One-Hundred Years of Steepletop: a Millay Centennial

by Neoptolemus

She rocked the poetry establishment at the tender age of nineteen with “Renascence” (the British spelling), a neo-epic poem about nature, death, and rebirth that still resonates today. 

She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923 ($1000) for a collection of her works: “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver: A Few Figs From Thistles: Eight Sonnets in American Poetry. 1922.  A Miscellany.”

Her poetry was popular and sold well, and her speaking tours were well-attended, earning her $300,000 (approximately $5 million in current dollars) in her best years. In 1925, she purchased a home in Austerlitz, NY, amid the scenic, rolling hills of Columbia County.  She dubbed it “Steepletop,” after the abundant pink steeplebush flowers that adorned the surrounding fields. This was the poet’s sanctum sanctorum, a cozy place of solitude where she could contemplate and write. It was also a place with a swimming pool (no swimming suits allowed!) and bar where celebrities of all types came to visit and play. Made a National Historic Landmark in 1972, Steepletop preserves some of Vincent’s personal artifacts, including the gem that was her private library.

She died here in 1950 and is buried in a modest grave on the property.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

In recent times, the surrounding woods and meadows of Steepletop have faced an uncertain future and have been closed to the public since 2018.  Fortunately, in January of this year, the Millay Society was able to partner with a coalition of Scenic Hudson, the Land Trust Alliance, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to preserve Steepletop’s integrity in the form of a Conservation Easement. 

This year is the centennial anniversary of Steepletop (and the 75th anniversary of Vincent’s death), and the Millay Society wants to celebrate it with all the neighbors.  Information about Steepletop’s centennial events is available on the web at https://millay.org/centennial-celebration/#presentations . 

Xperience Monthly chatted with Krystyna Poray Goddu, the Literary Officer of the Millay Society, about the Steepletop Centennial:

RRX: Welcome, Krystyna!  As Literary Officer, are you taking the lead in planning the Centennial, or is it a group venture of all the Millay Society officers?

KPG: It’s definitely a group venture. The Millay Society board consists of five volunteer Trustees, so the extensive work on the Centennial Celebrations is being shared by all, plus a few additional local volunteers we are grateful to have working with us.

RRX: Can you describe, briefly, the events that are scheduled for the Centennial celebration?

KPG: We are opening the grounds to visitors on the second weekend of each month, beginning in June and continuing through October. We have many events planned, including musical performances and a poet composing poems on a typewriter in Milay’s writing cabin almost every weekend, and a plein air painting workshop on the final weekend. On our first open day, June 14, we are featuring The Edna Project — the husband/wife team of Seth Farber and Liz Queler — who will present Millay’s poems set to music. We will also be holding an awards ceremony for winners of our first Regional Student Poetry Competition. Grounds and Picnic passes will be available for $10 per person per day, and we’re taking reservations for sixty-minute docent-led tours of the Millay House, which are $25 per person and include access to the grounds for the day, as well. House tours sell out quickly, so if you’re interested, be sure to reserve a spot well in advance. Besides the events at Steepletop, I’ll be presenting a program on “Edna St. Vincent Millay and Steepletop: 100 Years Later” at the Mason Public Library in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on August 8 at 4 P.M. The presentation is free, but we’re requesting that people reserve their seats in advance. We’re also inviting volunteers to help prepare the grounds for the summer and autumn weekends. If you want to get your hands dirty, this is a good way to experience the nature of Steepletop up close. Volunteers can sign up on our website https://millay.org/centennial-celebration/#opendays  .

RRX:  It is said that Vincent led a rather salacious life. What materials are available to the public to learn about her?

KPG: There is a comprehensive biography by Nancy Milford, entitled Savage Beauty, and a shorter, but more accurately researched book by Daniel Mark Epstein, What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. Yale University also recently published two works of private Millay writings: Rapture and Melancholy: The Diaries of Edna St. Vincent Millay edited by Epstein in 2022, and Into the World’s Great Heart: Selected Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay, edited by Timothy F. Jackson in 2023. If you’d like to actually hear Vincent read some of her poetry, digital files made from a 1941 recording are available on The Millay Society website.

RRX: How did you become Literary Officer of the Millay Society? What attracted you to this position? Did you have a preceding appreciation of her poetry

KPG: When I was about 12 years old, I somehow stumbled on the poem that first made Millay famous, “Renascence.” I was fascinated and moved by it, and inspired to seek out more of her work. Her poems have accompanied me throughout my life ever since; I found that whatever I encountered in my life—falling in love, falling out of love, being wounded in love, exalting in the brilliance of fall foliage or the crashing of ocean waves or the softer beauties of spring—Millay had put the perfect words to the experience. I was equally fascinated by her life and was always trying to learn more about her. I became a writer and harbored, for a long time, a dream of writing about Millay. I especially wanted to write about her for readers who were my age when I first discovered her poetry. That dream came true when I received a contract to write her biography for young readers.

Researching and writing that book, A Girl Called Vincent: The Life of Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, led me to Millay’s Literary Executor, Holly Peppe, who granted me permission to use material from Millay’s letters and diaries, and vetted the final manuscript for accuracy. When it was published in April 2016, I was invited to join Holly for a book signing at a fundraising event for Steepletop. (A volume of Millay’s selected poems for which she had written the introduction was also published that month by Yale University Press.) A few months later, I was invited to join the Millay Society of Trustees, on which I’ve served ever since. Since 2022, I have served as secretary and literary officer.

RRX: You mentioned a Regional Student Poetry Competition. Tell us more about that.

KPG: As part of our mission to promote and preserve Millay’s literary legacy, we decided to hold a poetry competition for young writers. We were inspired by Millay’s efforts as a teenager to continually enter her work in poetry competitions, hoping to get published, of course, but especially hoping to win the cash prizes that were often offered. Our Regional Student Poetry Competition was open this year to students aged 13 to 18 residing in Columbia and Berkshire Counties, who were invited to submit a poem of at least eight lines. Our three judges — who are professional, published poets — will select first-place, second-place, and third-place winners in three age groups. They will receive prizes of $500, $250, and $100, respectively. The nine winners will also have the opportunity to present their poems at the awards ceremony, and to tour the Steepletop grounds and Millay House that day. This is the inaugural event, but we are hoping to make this an annual competition and to widen the reach beyond the two counties. We believe this competition is a fitting way to honor Millay’s commitment to poetry from a young age.

RRX:  How is Steepletop/The Millay Society funded?

KPG: We rely heavily on private donations. In 2024, we established the Centennial Buildings Project to fund much-needed extensive repairs to the three primary buildings on the property: The Millay House, Ellis Studio Carriage House, and Tamarack Cottage, which is our Visitors Center. Work on the Ellis Studio Carriage House has been completed, but fundraising for work on the Millay House and Tamarack Cottage is ongoing. Donations of any size are welcome and greatly appreciated, and can be directed to https://millay.org/centennial-buildings-project/#helpnow . And we continue searching for sponsors for the Centennial Celebrations as well as partnerships for a more substantial, long-term way to support Steepletop. Anyone interested in becoming involved as a sponsor can find more information at https://millay.org/centennial-celebration/ .