Joseph Killorin collection of papers by and about Conrad Aiken
Overview
Preliminary box list only for Joseph Killorin's collection of papers by and about Conrad Aiken, Aiken's family, and selected friends and associates of Aiken.
Dates
- 1880-1990
Conditions Governing Access
A portion of this collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
12 linear feet (14 boxes)Includes compositions, correspondence, drawings, photographs, a bronze death mask of Aiken by Arnold Geissbuhler (friend and neighbor in Brewster), and a typewriter.
Includes material by and about Gordon Bassett, Edward Burra, Malcolm Lowry, George (Jake) Wilbur, Aiken's third wife, Mary Augusta Hoover Aiken, and other family members.
Biographical / Historical
Conrad Potter Aiken (1889-1973) was an American novelist and poet whose work included poetry, short stories, novels, a play and an autobiographical novel, Ushant.
Aiken was the son of wealthy, socially prominent New Englanders who had moved to Savannah, Georgia, where his father became a respected physician and brain surgeon. In 1901, Aiken's father killed Aiken's mother and committed suicide; Aiken was subsequently raised by his aunt in Massachusetts, attending Middlesex School in Concord (Mass.) and then Harvard University. At Harvard, he edited the Advocate with T. S. Eliot who became a lifelong friend. Aiken was influenced in his early poetry by his teacher, the philosopher George Santayana.
While living in England from 1921 until the outbreak of WWII, Aiken was mentor to the English author Malcolm Lowry. Aiken wrote or edited over 50 books; in 1950 he was named Poet Laureate of the United States.
Aiken was married first to Jessie McDonald from 1912–1929; second to Clarissa Lorenz in 1930; and third to Mary Hoover, a noted painter, in 1937.
Joseph Killorin was a friend of Aiken's who also edited a selection of Aiken's letters (1978).
Arrangement
Minimally processed. Arrangement is as received and materials are not fully cataloged. Readers should note that when fully processed, the order of materials may change.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2012M-143. Purchased with funds from the Amy Lowell fund; received: 2013 May 1.
General note
The bulk of this collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Processing Information
Accessioned by: Melanie Wisner
- Title
- Killorin, Joseph, 1926-, collector. Joseph Killorin collection of papers by and about Conrad Aiken, circa 1880-1990 (MS Am 2916): Guide
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou02440
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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