Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886 – September 27, 1961) was an American
modernist poet
Modernist poetry refers to poetry written between 1890 and 1950 in the tradition of modernist literature, but the dates of the term depend upon a number of factors, including the nation of origin, the particular school in question, and the biases ...
, novelist, and memoirist who
wrote under the name H.D. throughout her life. Her career began in 1911 after she moved to London and co-founded the avant-garde
Imagist
Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. ...
group of poets with American expatriate poet and critic
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
. During this early period, her minimalist
free verse
Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.
Definit ...
poems depicting
Classical motifs drew international attention. Eventually distancing herself from the Imagist movement, she experimented with a wider variety of forms, including
fiction
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...
,
memoir
A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...
, and
verse drama
Verse drama is any drama written significantly in verse (that is: with line endings) to be performed by an actor before an audience. Although verse drama does not need to be ''primarily'' in verse to be considered verse drama, significant portio ...
. Profoundly affected by her experiences in London during
the Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
, H.D.'s poetic style from World War II until her death pivoted towards complex
long poem
The long poem is a literary genre including all poetry of considerable length. Though the definition of a long poem is vague and broad and unnecessary, the genre includes some of the most important poetry ever written.
With more than 220,000 (10 ...
s on
esoteric
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
and
pacifist
Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...
themes.
H.D. was born in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...
, to wealthy and educated parents who relocated to
Upper Darby
Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The township borders Philadelphia, the nation's sixth most populous city as of 2020 with 1.6 million residents.
As of the 2020 cen ...
in 1896. Discovering her bisexuality she had her first same-sex relationship while attending
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...
between 1904 and 1906. After years of friendship, H.D. became engaged to Pound and followed him to London in 1911 where he championed her work, but their relationship soon fell apart, with H.D. instead marrying the Imagist poet
Richard Aldington
Richard Aldington (8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962), born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet, and an early associate of the Imagist movement. He was married to the poet Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) from 1911 to 1938. His 50-year w ...
in 1913. In 1918 she met the novelist
Bryher
Bryher ( kw, Breyer "place of hills") is one of the smallest inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly, with a population of 84 in 2011, spread across .
History
The name of the island is recorded as ''Brayer'' in 1336 and ''Brear'' in 1500.
Ge ...
, who became her romantic partner and close friend until her death. An associate literary editor of the ''
Egoist
Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self, or , as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass a range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normativ ...
'' journal between 1916 and 1917, H.D. was published by the ''
English Review
''The English Review'' was an English-language literary magazine published in London from 1908 to 1937. At its peak, the journal published some of the leading writers of its day.
History
The magazine was started by 1908 by Ford Madox Hueffer (la ...
'' and ''
Transatlantic Review
Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to:
Film
* Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950
* Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s
* ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film), ...
''. During World War I, both her brother and father died, and she separated from Aldington. She was treated by
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
during the 1930s, looking to understand both her war trauma and
bisexuality
Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whic ...
.
H.D. was keenly interested in
Ancient Greek literature
Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, are ...
and published numerous Greek translations. Throughout her career, her poems routinely drew from
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
and classical poets, from her earliest Imagist lyrics which depicted natural landscapes using Hellenistic motifs, to her 1950s long poem ''Helen in Egypt'' which reinterpreted the myth of the
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has ...
. Raised
Moravian by her family, and first introduced to
occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
and esoteric religious ideas by Pound in her youth, H.D. gradually developed a unique
syncretic
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...
spiritual worldview. H.D.'s spiritual devotion intensified during and after World War II, and these ideas became a central concern of her late writing.
While H.D. wrote in a wide range of genres and modes over career, during her lifetime she was known almost exclusively for her early Imagist poems. Following a reappraisal by feminist critics in the 1970s and 1980s, the significance of her late long poems and prose works was increasingly recognized, and she has come to be understood as a central figure in the history of
modernist literature
Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...
.
Life and Work
Early life
Hilda Doolittle was born on September 10, 1886, into the
Moravian community in
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...
. Her father, Charles, was professor of astronomy at
Lehigh University
Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Epis ...
