Quaint New England.....

not really!

This lovely cottage is just a stone's throw from my friend Kate's house on Ring's Island (settled in 1642.)  I've always thought, "Oh, how nice- Edna St. Vincent Millay lived here.  What a perfect house for a lady poet."

Then I did a little research on Ms. Millay. She was anything but staid and sweet. She was brilliant and wild and she had a short, controversial and difficult life.  She lived in this house briefly as a child- one of the many places her mother brought her three daughters to live with relatives after she was divorced (at the turn of the century!) The one constant in Edna St. Vincent Millay's life was the love and inspiration of her mother, who encouraged her to pursue poetry when she was a teenager, which led to her literary success.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright and the first woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She was also known for her unconventional, bohemian lifestyle and her many love affairs.