savage beauty by nancy milford. and some more posts about vincent.

you know, the artistic genius who is a bit of a jerk in his private life is a standard archetype of the art/biography world. typically, it is a male artist -- painter, novelist, composer, it doesn't matter -- who is a lech, a leech, a souse, or all of the above. he depends on his wife to deal with the world while cheating on her with young groupies. he curses and insults people and strikes up a primadonna attitude. and yet we forgive him, either right then and there or in retrospect, because he is a Great Artist and leaves behind Art for our museums. it's funny how important Leaving Art for Posterity is to us -- as important as children, often, and many Great Artists have a Someone behind the scenes whose day-to-day assistance is what lets the Artist create Art. this is usually a long-suffering wife, but isn't always.

the funny thing is, this archetype is rarely seen in (or applied to?) women artists. granted, we have far fewer women artists in our pantheon, and most of them seem to have been quite well-behaved. virginia woolf comes close in that leonard was the long-suffering husband who made her art possible; but virginia herself was not a lech or a souse or a jerk at all, just a depressed and worried woman who one day took her own life.

one of the great things about edna st. vincent millay as that she is kind of one of these grand artist figures. she wasn't a terrible jerk or the biggest lech or anything, but she did seem to put people and relationships second to her art. in eugen boissevain, she found the long-suffering husband whose care made her art possible. and aside from the pleasure of her poetry and her vivid personality, her biography provides the pleasure of reading about a woman who carried on just like the men, and got away with it just like the men. we forgive her, and more, because of what she left behind her.

i don't mean to make it sound like this is all, or even most, of the book, but it's one interesting facet that stood out to me. in life she was apparently an irresistible personality, and she is in biography as well. one thing i especially liked about this biography was that it puts some of her poetry in the context of her life and feelings. i generally don't know what to do with poetry. there is some stuff i like, but i don't sit around and read it much. reading it in the context of the author's state of mind helps give a window into the poetry that adds another layer of meaning and interest. i wonder if other biographies of poets are similar. i might have to find out.

September 24, 2002 12:36 AM
Categories: art - books
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