29. “The ‘Lyric Year’ ”: Jessie Rittenhouse, review, The New York Times, Dec. 12, 1912, reprinted in The New York Times (New York: Arno Press, 1969).
30. “You might easily think”: Caroline B. Dow to ESVM, Oct. 15, 1912. St. Coll.
31. “I have always wanted”: ESVM to Caroline B. Dow, Nov. 18, 1912.
32. “the country life”: Caroline B. Dow to ESVM, Dec. 2, 1912. St. Coll.
33. On December 18, 1912: M. L. Burton to ESVM, Dec. 18, 1912. St. Coll.
34. “I have on hand”: Caroline B. Dow to ESVM, Jan. 9, 1913. St. Coll.
35. “Isn’t this fierce?”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., c. January 1913. UVa.
36. “Since three of the largest”: Caroline B. Dow to ESVM, Jan. 11, 1913. St. Coll.
37. “I would write”: Charlotte Bannon to ESVM, Jan. 4, 1913. St. Coll.
38. “I do not want”: Charlotte Bannon to ESVM, n.d., PM Jan. 20, 1913. St. Coll.
39. “How did you come by”: ADF to ESVM, Dec. 9, 1912. St. Coll.
40. “As to the line”: ESVM to ADF, Ls., p. 22.
41. “O, Wonder-child!” ADF to ESVM, Dec. 19, 1912. St. Coll.
42. “Mr. Earle may be extolled”: Louis Untermeyer, Chicago Evening Post, Friday Literary Review, Dec. 27, 1912, p. 2.
43. “Some people think”: “Her Book,” Jan. 10, 1913. St. Coll.
CHAPTER 9
1. “buildings everywhere”: ESVM to the Millay family, Ls., p. 32.
2. “You see”: ESVM to family, Feb. 24, 1913. Berg.
3. “Well, here I am”: ESVM, “Sweet & Twenty,” Feb. 7, 1913. St. Coll.
4. “Miss Dow”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., c. February 1913. St. Coll.
5. “Well, now I’ve come”: ESVM to “Dear Family,” n.d., c. February 1913. St. Coll.
6. “O, it seems”: CBM to ESVM, Feb. 10, 1913. St. Coll.
7. “I met two”: ESVM to “Dear Family,” n.d., c. February 1913. St. Coll.
8. “Isn’t it perfectly dear”: NM to ESVM, n.d., PM Feb. 15, 1913. St. Coll.
9. “Only you, my family”: ESVM to family, n.d., c. February 1913. St. Coll.
10. “only rejoiced”: CBM to ESVM, Feb. 18, 1913. St. Coll.
11. “Loose in New York!”: ADF to ESVM, Feb. 13, 1913. St. Coll.
12. “And in order”: LWF, Feb. 15, 1913.
13. “I call her ‘Sara’ ”: ESVM to CBM, PM April 22, 1913. St. Coll.
14. “lovely home”: ESVM to family, April 18, 1913. UVa.
15. “Has it ever occurred”: ESVM to Louis Untermeyer, April 11, 1913. Lilly Library, Indiana.
16. “Wish I could hear”: ESVM, “Sweet & Twenty,” Feb. 20, 1913.
17. “I felt that”: FE to ESVM, Feb. 25, 1913. St. Coll.
18. “Mr. Earle I saw”: ESVM to CBM, n.d. (Cora’s hand: “April 22, 1913”). St. Coll.
19. “Witter Bynner is tall”: ESVM to family, n.d., c. spring 1913. St. Coll. 95 “just a small party”: ESVM, Ls., p. 36.
20. “If I should die”: LWF, March 10, 1913.
21. “Did a lot”: LWF, March 30, 1913.
22. “I am dying”: ESVM to NM (postcard), PM March 18, 1913.
23. “I wish I hadn’t”: ESVM to NM, March 20, 1913, (copy). UVa.
24. “Po’ ole Sephus”: NM to ESVM, n.d., c. March 1913. St. Coll.