, and her mother, Helen ( Wolle), was a member of the Moravian brotherhood. Hilda was their only daughter in a family with five sons. When Charles was appointed professor of astronomy at the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
to take charge of the Flower
Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
, they moved to
Upper Darby
Upper Darby Township, often shortened to Upper Darby, is a home rule township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The township borders Philadelphia, the nation's sixth most populous city as of 2020 with 1.6 million residents.
As of the 2020 cen ...
. She attended
Friends' Central School
Friends' Central School (FCS) is a Quaker school which educates students from nursery through grade 12. It is located in Wynnewood, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania in Greater Philadelphia.
The school was founded in 1845 in ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and graduated in 1905, delivering a commencement address entitled "The Poet's Influence". She enrolled at
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...
in 1905 to study
Greek literature
Greek literature () dates back from the ancient Greek literature, beginning in 800 BC, to the modern Greek literature of today.
Ancient Greek literature was written in an Ancient Greek dialect, literature ranges from the oldest surviving writte ...
, where she met the poets
Marianne Moore
Marianne Craig Moore (November 15, 1887 – February 5, 1972) was an American modernist poet, critic, translator, and editor. Her poetry is noted for formal innovation, precise diction, irony, and wit.
Early life
Moore was born in Kirkwood ...
and
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.
In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
. After three terms of poor grades, H.D. withdrew from the college, studying at home until 1910.
H.D. met poet
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
as a teenager in 1901. He became a life-long friend and played a formative role in her development as a writer. In 1905, Pound and H.D. began an on-and-off relationship which included at least two engagements. Although his parents were in favor of the relationship, her parents strongly objected. In 1907, Pound gave her ''Hilda's Book'', a handmade
vellum
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other anima ...
binding of twenty-five of his earliest love poems, which he dedicated to her.
In 1910, Doolittle began a relationship with Frances Josepha Gregg, a young female art student at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[Theocritus
Theocritus (; grc-gre, Θεόκριτος, ''Theokritos''; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry.
Life
Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from hi ...](_blank)
. Some of her early work, including some children's stories about astronomy, was published in New York newspapers and
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
newsletters.
Imagism
H.D. traveled to London in May 1911 to holiday with Gregg and Gregg's mother; Gregg returned home, but H.D. stayed to develop a career as a writer. Pound introduced her to his friends, including English writer
Brigit Patmore
Brigit Patmore (nee Ethel Elizabeth Morrison-Scott; 1888–1965) was an English author and London society hostess.
Life
Born in 1888, Ethel Elizabeth Morrison-Scott married John Deighton Patmore, a successful insurance executive, the grandson of ...
. Patmore introduced her to
Richard Aldington
Richard Aldington (8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962), born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet, and an early associate of the Imagist movement. He was married to the poet Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) from 1911 to 1938. His 50-year w ...
, who became her husband in 1913. The three lived in Church Walk, Kensington—Pound at no. 10, Aldington at no. 8, and H.D. at no. 6—and gathered to work daily in the
British Museum Reading Room
The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main Reference library, reading room of the British Library. In 1997, this function moved to the ne ...
.
Pound had already begun to meet with other poets in London to discuss ideas for reforming contemporary poetry, and like all
modernists
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
in different artistic fields, "make it new". They achieved this through the incorporation of
free verse
Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French ''vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech.
Definit ...
, the brevity of the
tanka
is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature.
Etymology
Originally, in the time of the ''Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short poem ...
and
haiku
is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a ''kireji'', or "cutting word", 17 '' on'' (phonetic units similar to syllables) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a ''kigo'', or se ...
forms, and the removal of unnecessary verbiage. Pound, H.D. and Aldington became known as the "three original Imagists" and published a three-point manifesto proclaiming the edicts of Imagism. According to Pound:
During a 1912 conversation with Pound, H.D. told him that she found "Hilda Doolittle" to be an old fashioned and "quaint" name; he suggested the signature H.D., an abbreviation she kept for the remainder of her career. After he "scrawled the name ''H.D. Imagiste''" at the bottom of the page of her poem "Hermes of the Ways", she adopted H.D. as a pen. Privately he called her "
Dryad
A dryad (; el, Δρυάδες, ''sing''.: ) is a tree nymph or tree spirit in Greek mythology. ''Drys'' (δρῦς) signifies " oak" in Greek, and dryads were originally considered the nymphs of oak trees specifically, but the term has evolved t ...
