Edna St. Vincent Millay was America’s greatest lyric poet.

She was the poetic voice of a generation in the 1920s, writing sonnets with a mastery unmatched since Shakespeare.

During the ‘20s and ‘30s, she enjoyed a celebrity status that later generations would call rock star famous.

However, she has largely disappeared from the popular imagination, and her work is rarely championed or taught in academia.

She is not forgotten exactly, but her circle of admirers is far smaller than the tremendous scale of her talent would justify.

Savage Beauty, Nancy Milford’s biography of Millay, is a bulwark against that creeping cultural forgetfulness.

At over 600 pages, it thoroughly chronicles the poet’s life and work, maintaining interest throughout because of the fascinating nature of its subject.

For Millay’s life story is every bit as captivating as is her gorgeous poetry.

Millay lived a life as fascinating as the best fiction.

Raised in poverty, she gained critical acclaim at the age of 20 after entering a poem into a poetry competition.

Doors opened because of her talent, and a wealthy patron enabled her to attend Vassar.

From Vassar, she moved to Greenwich Village during the height of its bohemian golden age, meeting and rubbing elbows with the likes of Eugene O’Neill, Emma Goldman, Floyd Dell, and Jack Reed.

She became the exemplar of the New Woman - intellectually vibrant and aggressively independent, fearlessly championing equal rights and free love.

Her early volumes of poetry established her as the most celebrated poet of the Jazz Age while still in her twenties.

Milford’s book captures the whirlwind of Millay’s youth and moves on to reveal the maturing poet.

Her activism, her affairs, her continued literary triumphs, her marriage, her complicated family, her addictions, and her decline - an entire life, romantic and tragic and absolutely fascinating, revealed in its pages.

There are other books about Millay that are certainly worth reading, notably Daniel Epstein’s What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems Of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

But for an exhaustive, full capturing of Millay’s life and work, Milford’s excellent biography is a must read.

An exquisitely rendered biography of a complex and talented American icon.

This biography offers a detailed and in-depth look into the life and times of a truly remarkable individual. The author has painstakingly researched every aspect of the icon's life, from their humble beginnings to their rise to fame and fortune.

Readers will be captivated by the vivid descriptions of the icon's personal and professional challenges, as well as their triumphs and achievements. The book also explores the icon's complex personality, revealing both their strengths and weaknesses.

Overall, this is a must-read biography for anyone interested in American history, culture, or the lives of great individuals. It is a beautifully written and engaging account of a true American icon.

You may be familiar with a handful of her poems and have an impression of her public image.

However, if you delve into this book, it will be as if you have spent years living in close proximity to her.

The author has conducted painstaking research, presenting a rich and human account of her life.

As you read, you will have the sensation of sharing her daily existence, yet perhaps, even after poring over hundreds of her letters, you will never truly know her.

Maybe everyone who crossed paths with her in life had this same feeling.

It's as if she was a complex enigma, constantly revealing new layers with each turn of the page.

This book offers a unique opportunity to step into her world and gain a deeper understanding of the woman behind the words.

You'll find yourself immersed in her joys, sorrows, and the countless experiences that shaped her.

It's a journey that will leave you with a newfound appreciation for her art and a sense of wonder at the mystery that was her life.

In 2018, we had the opportunity to visit Steepletop, the magnificent house where Millay lived and ultimately passed away.

We were so completely captivated by the wild and fascinating story of her life that three of us ended up purchasing this book in the gift shop.

I'm truly glad that I finally got around to reading it. It's an exquisitely elegant and concisely written biography about a woman who was a genuine libertine and a poet rock-star during the early to mid-20th century.

We still find it难以置信 that there wasn't a Miramax bio-pic starring Meryl Streep back in the '90s. However, perhaps they can put something together soon starring Jessica Chastaine, who actually bears a resemblance to Millay.

It has the potential to make for truly excellent cinema, Hollywood producers!

