Before Conrad Aiken was the U.S. Poet Laureate or the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the Bollingen Prize, the National Book Award, the National Institute of Arts and Letters Gold Medal, and the National Medal for Literature, he was a young boy growing up on Oglethorpe Avenue in Savannah, Ga.
The noble dead, the Lost Generation as Gertrude Stein called them. An entire swath of the population was killed in WWI, followed by the deadly Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. Death was everywhere. And in the midst of all the mourning, some wise people sought hope. Theosophists and Spiritualists sought to prove that there was merely a thin veil between this world and the next, and those who were willing to listen could speak to the spirits from beyond.
Dennison’s Bogie Book was THE publication for holiday party-making ideas. The guides outline games, decorations, costumes and menus and show Halloween in its transformation to a fun, merry holiday in the early 20th century.
Poe has become a mythical figure in American history. His work is constantly republished, adapted and performed. There are lunch boxes, toys and air fresheners with his likeness on them. There is a NFL team named after one of his poems.
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.