Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote this letter of protest to the League of American Penwomen:
Ladies:
I have received from you recently several communications, inviting me to be your Guest of Honour at a function to take place in Washington some time this month. I replied, not only that I was unable to attend, but that I regretted this inability; I said that I was sensible to the honour you did me, and that I hoped you would invite me again.
Your recent gross and shocking insolence to one of the most distinguished writers of our time has changed all that.
It is not in the power of an organization which has insulted Elinor Wylie, to honour me.
And indeed I should feel it unbecoming on my part, to sit as Guest of Honour in a gathering of writers, where honour is tendered not so much for the excellence of one’s literary accomplishment as for the circumspection of one’s personal life.
Believe me, if the eminent object of your pusillanimous attack has not directed her movements in conformity with your timid philosophies, no more have I mine. I too am eligible for your disesteem. Strike me too from your lists, and permit me, I beg you, to share with Elinor Wylie a brilliant exile from your fusty province.
(Quoted from page 234 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)
For a brief biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, click here. For images of or relating Edna St. Vincent Millay, click here.
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