Savage Beauty (97 page)

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 Hooley, 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.