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Manuscripts
Conrad Aiken papers
- Description
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of American author Conrad Aiken. The collection includes his correspondence (chiefly letters addressed to him), dealing with his business and literary affairs, manuscripts of his works, with some photographs and ephemera.
The manuscripts include poems published in "Skylight One" (1949), "The Divine Pilgrim" (1949), "A Letter from Li Po" (1955), "Sheepfold Hill" (1955), "The Morning Song of Lord Zero" (1963); "The Clerk's Journal: Being the Diary of a Queer Man" (1911)" a notebook (1911-1925) containing literary notes, addresses, etc. essays, notes, the first draft of Aiken's autobiography, etc.
Correspondents include: Jane Aiken Hodge, Joan Aiken, John Aiken, Mary Augusta Hoover Aiken, William Ford Aiken, Rufus Blanshard, Brandt & Brandt (firm), D. G. Bridson, Edward John Burra, Horatio Colony, Malcolm Cowley, Richard Eberhart, T. S. Eliot, Jean Garrigue, Erich Heller, Dame Laura Knight, Seymour Lawrence, Malcolm Lowry, Grayson Prevost McCouch, Jay Martin , Henry Alexander Murray, Howard Nemerov, Allen Tate, Kempton Potter Aiken Taylor, Louis Untermeyer, and others.
The collection includes:
Manuscripts by Conrad Aiken: A wealth of original autograph and typescript drafts is to be found in the collection.
The majority consists of manuscripts of poems published in Skylight One (1949), The Divine Pilgrim (1949), A Letter from Li Po (1955), Sheepfold Hill (1955), and The Morning Song of Lord Zero (1963) The Clerk's Journal: Being the Diary of a Queer Man (16 pp.; Jan. 9, 1911), an original autograph manuscript of the poem written for an English course at Harvard University (AIK 2798). The manuscript includes marginal comments by the instructor, Le Baron Russell Briggs, and is accompanied by the proof sheets for the 1971 edition and an early (1970)draft of Aiken's preface, entitled "A Short Memoir of Harvard, Dean Briggs, T. S. Eliot, in 1911" (AIK 3644) The Conversation; or Pilgrim's Progress (226 pp.; ca. 1940), the first type script of the novel. AIK 3393 Mr. Arcularis (1946 to ca. 1952), eleven drafts of the short story/play. In 1946 Diana Hamilton's dramatization of Aiken's short story was produced at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, under the title Fear No More. Deemed a failure by its producers, the play was revised. Hamilton, however, was suffering from brain cancer, so Aiken made the extensive changes leading to its production at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., May 8-27, 1951. Following further revisions, the play was published by Harvard University Press in 1957. The collection also contains four versions of Hamilton's Fear No More. AIK 3774-3784 Nine Poems (9 pp.; 1952), typewritten manuscript with a few autograph corrections of a piece published in the Aiken commemorative issue of Wake, acquired by the Huntington in 1984. AIK 4714 Notebook (one volume; 1911-1925), containing literary notes, addresses, etc. AIK 3588 The Soldier (29 pp.; ca. 1945), the first draft of the poem, written in pencil in a composition book. AIK 3399 Time in the Rock (112 pp.; ca. 1936), the first draft of the poem, typewritten with numerous autograph revisions. AIK 3698 The Tinsel Circuit (33 pp.; 1916), the original version of a group of 19 poems. Aiken published slightly revised versions of the seven poems as "Vaudeville Suite" in the fall, 1955, issue of the Carolina Quarterly. Nine of the poems were later revised extensively and published in The Morning Song of Lord Zero (1963). AIK 3699 Ushant: An Essay (319 pp.; 1951-1952), Aiken's autobiography, the most important item in the collection . This is the first draft, with extensive autograph revisions in ink and pencil. Also, fragmentary notes for the autobiography (eleven pieces; ca. 1946); and Ushant: An Intermediate Fragment (7 pp.; 1952), a typescript draft with autograph corrections of the text published in the Aiken commemorative issue of Wake (acquired by the Huntington in 1984). (Volume 2: AIK 3401); 4187; 4715.II. Manuscripts by others
