Finding her voice (1907-1910) -- Vigils with imaginary lover (1911) -- Sweet and twenty (1912) -- "Lest we forget": college in New York (1913) -- Vassar (1913) -- Europe (1920-1921) -- Steepletop (March to May 1927) -- Steepletop (June to November 1927) -- Steepletop (1928-1930): and Texas lecture tour -- Steepletop (1933) -- Europe and England (1934) -- Steepletop (1934-1935): also Cuba and Florida -- The final diaries (1938-1949).
Summary:
"The English author Thomas Hardy proclaimed that America had two great attractions: the skyscraper, and the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. In these diaries the great American poet illuminates not only her literary genius, but her life as a devoted daughter, sister, wife, and public heroine; and finally as a solitary, tragic figure. This is the first publication of the diaries she kept from adolescence until middle age, between 1907 and 1949, focused on her most productive years. Who was the girl who wrote 'Renascence,' that marvel of early twentieth-century poetry? What trauma or spiritual journey inspired the poem? And after such celebrity why did she vanish into near seclusion after 1940? These questions hover over the life and work, and trouble biographers and readers alike. Intimate, eloquent, these confessions and keen observations provide the key to understanding Millay's journey from small-town obscurity to world fame, and the tragedy of her demise."-- Publisher website.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.