".
Under the rubric ''Imagiste'', in October 1912 Pound submitted a selection of H. D.'s poems to
Harriet Monroe
Harriet Monroe (December 23, 1860 – September 26, 1936) was an American editor, scholar, literary critic, poet, and patron of the arts. She was the founding publisher and long-time editor of ''Poetry'' magazine, first published in 1912. As a ...
, founder of the magazine ''Poetry''. Three of her poems were published in the January 1913 issue—"Hermes of the Ways" (Pound said "this is poetry" after reading), "Priapus: Keeper of Orchards" (later renamed "Orchard"), and "Epigram"—alongside three by Aldington. These early poems are informed by her reading of
Classical Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
literature, especially of
Sappho
Sappho (; el, Σαπφώ ''Sapphō'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her Greek lyric, lyric poetry, written to be sung while ...
, an interest shared with Aldington and Pound. Her Imagist poetry is characterized by sparse language and a classical, austere purity, exemplified by one of her earliest and best-known poems, "
Oread
In Greek mythology, an Oread (; grc, Ὀρειάς, Oreiás, stem grc, Ὀρειάδ-, Oreiád-, label=none, la, Oreas/Oread-, from grc, ὄρος, , mountain, label=none; french: Oréade) or Orestiad (; grc, Ὀρεστιάδες, Orest ...
" (1915).
The style was not without its critics. In a dedicated Imagist issue of ''
The Egoist
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' magazine in May 1915, the English poet and critic
Harold Monro
Harold Edward Monro (14 March 1879 – 16 March 1932) was an English poet born in Brussels, Belgium. As the proprietor of the Poetry Bookshop in London, he helped many poets to bring their work before the public.
Life and career
Monro was born ...
named H.D. as the "truest Imagist", but dismissed her early work as "petty poetry", denoting "either poverty of imagination or needlessly excessive restraint". In contrast, a 1927 review by the British modernist author and critic
May Sinclair
May Sinclair was the pseudonym of Mary Amelia St. Clair (24 August 1863 – 14 November 1946), a popular British writer who wrote about two dozen novels, short stories and poetry. She was an active suffragist, and member of the Woman Writers' S ...
described "Oreads brevity as a "miracle" and criticized Monro for not recognizing it.
World War I and after
H.D. married Aldington in 1913 and the following year Pound married the English artist
Dorothy Shakespear
Dorothy Shakespear (14 September 1886 – 8 December 1973) was an English artist. She was the daughter of novelist Olivia Shakespear and the wife of American poet Ezra Pound. One of a small number of women vorticist painters, her art work was p ...
. H.D. and Aldington's only child, a daughter, was stillborn in 1915. He enlisted in the army, and she took his place as assistant editor of ''The Egoist'', serving for the next year. The couple drifted apart: he reportedly took a mistress in 1917, and she started a close but platonic relationship with the English writer
D. H. Lawrence
David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
.
In 1918, H.D.'s brother Gilbert was killed in action. She moved to Cornwall that March with the Scottish composer
Cecil Gray, a friend of Lawrence. She became pregnant with Gray's child, but by the time she realized she was expecting, the relationship had cooled and Gray had returned to London. H.D. learned that her father died, having never recovered from Gilbert's death. Despondent and sick with the
Spanish flu
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
, she came close to death during the birth of their daughter Perdita Aldington in 1919.
H.D. and Aldington tried to salvage their relationship but failed, in part because of his post-war
post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on ...
, but especially because of her pregnancy with Gray. They became estranged but did not divorce until 1938.