25. “Promise me, please”: ESVM to CBM, Ls., p. 37.
26. “I am going crazy”: LWF, April 27, 1913.
27. “It isn’t anything great”: ESVM, Ls., p. 44.
28. “beautifully written”: CBM to ESVM, PM May 12, 1913. St. Coll.
29. “because this is the better”: ESVM to CBM, PM May 9, 1913. St. Coll.
30. “Yesterday I got an A”: ESVM to CBM, May 13, 1913. St. Coll.
31. “Mother should have been”: NM, interview with author, n.d.
32. “They are in the country!”: ESVM to CBM, PM May 16, 1913. St. Coll.
33. “Dearest old neglected Muvver”: ESVM to family, n.d., c. late spring 1913. St. Coll.
34. “She had just”: George Perry to author, interview, September 1976.
35. “Sister, don’t smile”: NM, interview with author, Nov. 11, 1973.
36. “Thank you for the statement”: Ella McCaleb to Barnard College, June 27, 1913. Barnard College.
37. “Did I fail”: Ella McCaleb to ESVM, Aug. 15, 1913. St. Coll.
CHAPTER 10
1. “It’s all right”: ESVM to “Dear Family,” n.d., PM Sept. 11, 1913. St. Coll.
2. “reckoned it as a Failure”: Mildred Thompson, July 27, 1951. VC.
3. “my sophomore”: ESVM to CBM, Sept. 20, 1913. St. Coll.
4. “I am writing”: Agnes Rogers to ESVM, n.d., PM Aug. 21, 1913. St. Coll.
5. “She was one”: Agnes Rogers, interview with author, Oct. 24, 1974.
6. “Frank, you’ve got”: Lydia Babbott to author, c. September 20, 1974.
7. “So Vassar College”: ADF to ESVM, Dec. 12, 1913. St. Coll.
8. “Don’t worry”: ESVM to ADF, Ls., pp. 48–49.
9. “I let her lead me”: ESVM to “Dear Folks,” Oct. 27, 1913. St. Coll.
10. “I heard a masculine”: ESVM to NM, Nov. 1, 1913. St. Coll.
11. “They give themselves”: ESVM to “Dear Family” (fragment), n.d., c. November 1913. St. Coll.
12. “Catherine can’t do”: ESVM to NM, n.d., PM Nov. 18, 1913. St. Coll.
13. “Wore my tan satin”: LWF, Dec. 12, 1913.
14. “Heaps of fun”: Ibid., Dec. 13, 1913.
15. “To think that”: ESVM to “Dear ’dored Family,” n.d., c. Christmas 1913. St. Coll.
16. “If she’s trying”: ESVM to “Dear Family,” n.d., c. spring 1914. St. Coll.
17. “This I must tell you”: ESVM to “Dear Family,” n.d., c. April 1914. UVa.
18. “I shall be”: CBM to ESVM, April 18, 1914. St. Coll.
19. “Vincent just stood”: Helen Sandison, interview with author, May 29, 1975.
20. “Once I taught”: Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, Vincent at Vassar, p. 1.
21. “& photographs, photographs”: ESVM to “Dear Family,” Sept. 17, 1914. St. Coll.
22. “Vincent was very definitely”: Virginia Kirkus Glick, interview with author, May 1, 1980.
23. “She had this confidence”: “X,” interview with author, April 23, 1980.
24. “You don’t know”: ESVM to family, n.d., PM Oct. 12, 1914. St. Coll.
25. “After it was over”: ESVM to sisters, Oct. 19, 1914. St. Coll.
26. “dead, worse than”: NM to ESVM, n.d., PM Oct. 19, 1914.
27. “two or three”: ESVM to family, n.d., PM Oct. 5, 1914. St. Coll.
28. “probably make more”: ESVM to sister, Nov. 4, 1914. St. Coll.
29. “Hunk’s & my latest”: KM to ESVM, n.d., PM Oct. 5, 1914. St. Coll.
30. “Let’s have a cup”: CBM to ESVM, Feb. 10, 1915. St. Coll.
