Millay shares her excitement that her poem  Renascence  has been accepted for publication in an upcoming book, The Lyric Year, and details about her recent correspondence with the book\u27s editor.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/millay_papers/1000/thumbnail.jp

St. Vincent Millay, Edna

English

University of Maine

The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Edna St. Vincent Millay Papers, 1912-1922 Manuscripts 1912 Letter 1: Edna St. Vincent Millay to Gladys Niles, August 9, 1912 Edna St. Vincent Millay Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/millay_papers  Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, History Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation St. Vincent Millay, Edna, "Letter 1: Edna St. Vincent Millay to Gladys Niles, August 9, 1912" (1912). Edna St. Vincent Millay Papers, 1912-1922. 1. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/millay_papers/1 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Edna St. Vincent Millay Papers, 1912-1922 by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact um.library.technical.services@maine.edu. Camden, MaineAug. 9, 1912Dear Gladys, --You will remember that I promised to write, butdidn’t say when.  This is when.And I’m sure you’ll think thatwhat I write now is worth having waited for.You know the contest that Mother wrote about while I was upthere, crazy to have me try for itbecause Mr. Wheeler of CurrentLiterature was one of the judges.  Well,Gladys, dear, my poem is acceptedand I’m going to be in the book, oneof one hundred American authors, witha biographical sketch, in “The Lyric Year”!You’re glad, aren’t you? And, Gladys,I’ve got two personal letters from theEditor himself, that are just like dramato read.  Of course he thought I was aman, and the first letter – in his own hand-writing – was like this: --E. Vincent Millay, Esq.,Sir:I feel bound to refrain fromstating how tremendously I like your“Renascence.”  Kindly furnish furnish [sic]material for a biographical sketch ofyourself for “The Lyric Year.”Etc. Etc. –Yours faithfully,The EditorWell, I was mildly insane – notviolent, just out of my head.  AndI wrote telling him what he want-ed to know about my writing, and that I was a girl, and twenty.I told him of the several prizes Ihave won and how when I wasfourteen Edward J. Wheeler re-viewed a poem of mine in Current-Literature, saying “The poemwhich follows seems to us tobe phenomenal.” And, doyou know, I think it may beMr. Wheeler himself whois writing me.  He signs himselfjust “The Editor” but in hislast letter he says, “Youare not corresponding with Mr. Kennerly, publisher of ---but with -- ? – Editor of – “TheLyric Year.”  He is actuallyteasing me!  The idea of try-ing to make me guess whohe is!  The Mr. Kennerleyhe speaks of is the one whois holding the competitionand the publisher, also, of “TheForum.”But I must tell you whathe said about my poem.  You will re-member it, I think.  It was the one apart of which I said aloud to you andSophie that day, -- the down under-groundone, you know.  I worked it over andfinished it – it is seven and a halftyped pages long – ; I will send youa copy.The second letter, somewhat cut,is as follows: --Dear and true Poetess!You have indeed astonished methrough and through – a lassie o’ twenty –is it possible?  I am not alone in thinkingthat your poem in very fine, original, strong, impressive.  (Ah, Gladys, readthose words again!) -- -- -- SometimesI think that Renascence is the mostinteresting poem in the selectedhundred of The Lyric Year.  Andnow that I have a slight acquaintancewith its surprising authoress (that’s me)my estimate is no whit the lessstable.  -- -- But surely Imay preserve the photograph(I had sent one in case they shouldwant a cut [?], and had asked him toreturn it) along with other inter-esting documents from the more distinguishable con-tributors, among whom figureour grandest poets?  I haveset my heart on keeping it (Fancy!) -- -- -- Any furtherdetails – Etc. – would be ofinterest.  Yours faithfully, The Editor.He said there had been over9,100 manuscripts, and mine isthe most interesting, if of the hundred, them of all!  Keep us a’!Tell Mrs. Dunton that I delivered all her messages, toCora Pullen for her mother, toWilder Irish for his wife, and toAnnie Mero herself.  They werevery glad to hear from her and want to see her very much.Give her my love – “real love,” as she once said to me for papa.Have you been out drivingoften behind Peggy and Pollythose beautiful horses that Ididn’t see?  And does the “Modoc-ewantts” [?] if that’s the way youspell it – still make your dinners late and you vexed with Mr.Dunton, and his not a [?] apologetic for him?Did Mrs. Dunton fry doughnuts Mondaywhile Mrs. Briggs washed?  And is Curlystill petted and abused?  What a lotof foolish questions people ask inletters.  But at least I haven’t talked about the weather.Please write soon, even if I didn’t, --I’ll promise to answer it right off – and tell me what you are doing this summer.Tell Sophie that I was haunted for weeksby strains from the “Melisande” song shesang, and have paid her the complimentof not trying to sing it myself.  However,I’ve composed a new rag–time songthat beats the “Little Rag Doll” all “holler.”What plays have you seen lately,and are you going to the Festival thisfall?  Did you know that Mme. Rappoldspent last summer here?I have a friend who is just marriedand gone to Bangor to live.  Mrs. PhilipConley she is now.  You prob-ably haven’t met them, but if you do, why – why you will!There’s a study in climaxfor you!Give my “luf to all der peeples”and to the pink geranium in myroom.It is absolutely imperative thatI eat my dinner.Love,Vincent.(Just “Camden, Me”)Postmarked Camden Aug 12, 12- M, 1912, MaineAddressed to: Miss Gladys Niles 56 Madison St., Bangor, Me.  c/o C. R. Dunton

Letter 1: Edna St. Vincent Millay to Gladys Niles, August 9, 1912

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Letter 1: Edna St. Vincent Millay to Gladys Niles, August 9, 1912

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