Conrad Aiken

Conrad Potter Aiken (August 5 1889 – August 17 1973) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, born in Savannah, Georgia, whose work includes poetry, short stories and novels. When he was very young, his father killed his mother, then himself. Needless to say this had a profound impact on Aiken's life. He was thereafter raised by his great-great-aunt in Massachusetts. He was deeply influenced by Symbolism, especially in his earlier works. In 1930 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his Selected Poems.

Quotation

:Over the darkened city, the city of towers,The city of a thousand gates,Over the gleaming terraced roofs, the huddled towers,Over a somnolent whisper of loves and hates,The slow wind flows, drearily streams and falls,With a mournful sound down rain-dark walls.

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::— From The House of Dust

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