Savage Beauty: The Life Of Edna St. Vincent Millay (2002) - Plot & Excerpts
This is a remarkable biography, for a multitude of reasons.First, I must admit my own ignorance when it comes to much of Millay's work. I think I was surprised by how well-known she was in her day. I took advanced English courses in high school, studied English quite a bit in college, and yet my knowledge of her was so very limited, and the same went for my English nerd friends who I brought her up to. This either reflects poorly on the school systems, the way that fame of women is regarded, the way that poetry is regarded, or all three.As with so many people who show promise so young - when she wrote her first acclaimed poem she was but a teenager - she was quickly thrust under the spotlight and cherished each moment it was on her. She led a very dramatic and alluring life, and as usually goes, it ended sadly and more quickly than it should've.I've read some reviews complaining about how much the book focuses on her lovers, but I think each is very telling about Millay, particularly Ferdinand Earle, Arthur Ficke, Edmund Wilson and, of course, Eugen Boissevain. I was actually most interested in her relationship with Boissevain, as a result of the portrayal of her love life. It seemed like no one would ever be able to make her commit in anyway, so you grew curious about what it was that Boissevain had/did that the others didn't. I ended up breezing through reading about the "juicy" parts out of curiosity for what it was that thrust her into domestic life.What he did was mother her - which made sense, considering Millay's relationship with her mother. Millay had an incredibly close - and odd - relationship with her mother, and it seemed as though there was no other woman that Millay was ever so close to, including her sisters, both of whom she also had very strange relationships with.Getting back to Boissevain, their relationship was incredibly fascinating. For example, while Millay was addicted to morphine, Boissevain began taking the drug, as well, so that he could understand what she was going through. When she quit, he quit. When he was dealing with his lung cancer and had difficulties breathing, she mimicked this, trying to understand his pain. If that's not love, I don't know what is.I do agree with the people who wanted more poetry in the book - but the book is so good, if you don't own any of her poetry, you won't have any problem in going out and buying one. Milford does do a good job of illuminating Millay's creative process, though, and I think that's more important in the context of this biography.I found all too many similarities between myself and Millay, which made it an interesting read, but I think any young, ambitious writer will see a bit of themselves in her... which is probably why my Grandmother had the smarts to give it to me.All in all, a fascinating read, even for someone who was rather unfamiliar with Millay's work. I have a strong appreciation for who she is, and I think this was a nice introduction. Like any long non-fiction book, it can take quite a bit of time to read through, and it has its sluggish moments - I'm a fast reader and it took me about a month and a half - but it's worth reading, all the same.Note: I'm still thinking about this, even weeks later, so it gets bumped up to five stars.
I've been reading the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay lately, so I was pleased to find this book in one of the boxes that my aunt sent at the beginning of the winter. I knew very little about the poet and her life, so this biography, thirty years in the writing, makes me want to take a new look at the poems. Although I feel that there are some faults in Milford's biography, seeing the poetry against the background of a life, often troubled but always adventurous, added a new dimension to my understanding.Millay spoke for a new generation of women, those of the Jazz Age that were stepping across boundaries and breaking into new territory. Millay smoked in public and made no secret of her many lovers, both male and female. Marriage vows, her own or another's, had little effect on her behavior. Her troubled life began in Maine, where her father abandoned the family early and her mother felt obliged to leave her three small daughters alone for long periods of time while working as a nurse. The relationship between the four women affected much of "Vincent's" life, with turmoil between herself and a difficult younger sister who felt overshadowed by Vincent's talent. Cora Buzzell Millay, Vincent's mother, seems to struggle with pride and jealousy in Milford's portrayal of her, and it sometimes seems that Vincent and her sisters go to great lengths to pacify Cora's demands, perhaps from fear of abandonment. There is a hint at one point that Vincent may have been molested by a man Cora was involved with.What struck me most about Vincent Millay's life is that genius so often comes out of such a life. Talented people often seem to be driven toward a need for experience, and the depth of their work reveals an understanding of experience that so many of us lack. We need these people to speak for us, out of their pain, to say what we cannot find words to reveal.Milford disappoints me occasionally throughout her work. She isn't a particularly organized writer; the book is unsettling in the manner that the material is presented, sometimes in an almost haphazard fashion. It is difficult to capture a life, of course, but the best biographers understand the "why" behind the "what happened" and these reasons elude Milford. Reading between the lines of the numerous excerpts of Millay's works, journals and letters is up to the reader, and Milford offers no interpretation or analysis. I felt sometimes that Milford was overwhelmed with the material, and perhaps intimidated by Millay's sister, Norma.Savage Beauty has some flaws, but so did Edna St. Vincent Millay. The biography is well worth reading for the facts presented and the excerpts from Millay's journals and less accessible writing beyond her poetry. The biography has encouraged me to go back to the poems, with a better understanding of their author, and maybe this is accomplishment enough.