31. “Why have we not”: CBM to ESVM, Feb. 20, 1915. St. Coll.
32. “I think Elaine”: KM to ESVM, March 22, 1915. St. Coll.
33. “Girls, I want you”: ESVM to family, n.d., PM June 7, 1915. St. Coll.
34. “It won’t be long”: ESVM to Elaine Ralli, n.d., PM Aug. 25, 1915. Private collection.
35. “My Dear”: ESVM to Arthur Hooley, n.d., PM July 31, 1915. St. Coll.
CHAPTER 11
1. “Into a scene”: “Pageant of Athena Wonderful Spectacle,” Poughkeepsie Eagle, Oct. 11, 1915, p. 164.
2. “Of course you are”: Caroline B. Dow to ESVM, n.d., PM Oct. 31, 1915. St. Coll.
3. “You know neither”: ESVM to family, Oct. 27, 31, PM Nov. 1, 1915. St. Coll.
4. “Dearest little old sweetheart”: Elaine Ralli to ESVM, n.d., PM Dec. 18, 1915. St. Coll.
5. “knew Vincent had dropped her”: Catherine Ryan, interview with author, April 23, 1980.
6. “My dear”: ESVM to Arthur Hooley, Oct. 6, 1915. St. Coll.
7. “Arthur—Arthur—Arthur—”: ESVM to Arthur H
ooley, Nov. 15, 1915. St. Coll.
8. “I shall be glad”: ESVM to Charles Vale (pseudonym of Arthur Hooley), n.d., PM Dec. 6, 1915. St. Coll.
9. “Wouldn’t you just love”: ESVM to Charles Vale, n.d., PM Feb. 3, 1916. St. Coll.
10. “Edna—Edna”: Arthur Hooley to ESVM, March 1916. St. Coll.
11. “Arthur, promise me”: ESVM to Charles Vale, n.d., PM March 13, 1916. St. Coll.
12. “Never mind”: ESVM to family, n.d., PM March 13, 1916. St. Coll.
13. “I came down Friday”: ESVM to family, n.d., PM March 28, 1916. St. Coll.
14. “another year of”: CBM to the girls, Aug. 3, 1916. St. Coll.
15. “She must be made”: CBM to ESVM, n.d., c. summer 1916.
16. “You must not think”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., PM Aug. 2, 1916. St. Coll.
17. It was late: Charlotte Babcock Sills ’17, Vassar Alumnae Magazine, December 1960, pp. 25–26.
18. “The faculty … voted”: Elizabeth Haight, Vincent at Vassar, p. 14.
19. “I … told her”: Vassarion, 1967, pp. 51–52.
20. “Dear Mother & Sister”: June 6, 1917, Ls., pp. 62–63.
21. “Dear Friends”: CBM to Vassar Board, Miss McCaleb, and Dr. MacCracken, June 10, 1917.
22. “You told me once”: ESVM to Dr. MacCracken, n.d., c.spring 1917.UVa. Box8.
23. “But I’m not sleepy”: ESVM to Dr. MacCracken, n.d., c.spring 1917.UVa. Box8.
24. “What are they thinking”: CBM to ESVM, June 10, 1917. St. Coll.
25. “but I really did not know”: Ella McCaleb to CBM, June 13, 1917. St. Coll.
26. “Tell Mother”: Ls., p. 64.
27. “Highly Esteemed”: NM to ESVM, June 19, 1917. St. Coll. (Letter not sent.)
28. “Mother—listen”: NM to CBM, n.d., June 1917. St. Coll.
29. I found a small green leather case: NM, interview with author, June 14, 1977.
30. “Vincent was free”: NM, interview with author, Nov. 22, 1975.
CHAPTER 12
1. “We could have”: Ls., pp. 67–68.
2. “You wrote me a beautiful”: ESVM to Edith Wynne Matthison, Ls., p. 69.
3. “I am terribly”: Edith Wynne Matthison to ESVM, July 27, 1917. St. Coll.
