Conrad Potter Aiken (August 5, 1889 – August 17, 1973) was an American writer and poet, honored with a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
and a
National Book Award
The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
, and was
United States Poet Laureate from 1950 to 1952. His published works include
poetry
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
,
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...
,
novel
A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
s, literary criticism, a play, and an autobiography.
Biography
Early years

Aiken was the eldest son of William Ford and Anna (Potter) Aiken. In Savannah, Aiken's father became a respected physician and eye surgeon, while his mother was the daughter of a prominent Massachusetts Unitarian minister.
For the first eleven years of Aiken's life, his family lived at 228
East Oglethorpe Avenue in Savannah.
On February 27, 1901, William Ford Aiken murdered his wife and then committed suicide. According to his 1952 autobiography, ''Ushant'', Aiken, then 11 years old, heard the two gunshots and discovered the bodies immediately thereafter.
After his parents' deaths, he was raised by his great-aunt and uncle in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
, attending
Middlesex School
Middlesex School (informally known as MX) is a Mixed-sex education, coeducational, Private school, independent, and Nonsectarian, non-sectarian boarding school, boarding secondary school located in Concord, Massachusetts, Concord, Middlesex Count ...
, then
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
.
At Harvard, Aiken edited the ''
Advocate
An advocate is a professional in the field of law. List of country legal systems, Different countries and legal systems use the term with somewhat differing meanings. The broad equivalent in many English law–based jurisdictions could be a ba ...
'' with
T. S. Eliot, who became a lifelong friend, colleague, and influence.
It was also at Harvard where Aiken studied under another significant influence in his writing, the philosopher
George Santayana
George Santayana (born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the Un ...
.
Adult years
Aiken was strongly influenced by
symbolism, especially in his earlier works. In 1930 he received the
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award came five years after the first Pulitzers were awarded in other categories; Joseph Pulitzer's will had not ment ...
for his ''Selected Poems''. Many of his writings had strong psychological themes. He wrote the widely anthologized short story "
Silent Snow, Secret Snow" (1934), partially based on his childhood tragedy.
Other influences were Aiken's grandfather, Potter, who had been a church preacher, as well as Whitman's freestyle poetry. This helped Aiken shape his poetry more freely while his recognition of a God grounded his more visually rich explorations into the universe. Some of his best-known poetry, such as "Morning Song from Senlin", uses these influences to great effect.
His collections of verse include ''Earth Triumphant'' (1914), ''The Charnel Rose'' (1918) and ''And In the Hanging Gardens'' (1933). His poem "Music I Heard" has been set to music by a number of composers, including
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...
,
Henry Cowell, and
Helen Searles Westbrook. Aiken wrote or edited more than 51 books, the first of which was published in 1914, two years after his graduation from Harvard. His work includes novels, short stories (''The Collected Short Stories'' appeared in 1961), reviews, an autobiography, and poetry. He received numerous awards and honors for his writing, though for most of his lifetime, he received little public attention.
Though Aiken was reluctant to speak of his early trauma and ensuing psychological problems, he acknowledged that his writings were strongly influenced by his studies of
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
,
Carl G. Jung,
Otto Rank
Otto Rank (; ; né Rosenfeld; 22 April 1884 – 31 October 1939) was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years, a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, ...
, Ferenczi, Adler, and other
depth psychologists. It was not until the publication of his autobiography, ''Ushant'', that Aiken revealed the emotional challenges that he had battled for much of his adult life. During the 1920s Freud heard of him and offered to psychoanalyze him. While aboard a Europe-bound ship to meet with Freud, Aiken was discouraged by
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and set ...
from accepting the offer. Consequently, despite Freud's strong influence on Aiken, Aiken never met the noted psychoanalyst.
As he later said, "Freud had read ''Great Circle'', and I'm told kept a copy on his office table. But I didn't go, though I started to. Misgivings set in, and so did poverty."
Personal life
Aiken had three younger siblings, Kempton Potter (K. P. A. Taylor), Robert Potter (R. P. A. Taylor), and Elizabeth. After their parents' deaths, the four children were adopted by
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consulting, management consultants. In 190 ...
and his wife Louise, their great-aunt. His siblings took Taylor's last name. Kempton helped establish the
Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry.