What do You think about Savage Beauty: The Life Of Edna St. Vincent Millay (2002)?
This book made me hate Edna St. Vincent Millay. No joke. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for some of her verses especially some from Conversations at Midnight, but she seems an awful, ugly, nasty person.That aside, I wasn't really a tremendous fan of the book. I loved Milford's biography of Zelda Fitzgerald and expected a lot from the follow up that took 30 years to research and write. It was too choppy for me. There were so many letters and excerpts from letters that I never felt like I was reading a story at all. I was underwhelmed.I should probably note that I read this book in like 3-5 page increments over a 6-7 month period. Maybe if I'd read it all the way through I'd have gotten used to the choppiness.
—Smallen
I haven't read a lot of biographies of writers, but this year I read two, and I think I've figured out what the biggest challenge is in documenting the life of a creative person: Most of them don't leave behind much writing about their creative process. As a result, any biography of a writer is going to focus on what can be documented--their various relationships, their travels, the awards they've won, bad behavior that others witnessed and never forgot. This is all well and good--after all, I think most people who read biographies are looking for this sort of detail about the subject's life, and, when it comes to creative process, are content to let the work speak for itself. The problem that arises, though, is that the subject can become divorced from her creative output to such an extent that when she's quoted saying something that displays her intellect and her sheer focus on her work, it's almost jarring--you suddenly remember that Millay, for example, isn't just a woman with lots of lovers and an active social life, she's also a poet. In this particular case, I think Nancy Milford also just didn't entirely understand Millay, and as a result is not able to integrate her more, shall we say, impetuous side with the obviously disciplined mind that created all those popular and praised works. The other problem with biography is that when the subject has self-destructive tendencies--as a fair amount of creative types do, unfortunately--the whole thing just tends to end very badly, devastatingly even. I kind of wish I didn't know some of the things I now know about Edna St. Vincent Millay.But I still wouldn't discourage anyone from reading this! This book was a massive undertaking, but it's very well put together and doesn't feel unwieldy at all. Some Goodreads reviewers have complained that this is boring or not lascivious enough, but I disagree on both counts. This is a long book, but fascinating, entertaining, and full of information. The actual conversations Milford was able to have with Edna's sister Norma add a unique perspective that no other portrait of Millay will ever achieve. I'm sure others will try to document Millay's life, but this book will be difficult, if not impossible, to surpass.
—Julie Ehlers
I have mixed emotions about this book. I enjoyed reading it but have conflicted feelings about the author. Her biography of Zelda Fitzgerald was one of my favorite books of the eighties. This book about Edna St. Vincent Millay did not seem to me to be as well written although the author worked on it for thirty years. At times it was disjointed and confusing and, unlike some other reviewers on Goodreads, I thought the book was colored a little too often by the author's personal opinions. It often felt intrusive reading some of the more intimate portions of the letters that were presented throughout the book, but since they were given to the author by Millay's sister Norma, I realize they were included in hopes of shedding light on the complexities of Edna's character. I wish the author had dedicated the book to Norma or at least mentioned her in the acknowledgments. This book would not exist without her. Two weeks ago today I stood in Millay's home, Steepletop, with only the docent to accompany me. Being there really enhanced my reading of Savage Beauty. I highly recommend visiting this simple white house in the Berkshires of eastern New York, just over the line from Massachusetts. The opening of the home is a work in progress; certain rooms are not included on the tour, such as Eugen's section of the house and the downstairs "living room." But we spent an hour in her bedroom, bathroom, dining room and other portions of the house. Norma lived there for several decades after Edna's death and apparently tried to keep it just as her sister left it. Norma even left Edna's clothes in the closets and hung her own clothes in the bathroom. You can see the shell collection mentioned in the book, photographs of Millay and family and friends, and even Edna's pills and toiletries in the bathroom. Her library was a revelation. It was unbelievable and moving to see her huge collection on a wide range of topics. Most poignant of all is the entryway, with her riding boots still on the floor and the spot at the foot of the stairs where her lifeless body was found in the autumn of 1950. Tears came to my eyes as we stood in this small vestibule. You can find more information and learn how to contribute to the renovation of the house and surrounding property by going to the Facebook page "The Millay Society of Steepletop."
—Amy
