Savage Beauty (98 page)

Anyone can love, but only “Sapho loved
& sang
.”

10.
“You will forgive me”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., PM March 7, 1918. St. Coll.

11.
For the first time:
Art for the Masses
, p. 42.

12.
“Don’t worry about”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., c. spring 1918. St. Coll.

13.
“One morning … Edna and I”: Floyd Dell, “Not Roses …,” Newberry, p. 27.

14.
“Somebody else had my job”: Floyd Dell,
Homecoming
, p. 322.

15.
“I want, if possible”: W. A. Roberts to ESVM, Sept. 13, 1918. St. Coll.

16.
“The only decent thing”: Edmund Wilson,
The Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951), p. 793.

17.
“Dearlings”: CBM to ESVM, May 24, 1918. St. Coll.

18.
“Edna”: KM to ESVM, n.d., PM Oct. 1, 1918. St. Coll.

19.
“She was really”: Mrs. Bennett Schauffer, interview with author, June 1974.

20.
“When the sisters appeared”: Malcolm Cowley, interview with author, Sept. 7, 1972.

21.
“it really didn’t take at all”: NM, interview with author, June 4, 1980.

22.
“skillful—their harmonies”: Max Eastman,
Great Companions: Critical Memoirs of Some Famous Friends
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1959), pp. 78–79.

23.
“it was impossible”: W. A. Roberts, “Tiger Lily,” p. 10. VC.

24.
“I have never”: Susan Jenkins Brown to author, June 1974.

25.
“We realized now”: NM, interview with author, Aug. 11, 1975.

26.
“We’re not going”: ESVM to CBM,
Ls.
, p. 90.

27.
“You should see”: Alexander Woollcott,
The New York Times
, Dec. 13, 1919, sec. 8, p. 2.

28.
But there was more: NM, interview with author, Aug. 4, 1975.

29.
“Dearest Girl, My Own”: James P. Lawyer to ESVM, n.d., PM Nov. 27, 1919. St. Coll.

30.
“God knows, Edna”: James P. Lawyer to ESVM, n.d., PM Nov. 28, 1919. St. Coll.

31.
“I carry my typewriter”: ESVM to CBM.
Ls.
, p. 131.

32.
“Jim was a beautiful boy”: NM, interview with author, Aug. 4, 1975.

33.
“If I can earn”: ESVM to NM, n.d., PM Feb. 26, 1920. St. Coll.

34.
“I guess my mind”: James P. Lawyer to ESVM, n.d., c. winter–spring 1920. St. Coll.

35.
“Vincent did care”: NM, interview with author, Aug. 4, 1975.

36.
“Pity me not”:
Vanity Fair
, November 1920.

CHAPTER 14

1.
“wherefore I deduce”: ESVM to Jessie B. Rittenhouse, April 7, 1920. UVa.

2.
“The slender red-haired”: Hubertis M. Cummings to EW, Sept. 3, 1960. Beinecke.

3.
“Aren’t you about ready”: MK to ESVM, Dec. 29, 1919. St. Coll.

4.
“You, dear, I thought”: ESVM to MK, n.d., “New Year’s Day” [1920]. Dartmouth College.

5.
“There’s not a copy”: Eighteen years later, Kennerley attached the following note to their correspondence:

I had published “Renascence” in 1917 and had considerable difficulty over two years in giving away the first edition of about 750 copies.

I printed a second edition of “Renascence” in 1919 which sold very slightly. It was not until 1922–23 that people began to talk about Edna Millay and buy her books.

Kennerley had paid exceedingly little for
Renascence
, and his $25.00 check, which he said “is one of many similar checks which I paid the author on account of ‘Renascence’ though it was years before the book earned any appreciable sum,” was wildly disingenuous. He was of course making a point in his own behalf. But he included only two checks endorsed by her, for July 24, 1918, and January 2, 1920, the latter having been sent to her on the heels of her January 1 letter. Certainly his firm’s advertisements for
Renascence—
”Ten books of poems for $5 with a free copy of ‘Renascence’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay”—were not guaranteed to assuage any author’s fears. To make matters even worse, he added: “I have several thousand books of poems in my cellar. Send $5 and I will mail you postpaid, ten different volumes, and a free copy of ‘Renascence,’ the most beautiful poems ever written by an American.” It meant he was giving the book away as a sort of bonus.

6.
“Charlie did the sets”: NM to author, Oct. 18, 1974.

7.
“I was thrilled”: Edmund Wilson,
The Shores of Light: A Literary Chronicle of the Twenties and Thirties
(New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952), p. 748.

8.
When the war: Edmund Wilson,
The Twenties: From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period
, ed. Leon Edel (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975), p. xxxiv.

9.
“Walter, dear”: ESVM to Walter Adolphe Roberts, n.d., PM July 14, 1920. VC.

