  20. “Imagine having to”: NM, interview with author, Jan. 15, 1982.

  CHAPTER 40

  1. “I picked up”: NM, interview with author, Feb. 26, 1977.

  2. “Dear, I’m not”: NM to ESVM, n.d., c. August 1949. St. Coll.

  3. “And Vincent was breathing”: NM, interview with author. Feb. 26, 1977. 498 “Darling Ugin, I think of you”: Tess Adams to EB, Aug. 25, n.y., c. 1949. St. Coll.

  4. “Very unpleasant”: EB to “Darlings,” n.d., PM Aug. 20, 1949.

  5. “We were waiting”: Alice Blinn, interview with author, Nov. 5, 1975.

  6. “It seems incredible”: GD to ESVM, Sept. 21, n.y., c. 1949. St. Coll.

  7. “Mr. George Dillon”: ESVM to Mary Herron, n.d. UVa.

  8. “It meant a great deal”: GD to ESVM, Oct. 21, n.y., c. 1949. St. Coll.

  9. “A session occurred” and subsequent quotes from Dr. Lewis: Dictation, Dr. William Hall Lewis, Jr., to author. Tape 2, Index 3, June 14, 1975.

  10. “The doctor involved”: Cass Canfield, interview with author, July 11, 1973.

  11. “to which I”: UVa.

  12. “He told me”: Lena Reusch, interview with author, Oct. 4, 1974.

  13. “She wanted something”: Chester Osborne, interview with author, September 1974.

  14. “stuffing myself”: ESVM to NM, January 1950. Ls., pp. 363–64.

  15. “plenty scared”: ESVM to Mary Herron, Ls., pp. 366–67.

  16. “that last time”: NM, interview with author, Aug. 25, 1975.

  17. “It’s time I stopped”: ESVM to Mary Herron, Ls., p. 366.

  18. “When once I have”: ESVM to Margaret Cuthbert. Ls., p. 376.

  19. “It was going”: ESVM to Cass Canfield. Ls., p. 374.

  20. “Hard, hard it is”: Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Thanksgiving … 1950,” The Saturday Evening Post, November 1950, p. 31.

  21. “As soon as”: ESVM to Tess Adams. Ls., p. 373.

  22. “No, my dear”: ESVM to Tess Adams, Oct. 9, 1950. Ls., p. 376.

  23. “This iron is set”: ESVM to Lena Reusch. Ls., p. 376.

  24. “I found her”: Dr. Oscar Wilcox, Jr., to author, Dec. 20, 1974. Dr. Wilcox signed the county coroner’s death certificate saying the cause of her death was “coronary occlusion.” But when he was asked why he’d written that, he simply denied it. “I do not know why she fell. The cause of death which I certified was fracture of cervical spine as a result of a fall down stairs.… She did not have a ‘stroke’ or any evidence of heart attack.” Dr. Oscar Wilcox, Jr., to author, April 21, 1975.

  Quotes from Arthur D. Ficke are from the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

  Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to use both published and unpublished materials:

  Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry: Two letters from Witter Bynner to Edna St. Vincent Millay dated December 1921 or January 1922 and January 19, 1922. Permission is granted by the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry.

  Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC: Excerpts from Letters on Literature and Politics, by Edmund Wilson, edited by Elena Wilson: copyright © 1977 by Elena Wilson. Excerpts from The Shores of Light, by Edmund Wilson: copyright © 1952 by Edmund Wilson, copyright renewed © 1980 by Helen Miranda Wilson. Excerpts from The Twenties, by Edmund Wilson: copyright © 1975 by Elena Wilson. Selections from the unpublished diaries and letters of Edmund Wilson: copyright © 2001 by Helen Miranda Wilson. Reprinted by arrangement with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

  HarperCollins Publishers: Excerpts from The Indigo Bunting: A Memoir of Edna St. Vincent Millay, by Vincent Sheean. Copyright © 1951 by Vincent Sheean. Copyright renewed © 1979 by Diana Sheean. Copyright © 1951 by Norma Millay Ellis. Copyright renewed © 1979 by Norma Millay Ellis. Copyright © 1917, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1928, 1929, 1931, 1934, 1949 by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Used by permission.

  Bel Kaufman: Excerpt from a letter dated January 15, 1939, from Bel Goldstine to Edna St. Vincent Millay. Permission is granted by Bel Kaufman, the author of the perennial bestseller Up the Down Staircase.

  The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society: Photographs and quotes from poems, letters, diary entries, and other published and unpublished material by Edna St. Vincent Millay and her family. All rights, including copyright, to this material are owned by The Edna St. Vincent Millay Society, Austerlitz, New York, 12017, and the materials are used here by permission.

  The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation: Letter from Georgia O’Keeffe to Edna St. Vincent Millay. Copyright © 1989 by The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation. Used by permission.

  Nan Sherman Sussman: “Woman Without Fear” and “She Sleeps,” from The Flowering Stone, by George Dillon (copyright © 1931 by George Dillon; copyright renewed © 1959 by George Dillon), and excerpts from an unpublished poem by George Dillon and various letters by George Dillon. Used courtesy of Nan Sherman Sussman.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  NANCY MILFORD’S Zelda, a number one New York Times bestseller, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and was translated into twelve languages. Milford was an Annenberg Fellow at Brown University in 1995 and a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey in 1999. She has taught at the University of Michigan and at Vassar College, and she will be in the American Studies Program at Princeton University in the fall of 2001. She is a founder of the Writers Room, has held a Guggenheim Fellowship, and is a Literary Lion at The New York Public Library. She lives in New York.