He was married three times: firstly to Jessie McDonald (1912–1929); secondly to Clarissa Lorenz (1930–1937) (author of a biography, ''Lorelei Two''); and thirdly to the painter
Mary Hoover (1937–1973).
He fathered three children by his first wife Jessie: John Aiken,
Jane Aiken Hodge and
Joan Aiken, all of whom became writers. Over the years, he served ''
in loco parentis
The term ''in loco parentis'', Contemporary Latin, Latin for "in the place of a parent", refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent.
Originally derived from ...
'' as well as mentor to the English author
Malcolm Lowry
Clarence Malcolm Lowry (; 28 July 1909 – 26 June 1957) was an English poet and novelist who is best known for his 1947 novel ''Under the Volcano'', which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list. .
Aiken married Jessie McDonald in 1912, and the couple moved to England in 1921 with their older two children; John (born 1913) and Jane (born 1917), settling in
Rye, East Sussex
Rye is a town and civil parish in the Rother District, Rother district of East Sussex, England, from the sea at the confluence of three rivers: the River Rother (Eastern), Rother, the River Tillingham, Tillingham and the River Brede, Brede. An ...
(where the American novelist
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
had once lived). The couple's youngest daughter, Joan, was born in Rye in 1924. Conrad Aiken returned to
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
, as a tutor at Harvard from 1927 to 1928. For many years, he divided his time between Rye, New York, and Boston.
In 1931 he was introduced by the artist
Paul Nash to
Edward Burra, a painter also living in Rye. That year Burra painted his
gouache "John Deth", inspired by Aiken's poem of that name and originally intended to illustrate a projected edition that was never realized. Nevertheless, the two men maintained a lifelong friendship thereafter.
In 1936, Aiken met his third wife, Mary, in Boston. In the following year the couple visited Malcolm Lowry in
Cuernavaca
Cuernavaca (; , "near the woods" , Otomi language, Otomi: ) is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state, state of Morelos in Mexico. Along with Chalcatzingo, it is likely one of the origins of the Mesoamerica, Mesoamerican civilizatio ...
, Mexico, where Aiken divorced Clarissa and married Mary. The couple moved to Rye, where they remained until the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in 1940. The Aikens settled in
Brewster, Massachusetts, on
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...
, where he and his wife Mary later ran a summer program for writers and painters named after their antique farmhouse, "Forty-One Doors". Despite living for many years abroad and receiving recognition as a Southern writer, Aiken always considered himself an American, and, in particular, a New Englander.
In 1923, he acted as a witness at the marriage of his friend, poet
W. H. Davies. From 1950 to 1952, he served as
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, more commonly known as Poet Laureate of the United States. In 1960, he visited
Grasmere in the
Lake District
The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
, England (once the home of
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...
), with his friend Edward Burra.
The Aikens lived primarily at their farmhouse in West Brewster and wintered in Savannah in a home adjacent to his early childhood house.
Aiken died on 17 August 1973, aged 84, and was buried in
Bonaventure Cemetery
Bonaventure Cemetery is a rural cemetery located on a scenic bluff of the Wilmington River, southeast of downtown Savannah, Georgia. The cemetery's prominence grew when it was featured in the 1994 novel '' Midnight in the Garden of Good and Ev ...
in
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...
, on the banks of the
Wilmington River. His widow was buried beside him after her death in 1992. The burial site was featured in ''
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' by
John Berendt. According to local legend, Aiken wished to have his tombstone fashioned in the shape of a bench as an invitation to visitors to stop and enjoy a martini at his grave. The bench is inscribed with "Give my love to the world" and "Cosmos Mariner—Destination Unknown".
A primary source for information on Aiken's life is his autobiographical novel ''Ushant'' (1952), one of his major works. In it, he wrote candidly about his various affairs and marriages, his attempted suicide and fear of insanity, and his friendships with T. S. Eliot (who appears in the book as the Tsetse),
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
(Rabbi Ben Ezra),
Malcolm Lowry
Clarence Malcolm Lowry (; 28 July 1909 – 26 June 1957) was an English poet and novelist who is best known for his 1947 novel ''Under the Volcano'', which was voted No. 11 in the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list. (Hambo), and others.
