Conrad Aiken

Conrad Aiken

Interment LocationVisited 
Savannah, GANovember 30, 2021 

Photographed November 30, 2021.

Established in 1846 under the name Evergreen Cemetery, the hauntingly beautiful Bonaventure Cemetery occupies 103 acres in Savannah, Georgia. Its live oak trees, covered in Spanish moss, were planted in 1764 and shade the final resting places of the cemetery’s dead. One such occupant is Conrad Aiken. Orphaned at age eleven, Aiken proceeded to attend Harvard University and establish himself as an author. His body of work included novels, poems, short stories, and an autobiography, Ushant. His Selected Poems earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1930. In 1954, he received the National Book Award for Poetry for Collected Poems. The plain titles of these anthologies bely the depth of the emotions and psychological themes Aiken often embedded in his writing.

Like with the grave of fellow Bonaventure resident Johnny Mercer, Conrad Aiken’s burial site is a setting in John Berendt’s 1994 book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. In its second chapter, the narrator and his Savannah guide, Miss Mary Harty, sit upon Aiken’s gravestone bench and drink martinis from silver goblets. The narrative nonfiction novel held firm on the New York Times Best Seller List for a record 216 consecutive weeks. This image shows me sitting on Aiken’s bench in 2021, sans goblet.

Photographed November 30, 2021.
Photographed November 30, 2021.

In Berendt’s book, Miss Harty relates that Aiken visited Bonaventure Cemetery to relax and watch ships pass by on the Wilmington River. Once, he saw a vessel called Cosmos Mariner go past. Entranced by the name, Aiken looked it up on a list of ships in Savannah’s port. The entry stated the craft’s destination was unknown. This resonated with Aiken, who incorporated “Cosmos Mariner, Destination Unknown” into his epitaph.


Fast Facts

Born: August 5, 1889 in Savannah, Georgia

Spouses: Jessie McDonald Aiken (m. 1912-1929); Clarissa Lorenz Aiken (m. 1930-1937); Mary Hoover Aiken (m. 1937-1973)

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: Selected Poems (1930)

Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress: 1950-1952

National Book Award for Poetry: Collected Poems (1954)

Died: August 17, 1973 in Savannah, Georgia

Cause of Death: Heart Attack

Age: 84

Interment: Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia

“No, I don’t have any great notion about where I stand as a poet. That will be taken care of by those wiser people who come later on the scene than we do. Thus, as in their turn, those opinions too will be revalued over and over. None of us knows in what direction poetry and those other arts will turn—that’s part of the cruel fascination of being interested in the arts as you are, and keeping your head about it.”
- Conrad Aiken
1973, in a letter dictated from his deathbed, in response to a high school student who wrote Aiken to praise a poem of his, which the student's teacher had skipped over in their textbook

Sources Consulted and Further Reading

Alwiel, Leslie. “Bonaventure Cemetery Update and Some Live Oak History.” Bonaventure Historical Society. October 27, 2016. https://www.bonaventurehistorical.org/bonaventure-cemetery-update-and-some-live-oak-history/.

Associated Press. “Conrad Aiken, 84, Won Poetry Prize.” New York Times. August 18, 1973, 55. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/08/18/archives/conrad-aiken-dies-at-84-in-savannah-conrad-aiken-84-won-poetry.html.

Bonaventure Historical Society. “History of Bonaventure Cemetery.” Accessed September 30, 2022. https://www.bonaventurehistorical.org/history-bonaventure-cemetery/.

Levin, Harry. Memories of the Moderns. New York: New Directions, 1982.

Poetry Foundation. “Conrad Aiken.” Accessed September 25, 2022. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/conrad-aiken.

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