Millay, Edna St Vincent (1892–1950)

US poet and playwright known for her romantic, rhythmic poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection The Harp Weaver in 1923, making her the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Millay became a bestselling poet and well known literary figure in avant garde circles and sometimes provoked controversy with her poetry about female sexuality and feminism. Her other volumes of poetry include Renascence and Other Poems (1917), A Few Figs from Thistles (1920), The Buck in the Snow (1928), Fatal Interview (1931), and Wine from these Grapes (1934). She has also published three plays in verse, including The Lamp and the Bell (1921). The phrase ‘my candle burns at both ends’ derives from her poem ‘First Fig’.

She was a favourite of the free-spirited youth of the 1920s. Born in Rockland, Maine, she moved to New York City's Greenwich Village and became a voice for political and social causes through such works as A Few Figs from Thistles (1920) and Second April (1921). Her other works include the sonnet sequence Fatal Interview (1931), Make Bright the Arrows (1940), and several verse plays.

Millay was born in Rockland, Maine. After her poem ‘Renascence’ won a poetry contest in 1912 and was published in The Lyric Year, she won a scholarship to Vassar College in New York State. After graduation she moved to Greenwich Village in New York City. She worked with the Massachusetts theatrical group the Provincetown Players and later co-wrote The King's Henchman (first performed in 1927) which became the most popular US opera of its time.