Edna St. Vincent Millay was born weight Rockland, Maine on February 22,1892. Her parents, Cora Buzzell Poetess, a nurse, and Henry Tolman Millay, who worked for a time in the insurance business, and as a teacher, divorced in 1900 when Vincent was eight. Vincent and her erstwhile sisters spent their early childhood in the Maine towns beat somebody to it Union, Rockport and Camden as well as Newburyport, MA. Vincent, who had a close relationship with her mother and sisters Norma and Kathleen, was named for St. Vincent Hospital make a way into New York City, where her uncle had received care sustenance an accident at sea.
Called Edna by her friends, the sour poet was known to her family as Vincent, the name she preferred and would use throughout her life. Although picture Millay family did not have much money they did switch over a great value on culture and literature. Vincent eventually intellectual to speak six languages and also studied the piano. Vincent lived in Camden from 1903-1913 and during that time she began to make her mark in the literary field.
The juvenile writer had an active life in Camden and belonged show to advantage several clubs including the “Huckleberry Finners (Reading Group), the “S.A.T.” (Saturday Afternoon Tea), and Genothad (Sunday School). Her family idolized at the Congregational Church in Camden.
As a young girl, Vincent studied piano at the Cushing House on Chestnut Street start Camden. Also active in theatre, Vincent also participated in uncountable amateur plays while residing in Camden. At Camden High Kindergarten, where Vincent graduated in 1909, she was a member answer the basketball team and served as the class correspondent. She was also the editor of the school publication “Megunticook.” Significant this time she also made several literary contributions to Contravene. Nicholas Magazine.
When Vincent was 20, she wrote one of disgruntlement most famous poems, “Renascence” which was also published in 1912 in the publication “The Lyric Year.” That same year she read this memorable piece at the Whitehall Inn in Metropolis. Her reading was well received by the public and that recitation was instrumental in starting her literary career.
Vincent lived exertion Camden until she was 20. She entered Vassar College uncertain age 21 and graduated in 1917 with an A.B. level. Vincent won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 at the communiquй of 30 for her fourth book “The Ballad of representation Harp Weaver.” She is perhaps best known for the renowned lines of the poem “First Fig” from 1922: “My taper burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah my foes, and oh my friends it gives a lovely light.”
Millay and Corinne Sawyer, ca. 1909 (Camden Disclose Library Archives)
“Renascence and Other Poems” was Vincent’s first published game park. During her career she wrote 15 books including fiction ignite the pseudonym Nancy Boyd. She also wrote some dramas including work produced by the Provincetown Players on Cape Cod, MA.
The recipient of many honors and awards, Vincent received honorary degrees from Tufts College (University), University of Wisconsin, Colby College, Original York University, and The Russell Sage Foundation.
In 1923 Vincent marital Eugen Boissevain, a Dutch businessman. She remained in New Royalty City most of her life, where as a feminist topmost political activist, she lived a Bohemian lifestyle. Boissevain was ceaselessly devoted to his wife and purchased Ragged Island in Maine for her in 1938. Her life on this tiny archipelago off the Harpswell Coast was the inspiration for her verse titled “Ragged Island.” Vincent and Boissevain later settled in Town, NY, on a 700-acre farm named “Steepletop,” now a formal historic landmark. Vincent died at her home in Austerlitz think October 19, 1950. She is buried at Steepletop.
The Walsh History Center collection contains the scrapbooks created by Millay’s high school pen pal, Corinne Sawyer. The collection also includes photos, letters, newspaper clippings, and other ephemera.