Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay

by Nancy Milford

Book Overview

Thirty years after the smashing success of Zelda, Nancy Milford returns with a stunning second act. Savage Beauty is the portrait of a passionate, fearless woman who obsessed American ever as she tormented herself.

ONE OF ESQUIRE'S 50 BEST BIOGRAPHIES OF ALL TIME

If F. Scott Fitzgerald was the hero of the Jazz Age, Edna St. Vincent Millay, as flamboyant in her love affairs as she was in her art, was...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375760814
• ISBN13: 9780375760815
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Random House Trade
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A book as intoxicating as its subject

A phenomenon when she burst onto the literary scene in the Twenties, Edna Millay, I believe, would herself be pleased with this phenomenal biography. I discovered Millay's poetry when I was in high school in Kansas in the Fifties, the Beatnik era, but in Kansas, I certainly knew no Beatniks. Millay became my muse, the poetic string connecting me to another world beyond the endless fields of corn and wheat. I visited her home in Greenwich Village, read all of her poetry, and can still quote long passages from memory.Savage Beauty, a large book, does ample justice to the large personality of Millay, chronicling her life and lifestyle, both of which were 'unconventional,' in every sense of the word. Such was the impact of this genius, this 'force of nature,' that she willfully created her persona, in the process lifting herself and her dependent family out of poverty and onto the front pages.The intensity of her poetic works is mirrored in the intensity with which she lived her life. Her short signature poem 'I burn my candle at both ends; it will not last the night. But ah my foes and oh my friends, it gives a lovely light' became a slogan for an era - and even more, a definition of her own life, at the end of which she did, indeed, flame out in an excess of living.

Fascinating and informative

Edna St. Vincent Millay, long my favorite poet, lived a fascinating, wild and even shocking life. Learning the truth about her may disturb some people, but I was happy to learn the details, sordid and exemplary. Nancy Milford writes engagingly and her biography of "Vincent" became for this reader quite a page-turner. The author's use of correspondence to and from Millay, and about Millay, reveals the character of this jazz-age poet with a sense of immediacy and freshness. (In that sense, this biography has a great deal in common with David McCullough's current best-selling and very engaging biography of John Adams.)Millay drank, was dependent on prescription pain killers, was promiscuous, and otherwise flouted the conventional morals of her time. She also wrote exquisite poetry and expressed not only beauty of spirit and self, but from time to time high-mindedness -- for example, in trying to evoke the national conscious during America's isolationist response to the rise of fascism in Europe.This biography is worth reading, as is Millay's poetry.

access to letters provides accurate picture

This book, one of two biographies of Edna St. Vincent Millay out this year, provides us with a full-fleshed view of the lyric poet. Nancy Milford had unparalleled access to the correspondence of Millay, and interviews with her surviving sister, Norma. Milford wrote the book over a period of years, allowing her study of Millay some time for seasoning and reflection. The early slangy, insouciant letters between the poet and her mother and sisters, are a delight, revealing their loving, teasing relationships. (I admit to being surprised by their wide use of baby talk.) Since Millay moved in literary circles and knew many writers, the letters back and forth to lovers and friends are wonderfully expressive. Many female readers may wish that their husbands and boyfriends could write of love and longing as eloquently! Milford reveals how Millay labored over her art, how creating her lyrics which seem to flow smoothly and effortlessly, required energy and commitment on her part to produce. She details Millay's slide into alcoholism and drug dependence in her later years. One wonders how intelligent, educated people like Millay and her husband Eugene could fall into such a state, but apparently there was no one in their lives to do what today is trendily called "an intervention," and as they became more and more isolated, Millay's physical decline was accelerated. Kudoes to Nancy Milford for a comprehensive biography of a passionate American poet!

A Complicated Life

Maybe it's because I'm not an English major or a writer, but I loved this penetrating biography. I was never bored by it and find it totally amazing that others were. Further, I'm a compulsive biography reader and would have been mystified by this life story if the unpleasant and sordid parts had been omitted. I was especially interested in the picture Milford drew of Millay's genious and how it manifested. It was also fascinating to read how the husband cared for her and seemed to understand what she needed to keep her talent alive. Alcohol and drug addiction have plagued many writers and artists of her generation and she was no exception. I think it's wise to remember that society knew very little about these illnesses then; once in their grip, Millay was probably doomed because she would have had little help available to her.

America's Best Biographer

Nancy Milford must surely be the best biographer in our county today. From the moment I began SAVAGE BEAUTY I could think of little else. I read it straight through in 2 days. There is nothing stilted or contrived in Ms Milford's writing as her flawless prose moves quickly from page to page telling the story of a beautiful, talented, dreamer who is always just a step away from never-never land. Milford captures this character just as she did Zelda and maybe even more so!As a young person I underlined everything of Edna St. Vincent Millay's in green ink (green ink was a strange necessity at the time). This Poet's work, however, was not to be talked about at my parents home. I remember writing many of her poems on index cards and carying them in my pocket.Several years later I was living in Cambridge with my husband who was in graduate school at Harvard. It was there that I discovered her earlier work. While in college in Va. I was the script editor of our Sophmore play "The Women". I was overwhelmed by the interest in Vachel Lindsay and ee cummings. Why?? Lawrence Ferlingheti and "friends" only echoed what Millay had said years before. Being from the South, my roomate, the soccer "Destroyer" from New Jersey was suddendly explained. Ms. Milford's book put Millay's life in perspective and also mine. "Vincent" changed a generation. But then so does Nancy Milford. SAVAGE BEAUTY makes this available to all of us. The best, and best written nonfiction read of the year. Thank you. Atlanta