Conrad Aiken letter to Wesley Hartley


Descriptive Summary
Title: Conrad Aiken letter to Wesley Hartley
Creator: Aiken, Conrad, 1889-1973
Inclusive Dates: 1957 August 5
Language(s): English
Extent: 1 folder(s)
Collection Number: ms3143
Repository: Hargrett Library

Collection Description

Historical Note

"Over a period of nearly fifty years Conrad Aiken published poems, essays, short stories, novels, and literary criticism. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1930 for Selected Poems (1929) and a National Book Award for Collected Poems (1953). His literary autobiography, Ushant, reveals the international nature of his complex life and literary career. Conrad Potter Aiken was born in Savannah, Georgia, on August 5, 1889, the eldest of four children of a prominent doctor from New York, William Aiken. The author's mother, Anna, was the daughter of a prominent Massachusetts Unitarian minister. When Aiken was eleven, Aiken's father killed his wife and then shot himself--without any warning. The young Aiken was sent to live with an aunt in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He later attended Harvard University, where he met the young T. S. Eliot, who became a lifelong friend and literary associate. Aiken married Jessie McDonald in 1912. They had three children but divorced in the late 1920s, after they had settled in England."

-- "Conrad Aiken (1889-1973)", from New Georgia Encyclopedia (accessed 27 February 2009)

Scope and Content

The collection consists of one typed letter from Conrad Aiken to Wesley Hartley, an educator in Los Angeles, California, in which Aikens briefly discusses his opinion regarding the importance of the educational experience.