Raised by relatives after the murder/suicide of his parents, Aiken was educated at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts and Harvard University, where he received his degree in 1912. He worked for a time as a reporter before turning to writing full time. In 1914, he published his first book of poetry, Earth Triumphant, which won critical acclaim. He became friends with Ezra Pound and became a contributing editor of the Dial. Aiken avoided World War I by claiming that his profession, i.e. poet, was an essential industry and, remarkably, was granted an exemption. He moved to England in 1921 where he spent a number of years before returning to America to teach English at Harvard. In 1930, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Selected Poems. During the 1930's, Aiken traveled back and forth between America and England, finally settling in Massachusetts. From 1950 to 1952 he was a consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress. In 1962, he moved to Savannah where he lived until his death. His works include Nocturne of Remembered Spring (1917), The Charnel Rose (1918), The House of Dust (1920), The Pilgrimage of Festus (1923), Blue Voyage (1927), Prelude (1929), Preludes of Memnon (1931), Among the Lost People (1934), Conversation (1940), The Soldier (1944), The Divine Pilgrim (1949), Ushant (1952), The Flute Player (1956), A Seizure of Limericks (1964), Thee (1967) and The Clerk's Journal (1971). |
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