Clarice (Lorenz) Aiken. Lorelei Two (18 pp.), outline of an autobiography by Conrad Aiken's second wife, acquired in 1984. AIK 4765. William Ford Aiken. Eighty-nine manuscripts of poems and essays by Conrad Aiken's father, a Savannah physician, amateur poet, and inventor. Included in his manuscripts is "Isolation," a poem found after the murder- suicide of Dr. Aiken and Anna Aiken (Potter) Aiken. AIK 2917-3003. Malcolm Cowley. "The Blown Door," typescript of poem in letter to Conrad Aiken, Nov. 5, 1955. AIK 327. Graham Greene. Typewritten reviews of Aiken's King Coffin and Great Circle. AIK 3410. Clarence Malcolm Lowry. "Spiderweb," "Alcoholic," "Dark Path," and "Sonnet," four early poems sent to Conrad Aiken, 1929. AIK 2489. ------ "The doom of each, said Doctor Usquebaugh ...," typewritten poem enclosed in a letter to Aiken, Apr. 9, 1940. AIK 2488. "Tom, by airmale," notes for a poem? AIK 2490. ------ Ultramarine (1 volume; ca. 1929), part of an early draft of the novel, with autograph revisions by Aiken. Also, three pages of notes for chapter one, and a single page of an early draft. (Volume 1: AIK 3381). ------ "Work for Conrad" (2 pp.; 1937), four poems written for Aiken. AIK 3418. ------ "To Seymour Lawrence" (16 pp.; Nov. 28- Dec. 4, 1951), corrected typescript of letter about Aiken published in the commemorative issue of Wake, acquired by the Huntington in 1984. AIK 4751.Correspondence
Significant correspondents include:
Mary Augusta (Hoover) Aiken (b. 1907) is Conrad Aiken's third wife, married in 1937. The collection includes 70 letters and one telegram from Mary to Conrad between 1936 and 1955, the majority written in 1947 while Mary was in Rye, Sussex, England, seeing to the sale of Jeake's House and reporting to Conrad at Forty-one Doors in Brewster, Massachusetts (AIK 3291-3361) . Also included are 190 letters from Conrad to Mary, written from 1936 to 1973, with most again dating from 1947. The lively exchanges provide insight into the Aikens' relationship as well as the details of day-to-day life in Rye and Brewster (AIK 3099-3288). Of special literary interest are Conrad's letters of 1939, which contain drafts of sonnets published in And in the Human Heart. William Ford Aiken (d. 1901). Of the many letters written by Conrad Aiken's father to various family members, the most interesting are 34 sent to his parents while he studied medicine in Europe in 1886-1887 (AIK 2827-2860). Brandt & Brandt, Aiken's American agents. Publishing and related literary business details regarding Aiken's works are covered in 36 letters to Aiken between 1934 and 1976 (AIK 153-180, 1655, 2008-2009, 3405-3406, 3921-3922, 4613) and in one letter to the firm from Aiken in 1958 (AIK 4174). Edward John Burra (1905-1976) , English surrealist painter who lived in Rye and was a close, life-long friend of Aiken's. Their warm, humorous correspondence is replete with personal and social details and anecdotes, covering the period from the 1930s to the 1970s in 200 letters by Burra (AIK 2197-2392, 3940-3942) and 109 by Aiken (AIK 2397, 3097-3098, 4266-4372). The collection also contains 3 letters to Jay H. Martin (AIK 4615-4617) from Burra. Malcolm Cowley (b. 1898). Sixty