Film

Burning Candles: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay

10.0

1h 33m

2008

Synopsis

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

Documentary

Cast & Crew

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

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