These two poetry books by Edna St. Vincent Millay are titled Conversations at Midnight and Huntsman, What Quarry? Both were published by Harper & Brothers and are first editions.  

Size: 8 5/16 x 5 3/4 in.

Conversations at Midnight is a “A sequence of poems that gives daring and provocative expression in dialogue to the thought of our times”, according to the cover of the dust jacket for the book. It is 3/4 bound, with a paper label on a black spine, blue boards, blank endpapers, the half-title, a list of books by Edna St. Vincent Millay before the title page, the title page says the book was published in New York and London by Harper in MCMXXXVII [1937], and the copyright page says it is a first edition published in 1937. There’s a three-page Foreword (vii - ix), five pages about The Characters (xi - xv), 122 pages of text, a Table of First Lines at the rear that runs from 123 to 126, and there are two flaps from the dust jacket tucked into the front of the book.  

Millay was staying at the Sanibel Palms Hotel in May, 1936, when a fire started after a kerosene heater on the second floor exploded. Everything was destroyed, including the only copy of Millay's long verse poem, Conversation at Midnight, and a 1600’s poetry collection written by  the Roman poet Catallus of the first century BC. She would go on to rewrite Conversations at Midnight from memory and release it the following year.  

Huntsman, What Quarry? is a later poetry collection which included are a string of emotional poems of her feelings against the brutalities of Fascist Spain, Nazi Germany, and imperialistic Japan, which probably presaged her poem The Murder of Lidice, which was a fervent outcry against the slaughter of a whole village of people by the Nazis in World War II.  

The book is 3/4 bound, with a paper label on a black spine, blue boards, blank endpapers, the half-title, a list of books by Edna St. Vincent Millay before the title page, the title page says the book was published in New York and London by Harper in MCMXXXIX [1939], the copyright page says it is a first edition published in 1939, and there is a three-page list of contents (vii - ix) and 94 pages of text. 

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923, the first woman to win the award for poetry, and was also known for her feminist activism and her many love affairs, she was openly bisexual and polyamourous, and she used the pseudonym Nancy Boyd for much of her prose work. 

Both books are in amazingly good condition. They both measure 8 5/16 x 5 3/4 inches wide, with tight bindings and clean pages and text. Conversations at Midnight doesn’t have the complete dust jacket, only the flaps from the jacket, the paper label is tilted on the spine, there are slight bumps on the spine, with offset on the front endpapers from the two flaps in front, a couple of faint brown spots on the vertical edges of the book and two small brown spots on the back cover. Huntsman, What Quarry? is just in fab condition, with a whisper of a spot on the front cover, and a very attractive set of books by Edna St. Vincent Millay, one of the top poets of the twentieth century.  

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