![Man Ray, 1923, Bryher](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Man_Ray%2C_1923%2C_Bryher.jpg)
She began a relationship with the wealthy English novelist
Bryher
Bryher ( kw, Breyer "place of hills") is one of the smallest inhabited islands of the Isles of Scilly, with a population of 84 in 2011, spread across .
History
The name of the island is recorded as ''Brayer'' in 1336 and ''Brear'' in 1500.
Ge ...
(Annie Winifred Ellerman) after meeting in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
in July 1918 . Bryher was younger than H.D. by several years, a lesbian, and equally non-conformist.
Both women were unusually tall, a fact that made H.D. self-conscious, and they made for a striking couple at social occasions. They lived together on and off until 1950, and although both had numerous other partners, Bryher was H.D.'s lover for the rest of her life.
Bryher entered a
marriage of convenience
A marriage of convenience is a marriage contracted for reasons other than that of love and commitment. Instead, such a marriage is entered into for personal gain, or some other sort of strategic purpose, such as a political marriage. There are ...
with the American writer and publisher
Robert McAlmon
Robert Menzies McAlmon (also used Robert M. McAlmon, as his signature name, March 9, 1895 – February 2, 1956) was an American writer, poet, and publisher. In the 1920s, he founded in Paris the publishing house, Contact Editions, where he publ ...
, allowing him to use some of her wealth to fund his Paris-based Contact Press publishing house. In 1923, H.D. and Bryher traveled to Egypt for the
opening of Tutankhamun's tomb, before settling in Switzerland.
H.D.'s first book, ''Sea Garden'', was published in 1916. She wrote one of her few known statements on poetics, ''Notes on Thought and Vision'', in 1919, although it was not published until 1982. In it, she speaks of poets (including herself) as belonging to a kind of elite group of visionaries with the power to "turn the whole tide of human thought".
Poetry cycles, novels and psychoanalysis
Poetry and novella cycles are a feature of H.D.'s early 1920s writing. The first, "Magna Graeca", consists of the poems ''Palimpsest'' (1921) and ''Hedylus'' (1928), which use classical settings to explore the role of a poet, particularly a female's value in a patriarchal literary culture. The following cycles, "
HERmione
Hermione may refer to:
People
* Hermione (given name), a female given name
* Hermione (mythology), only daughter of Menelaus and Helen in Greek mythology and original bearer of the name
Arts and literature
* ''Cadmus et Hermione'', an opera by ...
", "Bid Me to Live", "Paint It Today", and "Asphodel" are largely autobiographical and preoccupied with the development of the female artist and the conflict between heterosexual and lesbian desire. The novellas ''Kora and Ka'' and ''The Usual Star'' from the ''Borderline'' cycle were published in 1933, followed by ''Pilate's Wife'', ''Mira-Mare'' and ''Nights''.
![H](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/H.D._in_1922.jpg)
Her mother died in 1927. Bryher divorced McAlmon that year to marry
Kenneth Macpherson
Kenneth Macpherson (27 March 1902 – 14 June 1971) was a Scottish-born novelist, photographer, critic, and film-maker, the son of Scottish painter John 'Pop' Macpherson and Clara Macpherson, and descended from six generations of artists. It i ...
, then H.D.'s male lover.
Bryher, Macpherson and H.D. lived and traveled together through Europe together in what the
New York School poet
Barbara Guest
Barbara Guest, ''née'' Barbara Ann Pinson (September 6, 1920 – February 15, 2006), was an American poet and prose stylist. Guest first gained recognition as a member of the first generation New York School of poetry. Guest wrote more than ...
termed a "menagerie of three".
Bryher adopted H.D.'s daughter, Perdita, while still married Macpherson: leading to the change of name to Perdita Macpherson.
Later, Bryher named Perdita as heir to her will.
They moved to the shores of
Lake Geneva
, image = Lake Geneva by Sentinel-2.jpg
, caption = Satellite image
, image_bathymetry =
, caption_bathymetry =
, location = Switzerland, France
, coords =
, lake_type = Glacial lak ...
where they lived in a
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
villa. H.D. became pregnant in 1928 and got an abortion.