long, frequently humorous letters written from 1935 to 1973 reflect the warm Cowley-Aiken friendship. Cowley writes thoughtfully and at length on Aiken's poetry and on Ushant, and he records his outspoken comments on many literary matters relating to other authors, such as Faulkner, Hemingway, Eliot, Pound, Randall Jarrell, Delmore Schwartz, Thomas Wolfe, Malcolm Lowry, and others (AIK 328-377, 3969-3978). John Davenport (1908-1966), English reviewer of modern literature. The correspondence includes 18 letters by Davenport, 1935 to 1965 (AIK 392-409). Conrad Aiken's 72 letters, covering the same time period,are especially valuable for details of his literary and other activities during the 1940's (AIK 3789-3859, 4205). Highlights are long references to Malcolm Lowry and Under the Volcano, as well as mention of John Burra, Ezra Pound, and Aiken's Mr. Arcularis. Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965). A fine series of 65 letters, 1914-1963, to Aiken reflecting their close friendship (AIK 485-549). Of particular significance are the revealing and introspective early letters. This correspondence contains verses by the young Eliot, as well as his comments about his own writing and his opinions of Aiken's works. Later letters deal with literary business concerning Aiken's contributions to Criterion. Eleven letters by Valerie (Fletcher) Eliot, 1960-1970, include references to Eliot and Ezra Pound (AIK 550-559, 3987). Maurice Firuski (1894-1978)was a friend and classmate of Aiken at Harvard; in 1919 he became the proprietor of Dunster House Bookshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later of Housatonic Bookshop in Salisbury, Connecticut. The 16 letters from Firuski (AIK 579-593, 3993) and an extraordinary series of 83 letters by Aiken between 1920 and 1973 reveal much concerning Aiken's personal and literary life (AIK 921-1002, 4407). Seymour Lawrence (b. 1926), editor and publisher of Wake, editor at the Atlantic Monthly Press, and founder and president of Seymour Lawrence, Inc. Eight letters (1948-1953) from Lawrence to Conrad and Mary Aiken chiefly concern the 1952 Aiken commemorative issue of Wake (AIK 696-703). A 1984 acquisition brought to the Huntington 33 letters from Aiken to Lawrence, 1952-1953 (AIK 4716-4748), as well as correspondence about the issue from Frederick Newton Arvin, Richard Palmer Blackmur, Archibald MacLeish, Marianne Moore, Walter Piston, and Edmund Wilson. Manuscripts submitted for the issue by Conrad Aiken and Malcolm Lowry are listed above in the Manuscripts section. Robert Newton Linscott (1886-1964), editor at Houghton Mifflin Company and Random House. Of the 40 lively, entertaining letters to Aiken, 1919-1961, those for the 1920s have particular value for the contemporary literary scene (AIK 704-742, 2805). Clarence Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957). The young Lowry became fascinated with Aiken's writing and visited him in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in August, 1929. In that year Aiken became Lowry's guardian, and the two remained close until Lowry's death. The collection contains important files of 53 letters (1929- 1954) from Lowry (AIK 2493-2538, 2540-2546) and 15 letters (1939-1954) written by Aiken (AIK 2549-2562, 4785). The correspondence attests to their long, close friendship and is excellent for personal and literary details of Lowry's life. Grayson Prevost McCouch, "Old Bird," Aiken's classmate from Middlesex School, Concord, and Harvard. Their long friendship is represented in 15 letters (ca. 1925-1977) from McCouch to Conrad and Mary Aiken (AIK 1108-1115, 4062-4067, 4629) and in 53 letters (1911-1973) by