Savage Beauty, Nancy Milford
Savage Beauty, Nancy Milford
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Savage Beauty
The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay

Author: Nancy Milford

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 24 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/28/2022

Synopsis

Savage Beauty is the portrait of a passionate, fearless woman who obsessed America even as she tormented herself.If F. Scott Fitzgerald was the hero of the Jazz Age, Edna St. Vincent Millay, as flamboyant in her love affairs as she was in her art, was its heroine. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Millay was dazzling in the performance of herself. Her voice was likened to an instrument of seduction, and her impact on crowds and on men was legendary. Yet beneath her studied act, all was not well.Milford calls her book “a family romance"—for the love between the three Millay sisters and their mother was so deep as to be dangerous. As a family, they were like real-life Little Women, with a touch of Mommie Dearest.Nancy Milford was given exclusive access to Millay’s papers, and what she found was an extraordinary treasure. Boxes and boxes of letters flew back and forth among the three sisters and their mother—and Millay kept the most intimate diary, one whose ruthless honesty brings to mind Sylvia Plath.Written with passion and flair, Savage Beauty is an iconic portrait of a woman’s life.

About Nancy Milford

Nancy Milford is an American biographer best known for her book about Zelda Fitzgerald, Zelda, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and spent twenty-nine weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Her biography of Edna St. Vincent Millar, Savage Beauty, was also a New York Times bestseller. She graduated from the University of Michigan and holds both an MA and PhD from Columbia University. She has held a Guggenheim Fellowship in Biography, and has served on the boards of the Author’s Guild, the Society of American Historians, and the Writers Room, of which she is a founder. She has also received visiting fellowships to Yale and Princeton Universities and been named a President’s Fellow at Columbia University. She has taught at the University of Michigan, Princeton University, Brown University, Vassar College, New York University, Bennington College, Briarcliff College, and Bard College. She joined the permanent faculty at Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY) as a distinguished lecturer. In 2008, she was named executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

About Bernadette Dunne

Bernadette Dunne is the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rosemary on August 29, 2007

This is one long book and I wanted more. Not more pages. More poetry. And way more salaciousness. Alas, Nancy Milford is a patient professional who carefully presents well-documented facts with little innuendo. The story of Edna is beyond fascinating. This sort-of homely girl from Maine uses her mind......more

Goodreads review by Brekke on August 01, 2007

I'm biased because Edna St. Vincent Millay is my absolute favorite poet. So learning more about her was very interesting to me. The book itself is incredibly well researched, really delving into the wild life of this amazing women. She's not really someone you can idolize or look up to, but she is som......more

Goodreads review by Julie on April 19, 2009

What a riveting biography of a remarkable literary and feminist icon. It took Nancy Milford 30 years to write this biography of "Vincent" - and after you read it, you can understand why. Milford remains remarkably true to her sources - a vast treasure trove of at-that-point-unseen letters, journals,......more

Goodreads review by Simon on March 06, 2022

Savage beauty indeed, title lifted from last lines in [her] lover's' poem not her hubby 'cause they were open when marriages weren't, and Vincent was a cad almost from reverse angle, but her vicious appetites lingered about who could tame them. Ms. Milford fairly hits it again HER subject like "Zeld......more

Goodreads review by Taylor on November 04, 2014

This is a remarkable biography, for a multitude of reasons. First, I must admit my own ignorance when it comes to much of Millay's work. I think I was surprised by how well-known she was in her day. I took advanced English courses in high school, studied English quite a bit in college, and yet my kno......more

Quotes

“Riveting and revealing.” New York Times Book Review

“An incendiary cocktail of literary ambition, fame, sexual adventure, and addiction.” Newsweek

“Takes the whole of Millay’s heaving, grieving, ecstatic life into account in a way that is almost loving, always respectful, even when blunt truth and candor are necessary.” Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“This account offers its readers a haunting drama of artistic fame. A true paradigm of literary biography, this finely crafted book is not to be missed.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Milford is both meticulous and dynamic in her assessment of Millay’s trailblazing work and complicated, controversial life right up to its sad and dramatic end.” Booklist (starred review)

“An essential biography of a unique and important poet—written with lush detail and delicious language, and displaying enormous care, craft, and compassion.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“[A] compelling, keenly perceptive life of Edna St. Vincent Milay—with its own ‘savage beauty.’“ Toni Morrison, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Millay lives! And she casts a spell over the reader as mesmerizing as her poetry.” Bill Moyers, journalist and New York Times bestselling author

“Milford gives us not only the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay but also her heart, her times, and the sparkling essence of her poetry.” Amanda Foreman, New York Times bestselling author

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