THROUGHOUT THE 1920s and 1930s, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poems sold in the thousands, and public readings across the country were quickly sold out. From 1925 until her death in 1950, she lived at Steepletop, a 700-acre homestead and farm at the upper end of East Hill Road in Austerlitz.
Since her death, biographies, critical studies, and collections of her letters and poetry have heightened awareness of her literary work. This month Daniel Mark Epstein, one of her most recent biographers, has released nearly all of her known diary entries, previously available only at the Library of Congress.
Millay’s diaries, originally written in multiple notebooks, open doors for a more complete appreciation of her life and poetry. In “Rapture and Melancholy: The Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay” (Yale University Press, $35), Epstein brings into public view Millay’s private activities, personal impressions, and literary thoughts. Read more…