A Comparative Study of Biographies of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

This paper examines and compares major biographical accounts of the American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, focusing on works by Jean Gould, Miriam Gurko, Nancy Milford, and Daniel Mark Epstein. Drawing on both historical and literary perspectives, the study analyzes the extent to which they engage with her literary legacy. Special attention is given to the role of the archive—not merely as a repository of facts, but as a site of power and ethical responsibility. The paper argues that biography is never a neutral retelling of a life, but a politically and ethically charged act of remembering and forgetting. Through the case of Millay, it shows how biography becomes a form of ethical interpretation—one that reconfigures the past not just to inform, but to interrogate our responsibilities to the lives we narrate.