4. “Love me, please”: ESVM to Edith Wynne Matthison, July 28, 1917. St. Coll.
5. “I could use”: ESVM to Elizabeth Hazelton Haight, July 26, 1917. St. Coll.
6. “My friend at Greenwich”: Elizabeth Hazelton Haight to ESVM, July 31, 1917. St. Coll.
7. “heart’s desire”: Elizabeth Hazelton Haight to ESVM, Aug. 12, 1917.
8. “There were good”: Alfred A. Knopf, interview with author, June 8, 1976.
9. “But, oh, the manner”: Alfred A. Knopf, interview with author, June 17, 1976.
10. “He is a great big”: Ls., p. 73.
11. “Mr. Carpenter, who wrote”: Ls., p. 76.
12. “she believes in me”: Ls., pp. 76–77. UVa, Barrett College, no. 7115, box nos. 6 and 7.
13. “I came thinking”: ESVM to Charlotte Babcock Sills, Oct. 12, 1917. UVa, C. Walker Barrett Collection.
14. “They were great events”: Charles Ellis, interview with author, May 10, 1973.
15. “Am sending you”: ESVM to NM, Nov. 24, 1917.
16. “She was so pretty”: KM to CBM, n.d., PM December 1917. St. Coll.
17. “It may have been”: Norma Millay interview with author, May 10, 1973.
18. “It has just come”: Edward J. Wheeler to ESVM, Dec. 12, 1917. St. Coll.
19. “I have wondered”: Caroline B. Dow to ESVM, n.d., PM April 5, 1918. St. Coll.
20. “Without demur or delay”: Millay’s relationship with Floyd Dell is based on his book Homecoming: An Autobiography, (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., 1933), as well as on the two versions of his unpublished essay “Not Roses.”
CHAPTER 13
1. “This was said”: Floyd Dell, “Not Roses.”
2. “I remember her”: NM, interview with author, Nov. 20, 1976.
3. “My dear, dear girls”: CBM to ESVM and NM, Jan. 8, 1918. St. Coll.
4. “I used to be”: CBM to ESVM, Feb. 21, 1918. St. Coll.
5. “Would you mind”: ESVM to Harriet Monroe, Ls., p. 85.
6. “A young artist”: NM to CBM, c. Feb. 26, 1918. St. Coll.
7. “So we sat darning”: NM, interview with author, Nov. 20, 1976.
8. “My time”: Ls., p. 133.
9. “Into the golden vessel”: The closing lines in her workbook are wildly at odds with this published version. In her draft she wrote:
Love will be ours again as oft before
When hungrily we ate his heavy fruit
And slumbered, & no [illegible/singing?]
voice upsprang,
Save in his singing is the minstrel mute.
Warm were the waters of the Lesbian
shore,
And many loved, but Sapho loved & sang.
Anyone can love, but only “Sapho loved & sang.”
10. “You will forgive me”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., PM March 7, 1918. St. Coll.
11. For the first time: Art for the Masses, p. 42.
12. “Don’t worry about”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., c. spring 1918. St. Coll.
13. “One morning … Edna and I”: Floyd Dell, “Not Roses …,” Newberry, p. 27.
14. “Somebody else had my job”: Floyd Dell, Homecoming, p. 322.
15. “I want, if possible”: W. A. Roberts to ESVM, Sept. 13, 1918. St. Coll.
16. “The only decent thing”: Edmund Wilson, The Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951), p. 793.
17. “Dearlings”: CBM to ESVM, May 24, 1918. St. Coll.
18. “Edna”: KM to ESVM, n.d., PM Oct. 1, 1918. St. Coll.
19. “She was really”: Mrs. Bennett Schauffer, interview with author, June 1974.
20. “When the sisters appeared”: Malcolm Cowley, interview with author, Sept. 7, 1972.
21. “it really didn’t take at all”: NM, interview with author, June 4, 1980.
22. “skillful—their harmonies”: Max Eastman, Great Companions: Critical Memoirs of Some Famous Friends (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1959), pp. 78–79.