In 1927, Bryher and Macpherson founded the monthly magazine, ''
Close Up
A close-up or closeup in filmmaking, television production, still photography, and the comic strip medium is a type of shot that tightly frames a person or object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium and long ...
'', as a venue for the discussion of cinema. That year the independent film cinema group POOL or
Pool Group
The Pool Group were a trio of filmmakers and poets consisting of Hilda Doolittle, Kenneth Macpherson and Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman). Their work has been studied by poetry and film historians as well as by scholars of mysticism, feminism and ...
was established (largely funded with Bryher's inheritance) and was managed by all three. In the 1930 POOL film ''
Borderline'', the actors were H.D. and Bryher and the couple
Paul
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
*Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...
and
Eslanda Robeson
Eslanda "Essie" Cardozo Goode Robeson (December 15, 1895 – December 13, 1965) was an American anthropologist, author, actress, and civil rights activist. She was the wife and business manager of performer Paul Robeson.
Biography
Early y ...
, the latter appearing as wife and husband. The film explores extreme psychic states, racism, and interracial relationships. H.D. wrote an explanatory pamphlet to accompany the film.
Although not published until 1960, in 1927 H.D. wrote the thinly disguised roman à clef ''Bid Me to Live.'' Some characters are recognizable as members of the wartime
Bloomsbury Group
The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was a group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists in the first half of the 20th century, including Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strac ...
, including Lawrence and his wife Frieda, Pound, and Captain
Jack White
John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...
—the Irish revolutionary drifter with whom H.D. herself appears caricatured in the Lawrence novel ''
Aaron's Rod
Aaron's rod refers to any of the walking sticks carried by Moses's brother, Aaron, in the Torah. The Bible tells how, along with Moses's rod, Aaron's rod was endowed with miraculous power during the Plagues of Egypt that preceded the Exodus. T ...
'' (1922).
H.D. began psychoanalysis in 1928 with the
Freudian
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
Hanns Sachs
Hanns Sachs (; 10 January 1881, in Vienna – 10 January 1947, in Boston) was one of the earliest psychoanalysts, and a close personal friend of Sigmund Freud. He became a member of Freud's Secret Committee of six in 1912, Freud describing him as ...
and traveled to Vienna in 1933 for analysis with
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
. She became interested in Freud's theories since 1909 after reading his works in the original German, and was referred by Bryher's psychoanalyst because of her apparent paranoia about the rise of Adolf Hitler. World War I had left her feeling shattered: she lost her brother in action; her father died in reaction to the loss of his son; her husband was traumatized by combat; and she believed that the shock at hearing of the sinking the
RMS ''Lusitania'' indirectly caused the miscarriage of her child. H.D. undertook two series of analysis with Freud (March to May 1933 and October to November 1934) and on his request wrote ''Bid me to Live'' (published 1960), in which she details her traumatic war experiences. ''Writing on the Wall'', an impressionistic memoir of the sessions and a reevaluation of the importance of his psychoanalysis, was written concurrently with ''Trilogy'' and published in 1944; in 1956 it was republished together with ''Advent'', a journal of the analysis, under the title ''Tribute to Freud''.
World War II and after
Hilda and Bryher spent World War II in London. While there, her daughter Perdita became a secretary of the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(OSS). Between 1941 and 1943 H.D. wrote ''The Gift'', a short memoir of her childhood in Bethlehem that details the people and events that shaped her. She began the ''Trilogy'' series in 1942, comprising three long, unrhyming, and complex volumes of poems: ''The Walls do not Fall'' (1944), ''Tribute to the Angels'' (1945) and ''The Flowering of the Rod'' (1946). H.D. wrote the first while living in London and details her reactions to
the Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
and World War II. The following two books compare the ruins of London to those of
ancient Egypt and
classical Greece
Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...
