Rapture and Melancholy

The Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay

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Pub Date 08 Mar 2022 | Archive Date 11 Feb 2022

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Description

The first publication of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s private, intimate diaries, providing “a candid self-portrait of the ‘bad girl of American letters’” (Kirkus Reviews)
 
“Provides an occasion to revisit not just [Millay’s] improbable life but also her sometimes revelatory work.”—Abigail Deutsch, Wall Street Journal
 
Rapture and Melancholy paints a picture of artistic triumph, romantic tumult, and a daily life that descended into addiction.”—Heather Clark, New York Times Book Review
 
The English author Thomas Hardy proclaimed that America had two great attractions: the skyscraper, and the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay. In these diaries the great American poet illuminates not only her literary genius, but her life as a devoted daughter, sister, wife, and public heroine; and finally as a solitary, tragic figure.
 
This is the first publication of the diaries she kept from adolescence until middle age, between 1907 and 1949, focused on her most productive years. Who was the girl who wrote “Renascence,” that marvel of early twentieth-century poetry? What trauma or spiritual journey inspired the poem? And after such celebrity why did she vanish into near seclusion after 1940? These questions hover over the life and work, and trouble biographers and readers alike. Intimate, eloquent, these confessions and keen observations provide the key to understanding Millay’s journey from small-town obscurity to world fame, and the tragedy of her demise.
The first publication of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s private, intimate diaries, providing “a candid self-portrait of the ‘bad girl of American letters’” (Kirkus Reviews)
 
“Provides an occasion to...

Advance Praise

“A book of surprising revelations and careful silences, these diaries constitute a remarkable portrait not only of a woman, an artist, and a citizen, but of the cultural life of her time.”— David Bergman, author of The Poetry of Disturbance




“An essential work for the study of Millay, Daniel Mark Epstein’s brilliant edition of her diaries takes us with great knowledge and insight behind the scenes of her remarkably poetic, complex life.”—Jonathan Cohen, author of Muna Lee: A Pan-American Life

 


“Endlessly intriguing and illuminating. The publication of Edna St. Vincent Millay's diaries is a major literary event, providing astonishing insight into the great poet's art and life.”—Chloe Honum, author of The Tulip-Flame

 


“From her ‘tired and crushed and driven’ girlhood through days of gardening in the nude, Millay kept diaries that illuminate a gifted poet’s life and are a pleasure to read. Millay’s prejudices emerge as nakedly as the gardener herself, and the late entries about addiction are devastating. I’m still grateful for this book. It was hard for an ambitious woman to survive her own daring. We need to remember it.”—Lesley Wheeler, author of Poetry’s Possible Worlds

“A book of surprising revelations and careful silences, these diaries constitute a remarkable portrait not only of a woman, an artist, and a citizen, but of the cultural life of her time.”— David...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780300245684
PRICE $35.00 (USD)
PAGES 416

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