My candle burns at both ends; 
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and oh, my friends-
It gives a lovely light. Edna St. Vincent Millay
Some lives seemed destined to become a biography; Edna St.Vincent Millay was one of those lives. Millay, nick named “Girl Poet” was the celebrity poet of the Jazz age, and the first women to win the Pulitzer Prize. Her lyrical poetry was bold, unapologetic, lustful and sad. Filled with sexual possessiveness, death and longing, all of which inspired and personified the unrest and search for freedom of women during her time.
The only thing to rival her poetry was her life itself. The petite auburn haired poets’ appetite for life exceeded her childlike appearance, as the title (taken from one of her poems) suggests Millay was both captivating and ruthless. Known for affairs with both women and men, (many of which took place openly within her marriage), her intense ambition, unconventional lifestyle, and finally her haunted and addicted final years left a trail of broken hearts, scandal and literary genius behind.
Nancy Milford, author of Savage Beauty, spent 30 years putting together this comprehensive and unprecedented recreation of Millay’s life. Millay’s sister, (last living relative), Norma Millay, allowed (though reluctantly at times) Milford to use numerous materials, letters, journals, unpublished manuscripts and photographs, material that no other biographer had been allowed access to before or since.
Savage Beauty (509 pages), which covers in great detail Millay’s life from childhood to death, provides an absorbing and compelling glimpse into her complicated life. Millay was born into a family of unorthodox women; neither Millay nor her two sisters would ever have children of their own. While instability and poverty marked her childhood and drove her literary ambition, Millay’s mother’s passion for poetry was the foundation within her children’s lives (all the women became poets), though Millay’s poetry ultimately overshadows all the rest. At the age of 20 Millays work brought her to the attention of wealthy society members who made it their mission to make her a literary star.
Millay was one of those rare artist who became a legend in her own time, her book sales were tremendous (even during the years of the depression), her national reading tours around America were legendary, and her lifestyle unorthodox and destructive. America became obsessed with everything about her, from her poetry to the life that inspired it. Millay's’ career not only flourished on the genius and beauty of her poetry but also the public’s curiosity in deciphering her life through her poetry.
One of her most well known poems, "First Fig," (“My candle burns at both ends...”), became the rallying call of feminist. Declaring, “I will have many lovers” Millay was the Jazz age Samantha from Sex and the City. Her unconventional 30-year marriage to Eugene Boissevain was something rarely seen during that time and even today. While Millay has nearly been forgotten today, her work has increasingly been reemerging into the literary imagination. The brilliantly written Savage Beauty captures the essence and life of America’s “Girl Poet”, a life that still mesmerizes, a life that readers will not soon forget.