I devoured this book, and it truly broke my heart.

There were three sisters, and their closeness was so palpable. And what an amazing talent this poet possessed. She was the third woman to win the Pulitzer for Poetry, which is no small feat.

However, it rather bothers me that among my contemporaries, so few people even know her name. It's such a pity that her work and her story are not more widely known and appreciated.

I highly recommend that you read this biography. It will introduce you to a remarkable poet and her life, and perhaps it will also touch your heart as it did mine.

I was employed by Virginia Hamilton Adair when I came across this book. As I was sharing the details with her, I mentioned that Edna's mother had to work constantly as they didn't have much money. However, she ensured that they were immersed in poetry.

\\"Poultry?\\" Virginia inquired. \\"Why on earth would they desire to be surrounded by poultry?\\"

This misunderstanding led to a hilarious moment. We both had a great laugh over it. It was a lighthearted and enjoyable exchange that added a touch of humor to our conversation. It goes to show how a simple miscommunication can bring about unexpected laughter and create a memorable moment.

Even in the midst of our work and discussions, such humorous incidents can brighten our day and strengthen our connection. It was a wonderful experience that I will always remember.

A richly detailed but ultimately flawed biography of America's preeminent female poet has emerged.

Milford opts to center on Millay's fey sexuality and promiscuity, as well as her codependent and suffocating relationship with her family, particularly her mother. There is a particularly disturbing account where her mother creates an herbal abortifacient for her instead of taking her to a doctor for an unwanted pregnancy when she was a full-grown adult. This incident, in miniature, showcases the lack of boundaries between the two.

Unfortunately, very little of her poetry is presented. Her improvident lifestyle and unrelenting narcissism render her a rather unlikable character. Without sufficient examples of her luminous verse, one could be forgiven for wondering, what was all the fuss about? So many people are described as instantly enamored by Millay that she seems less like a human and more of a projection of everyone's erotic fantasy.

Her insatiable needs for attention and sensation make one question how she found the time to write anything at all. She met a sad end. It's too bad that Milford did not include more of her writing to demonstrate the beauty that endured after her death.

A poorly written biography often presents a person's life as a straightforward story with a clear and unwavering path. In other words, it attempts to impose a narrative onto a life. However, I'm not a fan of this approach. The creation of a narrative implies control and exclusion, as it excludes certain details while emphasizing others.

Nancy Milford, in my opinion, did an excellent job in not over-narrating her biography of Millay. There is a certain intimacy with the subject, as the biography is interspersed with anecdotes of Milford's interactions with Norma Millay. Yet, the biography does not follow a single track. It is not overly summarized, and it includes numerous direct sources such as letters, which provide a sometimes myopic perspective on the ebb and flow of Millay's personality. Some may complain that this disrupts the flow, but it also prevents the book from being overly stylized according to its own agenda. Milford presents us with chunks of first-hand accounts rather than simply summarizing them or lumping them into a paragraph that describes the interactions rather than giving us the actual interactions. These snippets of communication allow us to see Millay not as a grand and sweeping concept, but as a real person. We can observe her habits of correspondence and the patterns that emerge within them.

I don't mean to suggest that the biography is perfect or the definitive text on Millay's life. I don't think it's that simple. What we have here is not Millay's life in its entirety, but a well-drawn sketch of it. I believe it is impossible to call any biography complete. It is a strange art, attempting to shape a human being when all we have are fragments. It's more about the shape that Millay created around herself than the space she occupied as a person. It's a very conflicting situation! So, I have to say that the only flaw in Milford's biography is that it is a biography.

Overall, I found this book extremely engrossing and beautifully crafted. I finished it with some loose ends and conflicting opinions about Millay as a person, which I think is a very good thing. Millay was not portrayed as a saint nor as a villain. She had her faults; she was not always nice, soft, or simple. She was human, and as we all know, humans are not easily measured on a scale of morality. People are frustrating to understand. I've heard some people complain about this book, saying that Millay was just terrible! Well, perhaps that's the opinion you formed after reading the book, but that's not a fault that can be attributed to the book itself. Biographies should not be judged by how likable the subject is, but by how well they are presented.