23. “it was impossible”: W. A. Roberts, “Tiger Lily,” p. 10. VC.
24. “I have never”: Susan Jenkins Brown to author, June 1974.
25. “We realized now”: NM, interview with author, Aug. 11, 1975.
26. “We’re not going”: ESVM to CBM, Ls., p. 90.
27. “You should see”: Alexander Woollcott, The New York Times, Dec. 13, 1919, sec. 8, p. 2.
28. But there was more: NM, interview with author, Aug. 4, 1975.
29. “Dearest Girl, My Own”: James P. Lawyer to ESVM, n.d., PM Nov. 27, 1919. St. Coll.
30. “God knows, Edna”: James P. Lawyer to ESVM, n.d., PM Nov. 28, 1919. St. Coll.
31. “I carry my typewriter”: ESVM to CBM. Ls., p. 131.
32. “Jim was a beautiful boy”: NM, interview with author, Aug. 4, 1975.
33. “If I can earn”: ESVM to NM, n.d., PM Feb. 26, 1920. St. Coll.
34. “I guess my mind”: James P. Lawyer to ESVM, n.d., c. winter–spring 1920. St. Coll.
35. “Vincent did care”: NM, interview with author, Aug. 4, 1975.
36. “Pity me not”: Vanity Fair, November 1920.
CHAPTER 14
1. “wherefore I deduce”: ESVM to Jessie B. Rittenhouse, April 7, 1920. UVa.
2. “The slender red-haired”: Hubertis M. Cummings to EW, Sept. 3, 1960. Beinecke.
3. “Aren’t you about ready”: MK to ESVM, Dec. 29, 1919. St. Coll.
4. “You, dear, I thought”: ESVM to MK, n.d., “New Year’s Day” [1920]. Dartmouth College.
5. “There’s not a copy”: Eighteen years later, Kennerley attached the following note to their correspondence:
I had published “Renascence” in 1917 and had considerable difficulty
over two years in giving away the first edition of about 750 copies.
I printed a second edition of “Renascence” in 1919 which sold very slightly. It was not until 1922–23 that people began to talk about Edna Millay and buy her books.
Kennerley had paid exceedingly little for Renascence, and his $25.00 check, which he said “is one of many similar checks which I paid the author on account of ‘Renascence’ though it was years before the book earned any appreciable sum,” was wildly disingenuous. He was of course making a point in his own behalf. But he included only two checks endorsed by her, for July 24, 1918, and January 2, 1920, the latter having been sent to her on the heels of her January 1 letter. Certainly his firm’s advertisements for Renascence—”Ten books of poems for $5 with a free copy of ‘Renascence’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay”—were not guaranteed to assuage any author’s fears. To make matters even worse, he added: “I have several thousand books of poems in my cellar. Send $5 and I will mail you postpaid, ten different volumes, and a free copy of ‘Renascence,’ the most beautiful poems ever written by an American.” It meant he was giving the book away as a sort of bonus.
6. “Charlie did the sets”: NM to author, Oct. 18, 1974.
7. “I was thrilled”: Edmund Wilson, The Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties(New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952), p. 748.
8. When the war: Edmund Wilson, The Twenties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period, ed. Leon Edel (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975), p. xxxiv.
9. “Walter, dear”: ESVM to Walter Adolphe Roberts, n.d., PM July 14, 1920. VC.
10. “I remember we didn’t”: William M. Reedy to ESVM, April 10, 1920. St. Coll.
11. “If you will send me”: ESVM to MK, n.d., c. spring 1920. Dartmouth College. 186 “Mitchell, dear”: ESVM to MK, June 22, 1920. Dartmouth College.
12. “remoteness, mosquitoes”: George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell to ESVM, May 22, 1920. St. Coll.
13. “I don’t know how” and “Please be decent”: EW to ESVM, July 27, 28, 1920. St. Coll.
14. “I don’t know what”: ESVM to EW, Ls., pp. 98, 99.
Savage Beauty Page 67
