SOURCE: "The Art of Poetry IX: Conrad Aiken, An Interview," in The Paris Review, Vol. 11, No. 42, Winter-Spring, 1968, pp. 97-124.

In the following interview with Conrad Aiken, Wilbur questions the poet regarding his friendships with other writers, such as T. S. Eliot and Malcolm Lowry, discusses with Aiken his poetic theory, and elicits from him his opinion of younger poets.

The interview took place in two sessions of about an hour each in September, 1963, at Mr. Aiken's house at Brewster, Massachusetts. The house, called Forty-one Doors, dates largely from the eighteenth century; a typical old Cape Cod farmhouse, the rooms are small but many, opening in all directions off what must originally have been the most important room, the kitchen. The house is far enough from the center of town to be reasonably quiet even at the height of the summer, and it is close enough to the North...