[titania7]

Having just procured three books on Ms. Wylie from the library today, I thought it was time to re-visit my Elinor Wylie thread. Until now, I hadn't any idea that Thomas Wolfe considered Elinor to be "horrible." In spite of this, though, he was intrigued enough by her to use her as a character in The Web and the Rock, one of his novels. In this incarnation, Elinor is the poetess, Rosalind Bailey, a woman Wolfe describes as "an object of idolatry." Here is an excerpt from The Web in the Rock, in which an encounter between Elinor and Carl Van Vechten (as novelist Paul Van Vleeck) is depicted:

"At this moment Rosalind Bailey entered the room...There was no doubt
at all who she was. Her cold beauty was celebrated, her picture was well
known, and, in justice to her, it must be said that she....fully lived up to
her photographs...The impression that she gave was virginal and girlish,
and it was not contrived. She had the long, straight, lovely legs of a young girl, she was tall, and carried herself proudly...Anyone who ever saw her would always retain the memory of her....quality of passion and
ice.

Immediately, however, she began to behave in a strange manner.
Taking no notice of....newcomers, she swept through the doorway
and then stood there....with a proud and outraged look.

'Frank,' she said, in a cold, decisive voice, 'I will not--' her voice rose strongly on the word--'stay here in this room as long as Paul remains'....

'Now Rosalind,' said Van Vleeck.....speaking petulantly, 'I'm not going to talk to you'....

'I am not going to be insulted [she cried]...he said that Eleanora Duse
was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen!'....

She burst into tears, and, turning, fell into the comforting arms of
her husband....sobbing convulsively like a child."

Having just been given a copy of Wolfe's The Web and The Rock by a friend, I'm especially intrigued by the idea that one of the characters was
inspired by Ms. Wylie.

~Titania

"'Oh, she (Elinor Wylie) was lovely! There was nobody like her at all.'"
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay