When Conrad Aiken was still a young boy his father killed his mother and then committed suicide. The boy was raised by a great-great-aunt in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1912, and two years later his first collection of poetry, Earth Triumphant, was published. He edited Emily Dickinson’s Selected Poems in 1924, bringing that unknown poet to the attention of the public and establishing her reputation as one of our towering poetic figures. Aiken was chosen as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress from 1950–’52, becoming, in effect, America’s Poet Laureate. He also won the Bollingen Prize and other major awards. Aiken died in Savannah in 1973.
When Conrad Aiken was still a young boy his father killed his mother and then committed suicide. The boy was raised by a great-great-aunt in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1912, and two years later his first collection of poetry, Earth Triumphant, was published. He edited Emily Dickinson’s Selected Poems in 1924, bringing that unknown poet to the attention of the public and establishing her reputation as one of our towering poetic figures. Aiken was chosen as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress from 1950–’52, becoming, in effect, America’s Poet Laureate. He also won the Bollingen Prize and other major awards. Aiken died in Savannah in 1973.