Edna St. Vincent Millay

Born in Rockland, Maine, on February 22, 1892, she became famous while still young after her poem Renascence drew wide attention. She went on to study at Vassar College and built a literary career as both a poet and playwright, becoming one of the best-known American writers of the 1920s.

Her poems are often remembered for their lyrical beauty, memorable sonnets, and clear, candid treatment of love, freedom, desire, and loss. She was also a striking public figure in Greenwich Village and beyond, admired for her independence and for the way her work captured the energy and restlessness of her time.

In 1923, she won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver, becoming the first woman to receive the award in that category. She died in Austerlitz, New York, on October 19, 1950, but poems such as "Renascence" and "First Fig" continue to bring new readers to her work.