; the former of which she had seen during a 1923 visit. The opening lines of ''The Walls do not Fall'' clearly and immediately signal her break with her earlier work:
H.D.'s relationship with Bryher ended just after the war, although they remained in contact. She moved to Switzerland where she had a severe mental breakdown in the spring of 1946 and took refuge in a clinic until the autumn of that year. She lived in Switzerland for the rest of her life. In the late 1950s, she underwent further treatment with the psychoanalyst Erich Heydt, who supported her while she wrote ''End to Torment'', a memoir of her relationship with Pound.
Later work and death
H.D.'s later work drew heavily from her eclectic blend of
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, Ancient
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Egyptian
Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt.
Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to:
Nations and ethnic groups
* Egyptians, a national group in North Africa
** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...
religion,
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...
,
Hermeticism
Hermeticism, or Hermetism, is a philosophical system that is primarily based on the purported teachings of Hermes Trismegistus (a legendary Hellenistic combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). These teachings are containe ...
,
Martinism
Martinism is a form of Christian mysticism and esoteric Christianity concerned with the fall of the first man, his state of material privation from his divine source, and the process of his return, called 'Reintegration'.
As a mystical traditio ...
and
Cabala via the works of
Robert Ambelain
Robert Ambelain (2 September 1907 – 27 May 1997) was a French essayist. He was involved in the esoteric Masonic Martinist movement and claimed to have revived the Primitive Scottish Rite.
He has written several works, such as ''The Maso ...
,
alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
,
tarot
The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, ...
,
astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...
, and Freudian psychoanalysis. She used the medium of the
long poem
The long poem is a literary genre including all poetry of considerable length. Though the definition of a long poem is vague and broad and unnecessary, the genre includes some of the most important poetry ever written.
With more than 220,000 (10 ...
to explore and communicate this mix of spiritualities.
H.D. wrote her longest poem, ''Helen in Egypt'', between 1952 and 1955 when she was in her 60s. However, it was not published until just before her death in 1961. It is based
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...
' trilogy drama ''
Helen
Helen may refer to:
People
* Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world
* Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress
* Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Helen, ...
'', but imagines
Helen of Troy
Helen of Troy, Helen, Helena, (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη ''Helénē'', ) also known as beautiful Helen, Helen of Argos, or Helen of Sparta, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believe ...
's life after
the fall of Troy
The Fall of Troy is an American rock band from Mukilteo, Washington. The band is a trio consisting of Thomas Erak (guitars, vocals, keyboards), Andrew Forsman (drums, percussion) and Tim Ward (bass, screamed vocals) who was later replaced by Fr ...
and her relocation to Egypt. The poem reconstructs the source material into a feminist reinterpretation, and has thus been described as "exploring ...
ut... concluding" the themes as her earlier work. ''Helen in Egypt''s long form and wide historical span has been seen as a response to Pound's ''
Cantos
''The Cantos'' by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a ''canto''. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date ...
'', which she admired. In ''End to Torment'' she approved of
Norman Holmes Pearson
Norman Holmes Pearson (April 13, 1909 – November 5, 1975) was an American academic at Yale University, and a prominent counterintelligence agent during World War II. As a specialist on American literature and department chairman at Yale Univer ...
's labeling of ''Helen in Egypt'' as "her 'cantos.
A compilation of her late poems were published posthumously in 1972 under the title ''Hermetic Definition''. The book takes as its starting points her love for a man 30 years her junior and the line "so slow is the rose to open" from Pound's ''Canto 106''. "Sagesse", which she wrote in bed having broken her hip in a fall, serves as a
coda
Coda or CODA may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
* ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television
*''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
to ''Trilogy'', being partly written in the voice of a young female Blitz survivor who finds herself living in fear of the
atom bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
. "Winter Love" was written during the same period as ''End to Torment'' and uses as narrator the
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
ic figure of
Penelope
Penelope ( ; Ancient Greek: Πηνελόπεια, ''Pēnelópeia'', or el, Πηνελόπη, ''Pēnelópē'') is a character in Homer's ''Odyssey.'' She was the queen of Ithaca and was the daughter of Spartan king Icarius and naiad Periboea. Pe ...
to restate the material of the memoir in poetic form. At one time, H.D. considered appending this poem as a coda to ''Helen in Egypt.''
