Eugene died rapidly of lung cancer, and after living alone for about a year, she fell downstairs, probably drunk, and was found dead. After about 40, her health began to decline and her inspiration to fail, and her last few years make grim reading. The middle part of her life consisted of her growing reputation as a poet and the gay social world in which she lived. She married Eugene Boissevant, a fairly affluent businessman, who tolerated her various affairs, even being friends with her lovers, and effectively devoted himself entirely to looking after her and her career. Essentially, she had a lot of fun, living a high life she couldn't really afford in various parts of the world. She was selfish, hedonistic, bisexual and addictive, and drank so much as to induce cirrhosis of the liver in her last years. She was not particularly beautiful, but something about her attracted and enslaved both men and women. Her poetic talents brought her to the notice of a wealthy benefactress, who saw her through three years at Vassar, after which, with some reputation as a poet, she began to live her own rather chaotic life. Her early life was not easy - living in what would now be thought of as poverty in a house devoid of most comforts, minus a feckless father who was thrown out when she was young, and for much of the time being alone with two young sisters while her mother was away earning money by nursing.
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