Scope and Content Note
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 Algemeen Handelsblad, a leading Dutch newspaper. His mother, Emily MacDonnell from Ireland, spoke English to the children. Family letters are thus bilingual and can pass in midsentence from English to Dutch. Some correspondence concerns the family's experiences during World War II when various members were trapped in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation and others were interned in prison camps by the Japanese in Dutch Indonesia. The Photographs series includes images of the family as well as an album created in 1912 to commemorate the life of Charles Boissevain.
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 Maine Farmer, 1890-1891, under the titles “Jack” and “Jim” relate the adventures of heroines with masculine names who defy convention to lead independent lives. Her writings file includes material for her only book, Little Otis, published in 1928, which presents about seventy poems for children in which the title character recounts incidents on his grandfather's farm.
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 Mine the Harvest. Other documents relate to Norma Millay's work with the actor Dorothy Stickney who developed a one-woman show, A Lovely Light, based on Edna Millay's life and poetry. A segment of her personal papers documents her childhood and her work as an actor in the 1920s, along with her husband Charles Ellis.
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.