She returned to the U.S. in 1960 to collect the Award of Merit Medal from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
, becoming the first woman to be granted the award for poetry.
H.D was left gravely ill after a
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
in July 1961 and was taken to the
Klinik Hirslanden in
Zürich
Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
, where she died on September 27. She was survived by Bryher and her daughter Perdita.
Her ashes were brought to Bethlehem, where they were buried in the family plot in the Nisky Hill Cemetery on October 28, 1961. Her headstone is inscribed with lines from her early poem "Epitaph":
Appraisal
During her career, H.D. wrote a large number of works in a variety of styles and formats. They evolved from lyrics written in the 1910s (such as ''Sea Garden''), through her early period Imagist poems and free verse, to her complex long poems ''Trilogy'' (1944), ''Helen in Egypt'' (1955), ''Vale Ave'' (1957), and the 1971 collection ''Hermetic Definition'', consisting of the title poem (1961), "Sagesse" (1957), and "Winter Love" (1959). However, during her lifetime, the later poems, novels and numerous translations of classical works were rarely studied or taught, and only her early poems (especially "Oread" and "Heat") appeared in anthologies. For decades, her reputation was as an Imagist who peaked in the 1920s; a consignment the literary critic Susan Friedman believes placed H.D. as "a captive and in prison". In 1972,
Hugh Kenner
William Hugh Kenner (January 7, 1923 – November 24, 2003) was a Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor. He published widely on Modernist literature with particular emphasis on James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Samuel Beckett. His major ...
wrote that assigning her as just an Imagist poet was similar to evaluating "five of the shortest pieces in ''
Harmonium
The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
''
s equal tothe life's work of
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...
". Although Pound claimed in the 1930s that he formed the Imagist movement "to launch H.D. and Aldington before either had enough stuff for a volume", many the of foundational poets within the group, including
Amy Lowell
Amy Lawrence Lowell (February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925) was an American poet of the imagist school, which promoted a return to classical values. She posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1926.
Life
Amy Lowell was born on Febru ...
, viewed H.D. as the main focal point and innovator in achieving the group's "revolution in taste".
H.D. was aware early on that both the strictures of Imagism and Pound's controlling temperament would constrain her creative voice, and by the mid-1920s her work had developed beyond Imagism. In 1990, the feminist scholar Gertrude Reif Hughes described her as "physically fragile-looking in a traditionally feminine way". H.D. understood the danger of objectification, particularly as the only woman in a group of men in her circle. She worried about being perceived merely as their private muse, which she feared affected her public image and standing as a poet and prominent intellectual in her own right. Female objectification is explored in "HER", where she writes of "a classic dilemma for woman: the necessity to choose between being a muse to another or being an artist oneself". Although Pound was a lifelong champion, a number of other early Imagists, including Aldington and Lawrence, attempted to diminish her importance and consign her to a minor role. Similarly, while her mid-period poems and writings explore
mysticism
Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute, but may refer to any kind of ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or spiritual meaning. It may also refer to the attainment of insight in u ...
,
esotericism
Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...
and the
occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
, in a similar manner to poets such as
W.B. Yeats (with whom she was personally acquainted), H.D. was rarely read before the 1970s.
Although the critic Linda Wagner wrote in 1969 that one of the "ironies of contemporary literature
sthat H.D. is remembered chiefly for her Imagist work given that few contemporary writers have written so much in their maturity"; her reappraisal only began in the 1970s and 1980s. This coincided with the emergence of feminist interest in her work, followed by
queer studies
Queer studies, sexual diversity studies, or LGBT studies is the education of topics relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, gender dysphoria, asexual, queer, questioning, inte ...
scholars. Specifically, critics such as Friedman (1981), Janice Robertson (1982) and Rachel DuPlessis (1986) began to challenge the standard view of English-language literary
modernism
Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
as based on only the work of male writers, and gradually restored H.D. to a more significant position in the movement. In 1990, Hughes wrote that H.D. mid-century poems, like those of
Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (June 7, 1917 – December 3, 2000) was an American poet, author, and teacher. Her work often dealt with the personal celebrations and struggles of ordinary people in her community. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetr ...