10.
“I remember we didn’t”: William M. Reedy to ESVM, April 10, 1920. St. Coll.

11.
“If you will send me”: ESVM to MK, n.d., c. spring 1920. Dartmouth College. 186 “Mitchell, dear”: ESVM to MK, June 22, 1920. Dartmouth College.

12.
“remoteness, mosquitoes”: George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell to ESVM, May 22, 1920. St. Coll.

13.
“I don’t know how” and “
Please
be decent”: EW to ESVM, July 27, 28, 1920. St. Coll.

14.
“I don’t know what”: ESVM to EW,
Ls.
, pp. 98, 99.

15.
“I have thought”: ESVM to EW,
Ls.
, p. 99.

16.
“E.W.”: EW’s papers. Beinecke.

17.
“John Bishop used to say”: Wilson,
The
Twenties
, p. 59.

18.
“I who have broken”: Ibid., p. 62.

19.
“They gave me dinner”: Wilson,
The Shores of Light
, pp. 759–60.

20.
“Edna was now”: Ibid.

21.
“But … there was nothing sordid”: Ibid., p. 760.

22.
“Since there were only”: Ibid., p. 764.

23.
“One of the younger”: Nancy Milford,
Zelda
, p. 78.

24.
“From the point of view”: ESVM to family,
Ls.
, p. 101.

25.
“Who is Edna killing”: CBM to NM, Sept. 6, 1920. St. Coll.

26.
“Our little house”: NM, interview with author, Sept. 16, 1982.

27.
“Between John Bishop and me”: Wilson,
The Shores of Light
, p. 755.

28.
“My dear dear girl”: John Peale Bishop to ESVM, n.d., c. spring—summer, 1920. St. Coll.

29.
“For god’s sake, Edna”: John Peale Bishop to ESVM, n.d., PM Oct. 31, 1920. St. Coll.

30.
“September 11”: Milford,
Zelda
, p. 75. 194 “Bunny Wilson and Edna”: Ibid., pp. 77–78.

31.
“Dearest beloved Mother”: ESVM to CBM, Oct. 20, 1920. St. Coll.

32.
“I’ll be thirty”: Wilson,
The Shores of Light
, p. 766.

33.
“botched abortion”: NM, interview with author, Sept. 16, 1982.

34.
“à deux—à trois”: John Peale Bishop to ESVM, n.d., PM Dec. 18, 1920. St. Coll.

35.
“sitting on her day bed”: Wilson,
The Twenties
, pp. 64–65.

36.
“to which she answered”: Ibid., p. 769.

37.
“Also, I am becoming”: ESVM to Witter Bynner, Oct. 29, 1920. St. Coll.

38.
“There was something”: Wilson,
The Shores of Light
, pp. 752–53.

39.
“her own emotions”: Ibid., p. 756.

40.
“Dearest, beloved Mother”: ESVM to CBM,
Ls.
, pp. 105–7.

41.
“I shall bid you”: CBM to ESVM, Dec. 21, 1920. St. Coll.

42.
“My baby!”: CBM, journal, Jan. 4, 1921. St. Coll.

43.
“Healing”: CBM, “Healing,” n.d., c. summer 1920. St. Coll.

CHAPTER 15

1.
“apropos of divorce”: Frank Crowninshield to ESVM, Nov. 5, 1920. St. Coll.

2.
“Did you see”: ESVM to NM, March 11, 1921. St. Coll.

3.
“You know, mother”: ESVM to CBM, n.d., PM Jan. 18, 1921. St. Coll.

4.
“The other night”: CBM to ESVM, Feb. 1, 1921. St. Coll.

5.
“so that through them”: Walter Fleisher to ESVM, Jan. 21, 1921. St. Coll.

6.
“February 13”: ESVM to CBM, PM Feb. 13, 1921. St. Coll.

7.
“Clem told her”: CMB to ESVM, March 24, 1921. St. Coll.

8.
“I have a curious feeling”:
Ls.
, p. 131.

9.
“Dearest Darling Baby Sister”:
Ls.
, p. 117.

10.
“It is nearly six months”:
Ls.
, pp. 118–19.

11.
“You told me”: ESVM to EW, n.d., c. summer 1921. UVa.

12.
“a very first-rate hotel” and following quotes from Wilson: EW to John Peale Bishop, July 3, 1921. Edmund Wilson,
Letters on Literature and Politics, 1912–1972
, Elena Wilson, ed. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977), pp. 67–68.

CHAPTER 16

1.
“The Café du Dôme”: George Slocombe,
The Tumult and the Shouting
.

2.
“The name I first called”: George Slocombe to ESVM, July 20, 1921. St. Coll.

3.
“Rise on your legs”:
Ls.
, pp. 125–26.

4.
“I do hope it is not”:
Ls.
, p. 130.