Aiken (AIK 4408-4458, 4835, 3875). David Merrill Markson (b. 1927), author and friend of Malcolm Lowry. There are 11 letters from Markson to Conrad and Mary Aiken (1954-1973; AIK 1136-1144, 4069-4070), and in 1984 the collection increased by 45 letters from Aiken to David and Elaine Markson (AIK 4786-4830). Much social and some literary news is recounted, and the early letters contain references to Lowry. Jay H. Martin (b. 1935). After seeking Aiken's advice about writing poetry, Martin became a close friend and later wrote a major critical study of Aiken. The correspondence includes 53 letters by Martin (AIK 1169-1219, 4072-4073) and 101 by Aiken dating from the early 1950s to 1970s and is interesting for Aiken's retrospective comments about his own poetry (AIK 4581-4582, 4482-4578, 4704-4705). John Orley Allen Tate (1899-1979). Personal and literary matters are discussed in 105 letters to Conrad and Mary Aiken written between 1949 and 1973 (AIK 1751-1843, 4132-4136, 4139-4141) and in a 1973 letter from Aiken to Tate (AIK 3876). The Sewanee Review is mentioned, as well as such literary figures as Eliot and Lowry. Kempton Potter Aiken Taylor (b. 1893), Conrad Aiken's brother, adopted in 1901 by Frederick Winslow Taylor. An intimate and revealing look at the brothers is provided in 62 letters (1912-1973) by Taylor (AIK 2878, 1841-1903, 2415-2417, 4144) and 106 letters (1931-1972) by Aiken (AIK 1904-2007, 2144-2145). Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977). These lively, often cordially disputatious letters between Untermeyer and Aiken feature frank and detailed analyses of their own and one another's work. Many other authors and literary matters are also dealt with, energetically and at length, in 52 letters (1919-1973) by Untermeyer (AIK 838-888, 4154) and in Aiken's 20 letters written between 1954 and 1969, acquired by the Huntington in 1982 (AIK 4679-4698).Additional correspondents of note:
Leonie (Fuller) Adams, 12 letters and telegrams, 1948-1973. AIK 1-11, AIK 3385. James Agee, 1 letter, 1931. AIK 13. Martin Donisthorpe Armstrong, 5 letters, 1914-1929. AIK 47-51. Gordon Bassett, 5 letters, 1940-1951. AIK 74-78. John Berryman, 3 letters, 1953-1964. AIK 84-86. George Biddle, 7 letters, 1956-1969. AIK 89-94, 3912. Katherine Garrison (Chapin) Biddle, 12 letters, 1952-1973. AIK 2605-2613, AIK 3913-3915. Elizabeth Bishop, 3 letters, 1949-1950. AIK 96-98. Richard Palmer Blackmur, 5 letters, 1931-1961. AIK 100-103, AIK 4750. Rufus Anderson Blanshard, 18 letters, 1956-1973. AIK 104-120, AIK 3916. Maxwell Bodenheim, 7 letters, 1918-1919. AIK 127-133. Alain Bosquet, 9 letters, 1955-1962. AIK 137-145. Douglas Geoffrey Bridson, 16 letters, 1951-1973. AIK 192-204, AIK 3930-3932. Cleanth Brooks, 6 letters, 1953-1956. AIK 209-214. Van Wyck Brooks, 6 letters, 1921-1923. AIK 2625-2629, AIK 4614. Winifred Bryher, 4 letters, 1933-1951. AIK 218-221. Kenneth Duva Burke, 4 letters, 1964-1972. AIK 224-226, AIK 3937. Witter Bynner, 1 letter, 1955. AIK 236. Princess Marguerite Gaetani, 2 letters, 1948? AIK 1728-1729. Gordon Cairnie, 7 letters, 1951-1969. AIK 237-241, AIK 3946-3947. Huntington Cairns, 8 letters, ca. 1949-1973. AIK 242-248, AIK 3948. Horatio Colony, 16 letters, 1935-1973. AIK 292-304, AIK 3961-3963. Cyril Vernon Connolly, 2 letters, 1945-1947. AIK 308-309. Evelyn Dagnall (of A.M. Heath and co.), 12 letters, 1946-1952. AIK 1332-1343. Hilda Doolittle, 11 letters, 1933-1935. AIK 421-431. Edward Doro, 3 letters, 1971-1973. AIK 432-433, 3984. Richard Eberhart, 25 letters, 1943-1951. AIK 446-470. Luther Harris Evans, 5 letters, 1947-1953. AIK 561-565. John Gould Fletcher, 7 letters, 1931-1948. AIK 594-600. Ford