Nancy Milford#The WritersRoom

Nancy Lee Winston was born in Dearborn, Michigan, on March 26, 1938.{{cite news|title=Nancy Milford, Biographer of Zelda Fitzgerald, Dies at 84|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/books/nancy-milford-dead.html |first=Richard|last=Sandomir|date=March 31, 2022|access-date=April 3, 2022|newspaper=The New York Times}}{{cite news|title=Nancy Milford, Zelda Fitzgerald biographer, dies at 84|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/04/01/zelda-biographer-nancy-milford-dies/|first=Matt|last=Schudel|date=April 1, 2022|access-date=April 3, 2022|newspaper=The Washington Post}} Her father, Joseph Winston, worked as an engineer at General Motors and served in the United States Navy during World War II; her mother, Vivienne (Romaine), was a housewife and volunteered at a Dearborn hospital. During her father's stint in the Navy, the family relocated to Washington, D.C., and San Francisco before going back to Michigan.

Milford studied English at the University of Michigan, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1959. After a one-year sojourn in Europe, she undertook postgraduate studies at Columbia University, obtaining a master's degree in 1964 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1972. Her dissertation was on Zelda Fitzgerald.Milford, Nancy Winston. "Zelda—A Biography". Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1972. Proquest no. 302558774.

Milford was best known for her book Zelda about F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife Zelda Fitzgerald. The book started out as her master's thesis and was published to broad acclaim in 1970. It was a finalist for the National Book Award, spent 29 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, and was eventually translated into 17 languages.{{Cite web|url=http://www.indiewire.com/2016/10/jennifer-lawrence-star-zelda-fitzgerald-biopic-ron-howard-1201739172/|title=Jennifer Lawrence to Star as Zelda Fitzgerald in Biopic from Ron Howard|date=October 21, 2016}}

Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay was published in 2001. This was ultimately the final book Milford published. She began working on a biography of Rose Kennedy, but decided to halt her progress.

While considering writing to be her primary career, Milford also taught at the University of Michigan, Princeton University, Brown University, Vassar College, New York University, Bennington College, Briarcliff College, and Bard College. She became a visiting professor at Hunter College and went on to join the permanent faculty there as a distinguished lecturer. Six years later, she was named the first executive director of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

Milford was an Annenberg Fellow at Brown University and a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow.{{cite web|title=e.e. cummings and Edna St. Vincent Millay: 20th Century Stars|url=https://poetrysociety.org/listen/e-e-cummings-and-edna-st-vincent-millay-20th-century-stars|date=March 6, 2014|access-date=April 3, 2022|publisher=Poetry Society of America}} She was a Fulbright scholar in Turkey in 1996 and 1999, as well as a Guggenheim Fellow in 1977.{{cite web|title=Nancy Milford|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/nancy-milford/|access-date=April 3, 2022|publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}} She was honored as a Literary Lion at the New York Public Library in 1984.{{cite news|title=Festive Night for Library Lions|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/13/style/festive-night-for-library-lions.html |page=B5|first=Carol|last=Lawson|date=November 13, 1984|access-date=April 3, 2022|newspaper=The New York Times}}

The Writers Room is the name of a workspace in New York City that was first founded in 1978 by Nancy Milford and several others then working on books in the Frederick Lewis Allen Room at the New York Public Library.{{cite news|title=New York Writers Room Provides Quiet Refuge|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bdoiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=z8wFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1379,6588127&dq=writers-room+milford&hl=en|accessdate=August 14, 2013|newspaper=The Palm Beach Post|date=November 30, 1978}}{{deadlink|date=April 2022}}{{cite news|last=Robertson|first=Nan|title=Where Writers and Muses Commune in Peace; Stimulating, but Silent, Company|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/01/archives/where-writers-and-muses-commune-in-peace-stimulating-but-silent.html |accessdate=August 14, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=December 1, 1978}} The workspace serves as a place where, for a fee, writers can work on their project and have access to reference materials and fellow writers.{{cite news|title=For Those Who Have The Write Stuff, Manhattan has few places to show it|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oQ1PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0wIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6778,3114421&dq=writers-room+milford&hl=en|accessdate=August 14, 2013|newspaper=The Blade|date=December 2, 1985}} The group came up with the idea because the rules of the Allen Room required them to leave for a brief period each year (to allow others a chance to use the limited space) and there was demand for an alternative space with no such restrictions.{{cite news|last=Haberman|first=Clyde|title=NYC; Writers' Den Puts Squeeze on Typists|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/30/nyregion/nyc-writers-den-puts-squeeze-on-typists.html |accessdate=August 14, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 30, 1999}} The location of The Writers Room has moved several times since its launch in order to accommodate new members.{{cite news|title=For Writers, a Place to Work in Peace|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/30/books/for-writers-a-place-to-work-in-peace.html |access-date=August 14, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 20, 1988}}

The workspace originally started with 22 members, each donating $100 towards the rental of the initial room, but had expanded to more than 300 members as of 1999.{{cite news|title=Writer's Colony in the Heart of New York|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=smBYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SEENAAAAIBAJ&pg=1264,2606501&dq=writers-room+milford&hl=en|accessdate=August 14, 2013|newspaper=The Leader-Post|date=January 25, 1986}}{{cite news|last=McShane|first=Larry|title=Where in New York can you show you have the write stuff?|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8Z0rAAAAIBAJ&sjid=K_wFAAAAIBAJ&pg=7156,2189167&dq=writers-room+milford&hl=en|accessdate=August 14, 2013|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=December 11, 1985}}

• Zelda, 1970. A biography of Zelda Fitzgerald. {{ISBN|9780060910693}}
• Contributor, Adrienne Rich's Poetry, 1975{{cite news |last=Milford |first=Nancy |date=December 20, 1981 |title=Messages from No Man's Land |page=7 |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/20/books/messages-from-no-man-s-land.html |access-date=April 3, 2022}}
• Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, 2001. {{ISBN|9781588360946}}
• Editor and author of the introduction, The Selected Poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, 2001. {{ISBN|9780679642374}}

Milford married Kenneth Milford in 1962. The couple had three children. They eventually divorced. Milford died on March 29, 2022, at her home in Manhattan, three days after her 84th birthday, but no cause of death was disclosed.

• Arthur Mizener, Fitzgerald's first biographer
• Andrew W. Turnbull, Fitzgerald's second biographer
• Matthew J. Bruccoli, Fitzgerald biographer
• Maureen Corrigan, Fitzgerald scholar and essayist

{{reflist|2}}

• [http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/news/newfaculty-03.shtml Hunter College website]
• [https://www.loc.gov/bookfest/2002/milford.html Library of Congress Bookfest 2002 biography]
• [http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=20603&view=full_sptlght Random House website]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/books/23biog.html New York Times article]

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Category:1938 births

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Category:20th-century American biographers

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Category:Writers from Michigan