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Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79032920
Collection material in English, French, and Dutch.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet and writer, were deposited and then given to the Library of Congress by her sister, Norma Millay, 1967-1975. Additional material was purchased by the Library in 1998.
A portion of Millay's diaries and notebooks has been available for research at the Library of Congress since 1969. Various proofs of Millay's books were added to the collection in 1978. The main body of the collection was received by the Library in 1998. All of these parts are incorporated into the current arrangement and description of the Millay Papers completed in 2003 by Nan Thompson Ernst with the assistance of Michael W. Giese, Jewel R. Parker, and Chanté Wilson.
Some books have been transferred to the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Some photographs have been transferred to the Library's Prints and Photographs Division. Sound recordings and motion pictures have been transferred to the Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Some newspapers and magazines have been transferred to the Library's Serial & Government Publications Division. All transferred material is identified as part of the papers of Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Edna St. Vincent Millay in these papers and in other collections in the custody of the Library of Congress is reserved. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division for further information.
The papers of Edna St. Vincent Millay are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Edna St. Vincent Millay Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) span the years 1832-1992 with the bulk of the material dated 1900-1950. Millay's papers document her career and life and are arranged in seven series: Family and Biographical File, General Correspondence, Literary File, Writings, Miscellany, Photographs, and Oversize. Correspondence and writings are written in English, French, and Dutch.
The Family and Biographical File includes correspondence, academic records, documents of daily life, and papers of other family members. Among the family correspondence are Millay's letters to and from her husband, Eugen Boissevain, and a file of Boissevain family correspondence. Eugen's father, Charles Boissevain (1842-1927), was a well-known figure in Amsterdam as journalist, editor, and then director of
Correspondence exchanged between Millay, known as “Vincent” to the family, her mother, Cora Buzzell Millay, and sisters, Norma and Kathleen, are interfiled since many are addressed jointly. They frequently use childhood nicknames from a song their mother sang: Vincent is “Sefe” or “Sefus” (from Josephus); Norma is “Hunk” or “Hunkus” (from Bohunkus); and Kathleen is “Wump,” or “Wumpty Woons.” From childhood until Cora Millay's death in 1931, the Millays frequently commented upon each other's activities, thus documenting individual perspectives on various events with the correspondence of one Millay sister complementing that of another. Letters to Kathleen Millay are largely absent due to her estrangement from the family at the time of her death in 1943.
After Millay's marriage to Eugen Boissevain in 1923, much of the family correspondence is addressed jointly to Vincent and Eugen. Boissevain wrote on behalf of Millay to her family and to others, especially after 1925 when the couple settled on their farm “Steepletop” in Austerlitz, New York. His correspondence, along with that Norma's husband, Charles Ellis, and Kathleen's husband, Howard Irving Young, is included in the family correspondence. Correspondence from other relatives include Millay's father, Henry T. Millay, and aunts Clementine Buzzell Parsons and Susan Buzzell Ricker.
The Family and Biographical File series also includes other papers relating to Millay's academic career, travels, and management of the farm at Steepletop. A scrapbook from her childhood documents her literary and theatrical ambitions; another concerns her early literary career. Millay acquired the papers of her mother, which included items relating to all three of the Millay sisters. Her husband's papers remained at Steepletop after his death in 1949. Eugen Boissevain's papers include business records, family papers, writings, and items relating to his first wife, Inez Milholland, a prominent American suffragist, including a diary from her childhood, correspondence, an essay, and photographs.
Norma Millay inherited Steepletop upon her sister's death in 1950 and resided there for the rest of her life. As Millay's literary executor, she was responsible for posthumous publications of Millay's poetry and letters and took an active interest in Millay's legacy. She preserved the Millay papers and related material at Steepletop, adding her own papers to the collection in due course.
Cora Buzzell Millay's papers chiefly concern her own literary ambitions and efforts. As a young woman, Cora sang and acted in local theatricals in Maine. There are playbills and photographs to document these activities. Cora Millay's writings file includes drafts of novels, short stories, plays, and poetry. Before Edna Millay's birth in 1892, Cora Millay published newspaper columns about her travels in New England as well as poetry and serialized fiction. Stories published in the
Cora Millay's unpublished essays, reminiscences, and diary notes relate to her family's careers and activities, including their participation in avant-garde theater and antiwar socialist politics in Greenwich Village during the World War I era. Diary notes and correspondence from her travels in 1922 with Edna Millay in Europe provide some rare glimpses of their association with American expatriates in Paris. Cora Millay also collected genealogical data and family papers and compiled notes on the Buzzell and Emery families in New England.
