Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay personified the rebellious spirit of the 1920s both in her work and in her bohemian lifestyle. After graduating from Vassar in 1917-the same year she published her first volume of verse-Millay became part of the artists' community in New York's Greenwich Village. In what is her most oft-quoted quatrain, she summarized her existence there: "My candle burns at both ends; / It will not last the night; / But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends / It gives a lovely light!"

Millay worked in traditional verse forms and took as her main theme the integrity of the individual spirit. In 1923, she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her Ballad of the Harp-Weaver.

While sitting for this portrait by her brother-in-law artist, Millay completed her poem "On Thought in Harness." The likeness is believed to be the only image of her painted from life.