Edna St. Vincent Millay

Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine, in 1892. When Edna was seven years old, her mother Cora asked Edna's father to leave. Cora was a nurse and always encouraged her daughters to pursue music and literature.

Cora encouraged Edna to enter a poetry contest. In doing this, Edna won a scholarship to Vassar College after her poem "Renascence" won fourth place. She graduated from Vassar College in 1917, which is the same year Renascence and Other Poems was published.

At one time, Edna was romantically involved with Wynne Matthison, a British actress. The two wrote passionate letters to each other. In one letter, Edna wrote, "You wrote me a beautiful letter,--I wonder if you meant it to be as beautiful as it was.--I think you did, for somehow I know that your feeling for me, however slight it is, is of the nature of love… When you tell me to come, I will come, by the next train, just as I am. This is not meekness, be assured; I do not come naturally be meekness; know that it is a proud surrender to you."

Edna had many romantic relationships with women before her marriage to Eugen Boissevain in 1923. It is unknown if she continued to have relationships with women during her marriage. It is also unknown which of her poems were written about women and which were written about men. They were married all the way until Eugen's death in 1949.

Max Eastman tells of an interesting story about Edna in Great Companions. However, it cannot be certain whether it is true: While at a cocktail party, Edna was discussing her headaches with a psychologist. He said, "I wonder if it has ever occurred to you that you might perhaps, although you are hardly conscious of it, have an occasional impulse toward a person of your own sex."

Her reply was, "Oh, you mean I'm homosexual! Of course, I am, and heterosexual too, but what's that got to do with my headache?"

Edna wrote many poems and even plays. In 1920, Edna published a collection of poems called A Few Figs from Thistles, in which she stated that women have a right to sexual pleasure and have no obligation to fidelity. In 1922, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her play The Harp Weaver.

Edna wrote a verse play titled The Lamp and the Bell while at Vassar. It was a story of two stepsisters (whose names are Bianca and Beatrice) separated by a male suitor. Edna modeled Bianca's character after Charlotte Babcock, a woman who she was infatuated with. The play speaks of lesbian love. When speaking of the two stepsisters, one character says, "I vow I never knew a pair of lovers/ More constant than these two."

Other writings include Second April (1921), The King's Henchman (1927), Fatal Interview (1931), Collected Sonnets (1941), Collected Lyrics (1943), Mine the Harvest (1954), and Collected Poems (1956). The Murder of Lidice (1942) was a ballad written for radio.

Edna has also used the penname Nancy Boyd. She died in 1950, a year after Eugen, of heart failure.