STARFLOWER

A look at poet Edna St. Vincent Millay’s close childhood bonds with younger sisters Norma and Kathleen.

Their unusually parent-free existence garners economical explanations. Edna, called Vincent, “watched her father cross the cranberry bog to the railway station. Cora told Henry to go & never come back.” The four move to Camden, Maine, where life in “the smallest house on the loneliest road in the poorest part of town” is heightened by mother Cora’s long absences as a traveling nurse. Their mother’s towering influence is nonetheless intimated: “She was ambitious & unordinary & wanted the same for her daughters. What other mother had better books than the library? What other mother would steal the whole show?” Though bound by regimented chores, the sisters revel in meadow and sea. Therewith, the authors’ imagery sings: “Luckily the ocean was the biggest thing in the world. Wilder even than the woods! Everyday swung open to a swoony new sea.” Farkas and Vizzo convey Vincent’s early, driving impetus to write, her moodiness, and the chasm Cora’s absence creates. Dwyer mixes styles to represent the sisters’ unique symbiosis, which holds both trauma and freedom. Realistically rendered figures, calico-clad, long-haired, and White-presenting, cavort among stylized, sun-washed meadow flowers. For joyless episodes—Henry’s leaving; illness—the artist uses a darker palette and expressionistic elements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An often lilting celebration of the poet’s early anchors and incipient artistic voyaging.