Anyway, this has turned into more of a rambling meditation than a proper review. I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read about an extraordinary woman who led an extraordinary life.

This is a truly remarkable piece of work. It is not only stellar and stunning but also the result of prodigious and unrelenting research. The author has empathetically delved into the subject matter, making it both a thrilling and depressing read.

Interestingly, this is the second biography of a memorable woman writer that I have read this year. The first one was about Shirley Jackson. What both biographies have in common is their chastening portrayal of the harsh realities faced by great woman writers in our society.

The private pain and difficulties that these women endure often take a terrible toll in the end. It is a sobering reminder of the challenges that female artists have had to overcome throughout history. Despite the many obstacles, however, their work continues to inspire and resonate with readers today.

Edna St. Vincent Millay is truly a remarkable figure, and Nancy Milford's writing about her is equally outstanding.

Milford's biography of Millay is a tour de force, revealing every aspect of her life with great detail and insight. From her impoverished childhood, where she cared for her sisters while her mother worked as a traveling nurse, to her sexually liberated adulthood decades before the free-love era of the sixties, Milford spares no expense in painting a vivid picture of Millay's life.

We see Millay achieve great heights of renown with her writing, but also witness the downward spiral of her later years, marked by addiction to alcohol, morphine, and other drugs. Despite this, Milford does not shy away from the darker aspects of Millay's life, but rather presents them in a balanced and objective manner.

What makes Millay such an inspiring figure is her unwavering commitment to her beliefs. She spoke out passionately against American isolationism during Hitler's reign of terror in Europe, sacrificing her health and personal standards to write propaganda in favor of America entering the war. She also stood up for her friends, refusing awards from prestigious literary groups if they discriminated against her female friends on the grounds of "moral failings."

Overall, "Savage Beauty" is an incredible book about an incredible woman. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the life and work of Edna St. Vincent Millay, or in the history of American literature and culture.

I'm not overly fond of biographies, and I didn't have a particular interest in Millay either. So, this was a rather unusual choice for me to pick up.

However, the reviews seemed really promising, and I'm a sucker for anything related to the Twenties and/or artsy Bohemian-types. Therefore, I thought I'd give it a try.

I'm extremely glad I did. It is truly magnificent. Millay's story, of course, is fascinating on its own, and Milford's work with that raw material was outstanding. It is incredibly readable and engaging.

I especially adored her first-person accounts of the eerie conversations she had with Millay's sister Norma. This book definitely sparked a new interest in Edna St. Vincent Millay within me.

Moreover, I'll also be on the lookout for the next work by Nancy Milford. Although that might be a long wait as 30 years passed between her last book, on Zelda Fitzgerald, and this one. What a bummer!

This book was overly long, yet paradoxically, so much was left out.

There are an abundance of excerpts from letters or journals. While some of these were interesting, a significant portion was either irrelevant or repetitive.

Milford failed to maintain the momentum of the story. It became quite bogged down, especially in the beginning, and seemed to go on and on without conveying much substance.

The Millay women were truly fascinating, creative free spirits. In their younger years, the three sisters were deeply devoted to their mother and each other. This aspect was definitely worth exploring in greater detail.

However, the question remains: where did they come apart? Milford never provides answers to many crucial questions. What ultimately happened to their father and so many others who were significant in Edna's life?

I had to resort to Wikipedia to uncover more information. Additionally, Milford describes numerous photos of Edna. But why not include some of them in the book?

This biography is clearly the result of extensive research, yet it lacks proper organization. I found it frustrating to read, although it did become more interesting as I progressed.

I'm certain that there are better biographies available on Millay. I almost feel compelled to read another one to fill in the missing pieces and gain a more comprehensive understanding.