Burning Candles: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay

Burning Candles: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay (2008)

Documentary

She was her generation’s Madonna and Bob Dylan rolled into one—and yet, by the 1970s, major poetry anthologies no longer mentioned Edna St. Vincent Millay. She had become a lost poet, her literary status mirroring her untimely death. This program documents the brief yet bright “candle” of Millay’s artistic development, from her early years in Maine to her achievements in the literary world of New York, while exploring her celebrity, sexuality, and personal relationships. Among the many eye-opening locations featured in the film is the house in which Millay spent her final years; its contents have remained untouched since the poet’s death and provide a catalyst for the study of her troubled, exuberant life. Never-before-seen archival images and interviews with Millay scholars also enrich the narrative.

Director: Robert A. Duncan

Casts

	Edna St. Vincent Millay as Herself (Archival Footage)
	Robert A. Duncan as Narrator
	Jennifer Lines as Reader
	J.D. McClatchy as Editor, Yale Review
	Elizabeth Barnett as Literary Executor
	Nancy Milford as Biographer: "Savage Beauty"
	Daniel Mark Epstein as Biographer: "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed"
	Stephen Young as Poetry Magazine
	Christian Wiman as Poetry Magazine
	Holly Peppe as Millay Scholar

Crew