Norma Millay's papers from her more than thirty years as literary executor of her sister's estate include correspondence with poets, writers, editors, publishers, and actors. She oversaw the publication of selected letters and compiled Edna Millay's verse, including poems unpublished at the time of her death, in
The General Correspondence series is organized in two subseries: an Alphabetical File and a Chronological File. The Alphabetical File documents Millay's relationships with friends, lovers, neighbors, and the literary and artistic associates she encountered during her career. The Chronological File relates to her career as a poet and to her performances at poetry readings. Correspondents wrote to Millay in English and French. Eugen Boissevain responded to many of her fans, and copies of letters by him on behalf of Millay are included in the series as well as his own correspondence for the years 1925-1949. Correspondence by Millay herself is sparse in the Chronological File subseries. Drafts of her letters appear in notebooks included in the Writings series.
The Literary File includes correspondence with editors, agents, publishers, and theatrical producers. Royalty statements indicate Millay's income, and a file of correspondence, promotional material, and expense records document the logistics of her poetry readings, recordings, and lecture tours. Critical essays, book reviews, and notices of her work published in magazines and newspapers are also included in the Literary File.
The Writings series includes drafts and proofs of Millay's plays, poetry, prose, songs, and music as well as diaries and autobiographical notes. Diaries and notebooks are arranged chronologically and contain drafts of published and unpublished plays, poetry, and prose with correspondence and occasional notes on household and personal matters. Letters and essays concern a variety of topics. Politics, the rise of totalitarianism, and World War II predominate in notebooks written during Millay's last decade.
Millay described her creative process in various essays. She kept notebooks scattered through her house so as to have one available when needed. Drafts of particular writings can thus be found in several different notebooks, and chronology in some volumes can range over a period of years. Millay wrote diaries during her youth and diary notes on occasion thereafter. She also kept journals of medication and drug dosages during the 1940s when she battled addiction. These writings are included with the diaries and notebooks.
The Miscellany series documents Millay's interest in horses and gardening, her affiliations with literary societies and theater groups such as the Provincetown Players, her political activities, and volunteer work during World War II. Her work with the Guggenheim Foundation included reviewing fellowship applications for poets and writing reports and correspondence recommending awards in the 1930s.
The Photographs series includes portraits of Millay and snapshots that document her childhood in Maine, years at Vassar College, wedding, travels, and life at Steepletop farm. Other photographs include portraits and snapshots of her family and friends.
The collection is arranged in seven series:
Correspondence with Boissevain and Millay family members including enclosures of photographs, newspaper clippings, and other printed material.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and thereunder chronologically.
Academic records, address books, childhood memorabilia, scrapbooks, financial records, personal papers, medical records, magazine and newspaper clippings, real estate and property records, notes, and travel and legal documents.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material and thereunder chronologically.
Papers of Eugen Boissevain and Millay family members, particularly Cora Buzzell Millay and Norma Millay.
Arranged alphabetically by name of family member and thereunder by topic or type of material.
Correspondence with friends and associates.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence with associates and readers.
Arranged chronologically.
Correspondence, biographical notes, contracts and legal documents, financial records, reviews and notices of plays and published works, promotional material, playbills, and other printed matter.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material and thereunder chronologically.
Diaries and notebooks along with handwritten and typed drafts of plays and performance pieces, poetry, prose, and songs and music. Includes galley, page, and printer's proofs for books of poetry.
Arranged alphabetically by genre and thereunder by title of the work.
Correspondence, notes, reports, photographs, playbills, promotional and printed material, and magazine and newspaper clippings.
Arranged alphabetically by name of organization or by topic.
Portraits and snapshots of Millay arranged alphabetically by topic and thereunder chronologically. Other photographs are arranged alphabetically by name of subject.
Diplomas, scrapbook, marriage certificate, map, music, posters, Civil War muster roll, drawings, and photographs.
Arranged and described according to the series, containers, and folders from which the items were removed.