Savage Beauty (99 page)

5.
“it verged on the sentimental”: Edmund Wilson,
The Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952), p. 780.

6.
“Mother has been”: CBM to ESVM, Sept. 27, 1921. St. Coll.

7.
“to you what you would”: George Slocombe to ESVM, n.d., PM Sept. 23, 1921. St. Coll.

CHAPTER 17

1.
“They wear the uniforms”: ESVM, Albanian journal, “Tues. 18.” c. 1921. St. Coll.

2.
“But in spite”:
Ls.
, p. 134.

3.
“She remained in Rome”: John Carter to Allan Ross Macdougall, March 9, 1951. UVa.

4.
Just before leaving Rome: Note headed “Rome—Palace Hotel—Sunday—Nov. 13, 1921.”

5.
“Sweetheart”: ESVM to CBM, Nov. 18, 1921. St. Coll.

6.
“Whadda you think”: ESVM to NM, n.d., PM Nov. 16, 1921. St. Coll.

7.
“Now I have two bruvvers!”: ESVM to NM, Nov. 13, 1921. St. Coll.

8.
“I had thought you lost”: George Slocombe to ESVM, Nov. 19, 1921. St. Coll.

9.
“Oh, if only”: ESVM to ADF, Jan. 25, 1921. UVa.

10.
Arthur wrote back: ADF to ESVM, Feb. 14, 1921. St. Coll.

11.
“Dear, does Hal know”: ESVM to ADF, n.d., PM July 26, 1921. Beinecke.

12.
“I must write you” and following quotes from Millay:
Ls.
, pp. 132–133.

I think that no other letter of hers is signed “Edna.” And not all my later-acquired wisdom enables me to understand how and why I failed to grasp the full import of this letter, and “smash the world to bits and remould it nearer to the heart’s desire.”

What I mean is that the signature is obviously a surrender of her proud will—an acceptance of me as the male and herself as the female elements in this strange relationship.

Whether it would have worked out well, I do not know: I do not know. [ADF note, Yale/Beinecke]

13.
“Dearest Hal”: Dec. 23, 1921.
Ls.
, pp. 139–40.

14.
“Dearest Edna”: WB to ESVM, Jan. 19, 1922. “16 Gramercy Park, New York City. Shanghai no longer but on a train between Cincinnati and New York.”

15.
“I smoke too many”:
Ls.
, pp. 143–45.

16.
“of the fact that you”: ADF to ESVM, Feb. 9, March 7, 1922. St. Coll.

17.
“Poor boy”: Feb. 22, 1922.
Ls.
, p. 146.

18.
“I was interviewed”: ESVM to family, Feb. 23, 1922. St. Coll.

19.
“She was a little bitch”: Marian K. Sanders,
Dorothy Thompson: A Legend in Her Time
, pp. 86–87.

20.
“Beloved Sister”:
Ls.
, p. 146.

21.
“Bon voyage, sweetheart!”: ESVM to CBM, March 8, 1922. St. Coll.

CHAPTER 18

1.
“mean, monotonous, vicious”: George Slocombe to ESVM, Jan. 17, 1922. St. Coll.

2.
“My dear”: George Slocombe to ESVM, April 16, 1922. St. Coll.

3.
“For the first time”: John Carter to ESVM, April 2, 1922. St. Coll.

4.
“Paris April 1st, 1922”: ESVM, Paris notebook, April 1, 1922. St. Coll.

5.
“Remember … that rainy”: Margot Schuyler to Allan Ross Macdougall, Aug. 30, 1951. UVa.

6.
“I
did
call her”: Margot Schuyler, interview with author, Dec. 16–17, 1975.

7.
“I hope this won’t”: Margot Schuyler to ESVM, n.d., c. April 1922. St. Coll.

8.
“For goodness sake telephone”: Margot Schuyler to ESVM, n.d., PM April 19, 1922. St. Coll.

9.
“You are most like”: ESVM, Paris notebook, April 26, 1922. St. Coll.

10.
“and then we all went”: CBM to “Dear girls,” carbon copy, April 13, 1922. St. Coll.

11.
“that wicked”: Harold Lewis Cook, interview with author, Sept. 13, 1976.

12.
“Dearest Kids”:
Ls.
, pp. 150–51.

13.
“I saw Bernhardt”: CBM to NM, carbon copy, May 29, 1922. St. Coll.

14.
“fact that she has”:
Ls.
, p. 152.

15.
“The idea of loving”: Max Eastman,
Great Companions: Critical Memoirs of Some Famous Friends
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1959), pp. 83–85.

16.
“She dropped into”: Dwight Townsend Hutchison, “Recollections of Edna Millay,” unpublished ms., n.d., p. 1.

17.
“We were sitting”: Dwight Townsend Hutchison, telephone interview with author, July 24, 1974.

18.
affadavit: Affidavit, June 28, 1922. St. Coll. 235 “Certificat de Coutume,” June 28, 1922. St. Coll.

19.
“His name was Daubigny!”: Margot Schuyler, interview with author, Dec. 16–17, 1975.

20.
“The weather had been cold” and subsequent quotes: Dwight Townsend Hutchison, “Recollections of Edna Millay,” unpublished ms., n.d., pp. 2–3, 4–5.

21.
“I have been sick”: ESVM to EW, July 20–22, 1922.
Ls.
, p. 153.

22.
“The poet synges”:
Ls.
, p. 155.

23.
“Mother is wonderful”: ESVM to NM, July 21–22, 1922.
Ls.
, pp. 155–57.

24.
“Willow Tree” and other quotes about herbs:
Culpeper’s Complete Herbal
(London: W. Foulsham & Co., n.d.).

25.
“I cannot say”: Dwight Townsend Hutchison, telephone interview with author, July 24, 1974.

26.
“Norma”: NM, interview with author, Aug. 23, 1976.

27.
“Not that I’ve been sick”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., PM Sept. 6, 1922. St. Coll.

28.
“I’ve been such”: ESVM to CBM, PM Sept. 11, 1922. St. Coll.

29.
“Edna, Doris felt”: Jonathan Mitchell, interview with author, December 1975.

30.
“just to break”: ESVM to NM, Oct. 13, 1922.
Ls.
, p. 161.

31.
“It’s the greatest”: ESVM to NM, Oct. 13, 1922.
Ls.
, p. 162.

32.
“A friend of Sefe’s”: CBM to NM, Nov. 13, 1922. St. Coll.

33.
“No, I’ve never tried”: ESVM to NM, Nov. 10, 1922. St. Coll. (
Ls.
, p. 165, but with this cut.)

34.
“My God”: ESVM to ADF,
Ls.
, p. 169.

35.
“And she looked so”: Margot Schuyler, interview with author, Dec. 17, 1975.

CHAPTER 19

1.
Even Edmund Wilson: Edmund Wilson,
Letters on Literature and Politics
, p. 106, and
The Shores of Light
, pp. 770–71.

2.
“Figs from Thistles” was the title of a group of poems published in
Poetry
in June 1918; it became
A Few Figs from Thistles
when it was published by Frank Shay as a book in 1920.

3. “The houses”: Clare Sheridan,
My American Diary
, p. 192.

4.
“Eugene and Edna”: Floyd Dell,
Homecoming
, p. 308.

5.
“As soon as she returned”: Jonathan Mitchell, interview with author, December 1975.

6.
“that at the meeting”: Frank D. Fackenthal to ESVM, April 30, 1923. St. Coll.

7.
became the first woman: But because the original awards were in journalism, fiction, playwriting, history, and biography, it was only the second time the prize for poetry was offered. Poetry was not added as a category until 1922.

8.
“My mother is on her way”: Eleanor Carroll, “Laughing at Life with Edna St. Vincent Millay,” “A Fireside Afternoon in Croton Hills with Girl Winner of $1,000 Pulitzer Poetry Prize,” New York
Evening Post
, May 19, 1923, n.p. VC.

9.
“Dearest Mother”:
Ls.
, p. 174.

10.
“Darling Mother”:
Ls.
, p. 176.

11.
I’d just turned: NM and Charlie Ellis, interview with author, summer 1974.

12.
“If I die now”: Miriam Gurko,
Restless Spirit,: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
(New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1962), p. 155.

13.
“MARRIED YESTERDAY”: Eugen Boissevain to Mrs. Charles Boissevain, July 20, 1923. St. Coll.

14.
“Dearest Mummie”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., PM August 3, 1923.

15.
“They not only removed”: NM to CBM, n.d., “Croton-on-Hudson/Sunday,” PM July 23, 1923. St. Coll.

16.
“a beautiful car”: CBM to Susan Ricker, July 25, 1923. UVa.

17.
“Tess, darling”:
Ls.
, p. 176.

CHAPTER 20

1.
“Darling Mummie”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., PM Oct. 5, 1923. St. Coll.

2.
“It is
wonderful
”: ESVM to CBM, Nov. 7, 1923.
Ls.
, p. 177.

3.
“Of
course
”
:
ESVM to CBM, Dec. 15, 1923. St. Coll.

4.
“Am I a swine?”: ESVM to EW, Jan. 8, 1924.
Ls.
, p. 179.

5.
“I saw Edna”: EW to John Peale Bishop,
Letters on Literature and Politics
, p. 118.

6.
“Seated in one corner”:
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
, Feb. 15, 1924, n.p.

7.
“I got through”: ESVM to EB.
Ls.
, p. 181.

8.
“Once a day”: ESVM to EB, Feb. 5, 1924.
Ls.
, pp. 184–85.

9.
“My emotions”: “Dodie’s Mother” to ESVM, July 28, 1920. St. Coll.