Starred Review For this luminous biography, Goddu own for her glimpses into the lives of figures such as Wilma Rudolph and Paul Revere mes in on the story of twentieth-century poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. Before delving into the many milestones of Vincent's remarkable life, Goddu candidly acknowledges her own mission: "to look at Vincent's story with her own eyes." That she does, eloquently depicting Vincent's unconventional childhood, turbulent time at Vassar, and passionate adulthood as a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, successful librettist, and fierce antiwar activist. Throughout, Goddu offers a fairly objective and exceedingly thorough look at Vincent's relationships, from her unwavering devotion to her mother and sisters and her enchanting romance with George Dillon to her unshakable marriage to Eugen Boissevain. Complicated issues for young readers, such as polyamory and Vincent's many medical conditions, are treated with acute clarity. Goddu's words are often interspersed with excerpts from Vincent's letters and diaries, stanzas of beguiling poetry, and the occasional but absorbing photograph. When it comes to scene setting, Goddu seems to borrow Vincent's love of the natural world with vibrant passages like "thousands of red poppies growing wild in wheat fields." To see Vincent through Goddu's eyes is to see a most extraordinary story e that, like Millay, belongs in any nonfiction collection.

An obvious labor of love, Goddu's biography of irrepressible poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) strikes a fine balance between academic presentation and devoted characterization of a life well lived. From the early description of Millay's home life-including the trials and tribulations of being a child loosely supervised, along with her two younger sisters-through brief explorations of Millay's impact on the sociological feminist paradigm shift in the 1920s, Goddu, a PW contributor, moves briskly from one major life event to the next. Myriad archival photographs, snippets of Millay's verse, and accompanying descriptions offer additional insight into the era in which Millay lived, as well as a young woman "by turn gay and grave, pompous and flippant," who clearly felt that rules were for other people. Overall, Millay is painted as a brilliant narcissist whose literary contributions continue to influence generations of readers. Source notes and other resources round out a biography that, while accessible to the target audience, has plenty to offer older readers as well. Ages 9-up. Agent: Jennifer Unter, Unter Agency. (Apr.)

Gr 7 Up-A biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay (18921950). Raised in rural Maine, Millay (known as Vincent) overcame poverty, illness, and sexism to become one of America's most celebrated poets. Readers learn about how she cared for her family as a young girl, left home to attend Vassar College, and became the "It Girl" of Greenwich Village in New York City. The narrative is direct and clear. The facts are well researched and laid out chronologically, and students will come away with a good sense of Millay's life, which was filled with adventures and accomplishments, from writing "the greatest American opera" (according to The New Yorker ) to riding horses and climbing mountains in Indonesia. The text is accompanied by relevant photos of Millay, and the layout is clean. Excerpts of her poems are expertly chosen. Comparable to Carolyn J. Brown's A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty (2012) and Song of My Life: A Biography of Margaret Walker (2014, both University Pr. of Mississippi), this is a great option to recommend to aspiring poets, writers, and feminists, as well as those who enjoy historical nonfiction. VERDICT A strong addition to any collection, especially those seeking out new titles for Women's History Month. Jaclyn Anderson, Madison County Library System, MS