Edna St Vincent Millay, also known as E.Vincent Millay, was born on February 22, 1892, in Rockland, Maine, and died on October 19, 1950, in Austerlitz, New York, at the age of 58. She was an American lyrical poet, who wrote under the pseudonym, Nancy Boyd. As a child, she referred to herself as Vincent, hence, that was her nickname and all acquaintances addressed her by that name. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1923. Millay is best known as one of the most respected American poets of the 20th century. She is also known for the phrase, My candle burns at both ends, from the poem, First Fig.
Major Achievements
In 1906, Millay's poem, Forest Trees, was the first of many poems published in the St. Nicholas Magazine. When Millay…show more content… Boissevain was a Dutch businessman, who supported her feminist views and was also a self proclaimed feminist. Boissevain gave up his career to manage Millay's, which was unusual for a man to do at the time. In 1938, he also purchased for her, Ragged Island, which was off the coast of Maine. They had no children. Both Millay and Boissevain had a few extramarital affairs throughout their twenty-six-year marriage. Millay's most significant affair was with the poet George Dillon, who was fourteen years younger than she, and for whom she wrote a number of her sonnets. Millay and her husband later resided in Austerlitz, New York, on the 700-acre farm called Steepletop. Her husband died of lung cancer in 1949. After his death, Edna became dependent on alcohol. Millay died on October 19, 1950, in her Austerlitz home. She had fallen down the stairs and was found at the bottom, eight hours after her death. Her physician reported that she had had a heart attack following a coronary occlusion. She was 58 years old. She was buried on the grounds of Steepletop which is now a museum and national historic…show more content… This frequently caused controversy, such as when she wrote a poem supporting the Allied war effort during World War II. In 1917 she published Renascence and Other Poems. In 1920, she published A Few Figs From Thistles. This controversial collection deals with the issues of female sexuality and feminism. In the same year she started writing poems for the magazine Vanity Fair. In 1921, Second April was published. In 1932, Millay performed her first radio poetry reading, which was nationally broadcasted. In 1936, she collaborated with George Dillon on a translation of Charles Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil (1936). Further collections include Fatal Interview (1931), Conversation At Midnight (1937), and Make Bright The Arrows (1940). Her writing was cut short when she suffered a nervous breakdown in 1944, and she was