, anticipate
second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains.
Wh ...
, and explore issues raised in
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir (, ; ; 9 January 1908 – 14 April 1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. Though she did not consider herself a philosopher, and even th ...
's 1949 book ''
The Second Sex
''The Second Sex'' (french: Le Deuxième Sexe, link=no) is a 1949 book by the French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, in which the author discusses the treatment of women in the present society as well as throughout all of history ...
''. According to Hughes, H.D.'s work challenges patriarchal privilege and seeks to "revise the mentalities that sponsor them". She notes in particular how in ''Helen in Egypt'', H.D. positions Helen as "the protagonist, instead of the pawn", in such a way as to counter the "conservative and often misogynistic" tendencies which Hughes finds in the modernism of Pound and
T. S. Eliot.
Legacy
H.D.'s writings have served as a model for a number of more recent female poets working in the modernist and
post-modernist
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
traditions, including Barbara Guest, the
Black Mountain poet
Hilda Morley
Hilda Morley (September 19, 1916 – March 23, 1998) was an American poet associated with the Black Mountain movement.
Biography
She was born Hilda Auerbach in New York City to Russian parents. Her father, Rachmiel Auerbach, was a doctor, and ...
and the ''
Language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...
'' poet
Susan Howe
Susan Howe (born June 10, 1937) is an American poet, scholar, essayist, and critic, who has been closely associated with the Language poets, among other poetry movements. . The
Anglo-American
Anglo-Americans are people who are English-speaking inhabitants of Anglo-America. It typically refers to the nations and ethnic groups in the Americas that speak English as a native language, making up the majority of people in the world who spe ...
poet
Denise Levertov
Priscilla Denise Levertov (24 October 1923 – 20 December 1997) was a British-born naturalised American poet. She was a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry.
Early life and influences
Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Ess ...
wrote of her deep appreciation for H.D., particularly for her long poems on mystical themes, writing that H.D. "showed the way to penetrate mystery,
..to ''enter into'' darkness, mystery, so that it is experienced". Her influence is not limited to female poets; many male writers and poets, including
Robert Duncan, have acknowledged their debt. Duncan placed H.D. at the center of his lengthy study of modernist poetry in general, titled ''The H.D. Book'', and frequently lectured on her work. The Dutch poet
H.C. ten Berge wrote his 2008 "Het vertrapte mysterie" ("The Trampled Mystery") in memory of H.D.
Passages from ''Trilogy'' were widely shared across
electronic discussion lists in the days following the
September 11th attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
.
During World War II, her daughter Perdita was involved in breaking codes at
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
and later worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA). In the OSS, she served with
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
and
James Angleton
James Jesus Angleton (December 9, 1917 – May 11, 1987) was chief of counterintelligence for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1954 to 1974. His official position within the organization was Associate Deputy Director of Operations for ...
. H.D.'s grandchildren include the author and
Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...
biographer
Nicholas Schaffner
Nicholas Schaffner (January 28, 1953 – August 28, 1991) was an American non-fiction author, journalist, and singer-songwriter.
Biography
Schaffner was born in Manhattan to John V. Schaffner (1913–1983), a literary agent whose clients includ ...
.
Works
Works are listed by date of composition, where known.
Poetry
Plays
Both texts are loose verse translations of Greek dramas by
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian
Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...
.
* ''
Hippolytus Temporizes: A Play in Three Acts'' (1927)
* ''
Ion
An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge.
The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...
'' (1937)
Prose
H.D.'s fictional and nonfictional prose writings are difficult to distinguish with much certainty. Her novels and short stories are often ''romans-a-clef'', and her memoirs and essays are often experimental.
Fiction
Nonfiction
Notes
Sources
*
**
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* fkeel
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External links
*
H.D. Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Archival resourceso
ArchiveGrid
*
*
H.D. at ''Modern American Poetry''
{{DEFAULTSORT:H.D.
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