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Vachel Lindsay really only had one love of his life and that was his wife, Elizabeth Connor. However, he had many loves in his mind, but these never developed into real relationships. Two serious loves before Elizabeth Connor were Sara Teasdale and Elizabeth Mann Wills. He established a pattern in his relationships with women. He would fall in love, be inspired to write large quantities of poetry, but the young women would eventually reject him and he would be left in despair. Sara Teasdale was one of the women Lindsay loved. They had been writing letters for a couple of years, and finally they met in 1914. She played a big part in his life, but it was a case of unrequited love. Lindsay had a deep attachment to her before he came to Spokane, Washington, which could possibly have led to marriage, but she chose a husband with a less dynamic personality. Lindsay said that she was his life's "most inspiring, most satisfying friend." He wrote her many letters. On August 7, 1913, he wrote, "Does it [the relationship] contain great and unfathomable things for each of us?" On January 29, 1914, he wrote, " As for us, we are not going to plot and plan for money or song or love or friends or any virtue but the great virtue of victory- a strong unconquerable stern spirit! Come let us be victors in old age, and let us take a step toward it today." She was the inspiration of many of his love poems, especially "The Chinese Nightingale." She also helped him with his second published volume. They remained good friends after her marriage. Another woman in Lindsay's life was Elizabeth Mann Wills. He met her in Gulfport, Mississippi, after he had just lost his mother and his home. Later, when he moved to Spokane, he confided that he still loved her, and he continued to write her letters. On June 9, 1923, he wrote, " Please let me say once, clearly, that you are the essential discipline of my mind and body and blood and heart." He also wanted to marry her. On September 18, 1923, he wrote, "I keep wondering, and struggling with the idea that you are the elected goddess of my songs. I am utterly and completely concentrated on your beautiful body and to no other body will I surrender." He wrote this poem to show his affection toward her: This is the way I felt before I met you. This is a song I wrote in my notebook when I was in England with my mother: Nothing ever came of this relationship, except a life long friendship. The greatest love of Vachel Lindsay's life was his wife Elizabeth. Elizabeth Connor married Vachel on May 19, 1925; she was twenty-three and he was forty-five. They were married in Vachel's room at a hotel by Reverend Charles Pease. The Spokane morning papers on May 20 had headlines that read: " Engaged One Day-Poet Weds The Next. Dons Hiking Clothes-Omits Word 'Obey' From Ceremony." On May 22, Vachel Lindsay wrote a letter to Harriet Converse regarding his new marriage: My Dear Cordelia, Sources The Letters of Vachel Lindsay, Mark Chentier, 1979. Vachel Lindsay: Poet in Exile, Mildred Weston The Journey of Vachel Lindsay, Janel E. Lundgren and Lucas L. Persinos. 1988 by The Vachel Lindsay Association. Vachel Lindsay, Dennis Camp, www.galenet.com/servlet/gld
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