Awards and recognition
Named Poetry Consultant (now U.S. Poet Laureate) of the Library of Congress from 1950 to 1952, Aiken earned numerous prestigious writing honors, including a
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
in 1930 for ''Selected Poems'', the 1954 National Book Award for ''Collected Poems'',
["National Book Awards – 1954"]
National Book Foundation
The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established with the goal "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America." Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: ...
. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
(With acceptance speech by Aiken and essay by Evie Shockley from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) the Bollingen Prize in Poetry, the National Institute of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in Poetry, and a National Medal for Literature. He was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 1934, Academy of American Poets fellowship in 1957, Huntington Hartford Foundation Award in 1960, and Brandeis University Creative Arts Award in 1967. Aiken was the first Georgia-born author to win a Pulitzer Prize, and was named Georgia's Poet Laureate in 1973. He was the first winner of the
Poetry Society of America's
Shelley Memorial Award, in 1929. In
1973
Events January
* January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union.
* January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...
, he was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature
The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
but died months earlier before his only chance to be awarded.
In 2009,
the Library of America selected Aiken's 1931 story "Mr. Arcularis" for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American fantastic tales.
Selected works
Poetry collections
*
Earth Triumphant' (Aiken, 1914)
*
Turns and Movies and other Tales in Verse' (Aiken, 1916, Houghton Mifflin)
* ''The Jig of Forslin: A Symphony'', 1916
*
Nocturne of Remembered Spring: And Other Poems' (Aiken, 1917)
*
Charnel Rose' (Aiken, 1918)
* ''The House of Dust: A Symphony'', 1920
* ''Punch: The Immortal Liar, Documents in His History'', 1921
* ''Priapus and the Pool'', 1922
* ''The Pilgrimage of Festus'', 1923
* ''Priapus and the Pool, and Other Poems'', 1925
* ''Selected Poems'', 1929
* ''John Deth, A Metaphysical Legacy, and Other Poems'', 1930
* ''The Coming Forth by Day of Osiris Jones'', 1931
* ''Preludes for Memnon'', 1931
* ''Landscape West of Eden'', 1934
* ''Time in the Rock; Preludes to Definition'', 1936
* ''And in the Human Heart'', 1940
* ''Brownstone Eclogues, and Other Poems'', 1942
* ''The Soldier: A Poem'', 1944
* ''The Kid'', 1947
* ''The Divine Pilgrim'', 1949
* ''Skylight One: Fifteen Poems'', 1949
* ''Collected Poems'', 1953
* ''A Letter from
Li Po and Other Poems'', 1955
* ''Sheepfold Hill: Fifteen Poems'', 1958
* ''The Morning Song of Lord Zero, Poems Old and New'', 1963
* ''Thee: A Poem'', 1967
* ''Collected Poems'', 2nd ed., 1970
Short story collections
* ''Bring! Bring! and Other Stories'' (1925)
* ''Costumes by Eros'' (1928)
* ''Among the Lost People'' (1934)
* ''The Short Stories of Conrad Aiken'' (1950)
* ''The Collected Short Stories of Conrad Aiken'' (1960)
Novels
* ''Blue Voyage'' (1927)
* ''Great Circle'' (1933)
* ''
King Coffin'' (1935)
* ''A Heart for the Gods of Mexico'' (1939)
* ''The Conversation'' (1940)
Other books
* ''Scepticisms: Notes on Contemporary Poetry'' (1919)
* ''Ushant'' (1952)
* ''A Reviewer's ABC: Collected Criticism of Conrad Aiken from 1916 to the Present'' (1958)
Short stories
References
External links
*
*
*
Poems by Conrad AikenAn extensive collection of Aiken's poetry
Biography
*
New Georgia Encyclopedia entryFamous Poets and Poems, Aiken BiographyBookrags.com
*
*
ttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou01346 Guides to Conrad Aiken's prosebr>
poetry an
correspondencea
Houghton Library Harvard University
*
Conrad Aikenhistorical marker
Conrad Aikenat the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aiken, Conrad
1889 births
1973 deaths
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American poets
20th-century Unitarians
American male novelists
American male poets
American male short story writers
American poets laureate
American Unitarians
Bollingen Prize recipients
Burials at Bonaventure Cemetery
Federal Writers' Project people
Harvard Advocate alumni
Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
Middlesex School alumni
National Book Award winners
Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Poets from Georgia (U.S. state)
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners
Writers from Savannah, Georgia
Poets laureate of Georgia (U.S. state)