Madox Ford, 1 letter, 1931. AIK 607. John Freeman, 6 letters, 1920-ca. 1930. AIK 611-616. Robert Lee Frost, 2 letters, 1922-1923. AIK 619-620. Jean Garrigue, 14 letters, ca. 1949-ca. 1973. AIK 2662-2675. Diana Hamilton, 4 letters, 1946. AIK 1737-1740. A.M. Heath and company, Ltd. (Aiken's English agents), 6 letters, 1947-1957. AIK 649-653, AIK 2680. Erich Heller, 16 letters, 1953-1973. AIK 1012-1025, AIK 4018-4019. Robert Silliman Hillyer, 4 letters, 1930-ca. 1949. AIK 659-662. Catharine Huntington, 7 letters, 1949-ca. 1974. AIK 2706-2709, AIK 4037-4039. Ernst and Eithne (Wilkins) Kaiser, 10 letters, 1954-1964. AIK 2715-2724. Neva Goodwin (Rockefeller) Kaiser, 22 letters, 1966-ca. 1974. AIK 1346-1364. Weldon Kees, 5 letters, 1949-1954. AIK 690-694. Harold and Dame Laura (Johnson) Knight, 25 letters, 1932-1963. AIK 1043, AIK 1045-1069. Alfred Kreymborg, 4 letters, 1919-1922. AIK 2726-2729. Alexis Saint-Leger Leger, 1 letter, 1958. AIK 2733. Amy Lowell, 5 letters, 1921-1922. AIK 744-748. Robert Traill Spence Lowell, 4 letters, 1947-1956. AIK 2735-2738. Archibald MacLeish, 4 letters, 1949-ca. 1955. AIK 750-752, AIK 4752. Katherine Mansfield, 1 letter, 1921. AIK 753. Harold Edward and Alida (Klemantaski) Monro, 10 letters, 1930-1935. AIK 754-763. Marianne Moroe, 6 letters, 1951-1952. AIK 4753-4758. Nicholas Moore, 4 letters, 1942-1947. AIK 1246-1249. Lawrence Quincy Mumford, 5 letters, 1955-1968. AIK 765-769. Lewis Mumford, 5 letters, 1952-1972. AIK 1253-1256, AIK 4080. Henry Alexander Murray, 32 letters, 1931-ca. 1974. AIK 2754, 1257-1284, AIK 4081-4083. Paul Nash, 13 letters, 1934-1945. AIK 2755-2767. Howard Nemerov, 17 letters, 1963-1973. AIK 1296-1311, AIK 4087. Charles Norman, 3 letters, 1945-1961. AIK 770-772. Norreys Jephson O'Conor, 2 letters, 1948-1952. AIK 1382-1383. Oxford University Press, 17 letters, 1949-1973. AIK 1387-1403, AIK 4090-4091. Charles A. Pearce, 7 letters, 1948-1951. AIK 1411-1417. Norman Holmes Pearson, 2 letters, 1952-1971. AIK 773-774. Clover Pertinez, 24 letters, 1948-1971. AIK 1422-1442, 2413-2414, AIK 1443-1448. Charles Horace Philbrick, 31 letters, 1958-1971. AIK 1455-1485. Walter Piston, 7 letters, 1931-ca. 1974. AIK 1491-1496, AIK 4759. Katherine Anne Porter, 1 letter, 1952. AIK 1512. Alfred Claghorn Potter, 27 letters, 1925-1940. AIK 1515-1541. Ezra Loomis Pound, 2 letters, 1914-ca. 1934. AIK 1554-1555. Ivor Armstrong Richards, 9 letters, 1966-1973. AIK 780-783, AIK 4100-4104. Edwin Arlington Robinson, 6 letters, 1922-1923. AIK 1581-1586. Robert Alden Sanborn, 1 letter, 1923. AIK 2782. Mark Scharer, 11 letters, 1946-1973. AIK 790-796, 4109-4112. Delmore Schwartz, 6 letters, 1942-1956. AIK 784-789. Karl Jay Shapiro, 14 letters, 1945-1953. AIK 802-814. Theodore Spencer, 5 letters, 1930-1948. AIK 816-820. Wallace Stevens, 2 letters, 1922-1952. AIK 825-826. John Lincoln and Maire Sweeney, 23 letters, 1955-1975. AIK 1674-1691, AIK 4126-4130. Thurairajah Tambimuttu, 11 letters, 1948-1972. AIK 828-836, AIK 1750, AIK 4131. James Thurber, 2 letters, 1951-1952. AIK 4761-4762. Mark Albert Van Doren, 1 letter, 1951. AIK 4763. Robert Penn Warren, 5 letters, 1960-1970. AIK 899-903. George B. Wilbur, 20 letters, 1922-ca. 1974. AIK 2111-2122, AIK 4162-4169. Oscar Williams, 6 letters, 1941-1964. AIK 905-910. William Carlos Williams, 4 letters, 1919-1952. AIK 911-914. Edmund Wilson, 4 letters, 1951-1954. AIK 916-918, AIK 4764.The collection also includes some audio recordings and films, photographs, ephemera, honorary awards, engagement books, financial records, publishing, theatrical and musical agreements, copies of reviews, and guardianship papers and receipts collected by Aiken's guardian.
