The Pool Group were a trio of filmmakers and poets consisting of Hilda Doolittle,

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 ...

and

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). Their work has been studied by

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

and film historians as well as by scholars of

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 ...

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

and

psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might b ...

. The group produced four films of which Borderline is perhaps its best known, featuring the

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

activist and entertainer

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplish ...

in the lead role. They also published a progressive and opinionated film journal called ''Close Up''. The Pool Group were virtually forgotten for more than half a century after they broke up in the mid-1930s until the early 1980s when they were rediscovered by historians of 20th century arts and cinema.Marlowe, Albert.

. ''The Rediscovery of Pool''. Retrieved on February 14, 2009.

Members and formation

The Pool Group was launched in 1927, from Riant Chateau,

Territet Territet (Montreux) is a locality which is part of the Montreux commune, in the Vaud canton, Switzerland. Geography Territet is located between the city center of Montreux and the village of Veytaux, within the municipality of Montreux, on t ...

, Switzerland and consisted of Bryher, Kenneth Macpherson and Hilda Doolittle (better known by her initials, H.D.). Macpherson designed the Pool Group’s logo, which served as the cover of its catalog, showing concentric ripples in water.

Bryher

Bryher's father was the shipowner and financier John Ellerman, who left her a very large inheritance. It was Bryher who took care of the finances of the group. Bryher knew from an early age that she was lesbian. Her wealth enabled her to give financial support to struggling writers, including Joyce and

Edith Sitwell Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell (7 September 1887 – 9 December 1964) was a British poet and critic and the eldest of the three literary Sitwells. She reacted badly to her eccentric, unloving parents and lived much of her life with her governess ...

. She also helped with finance for the Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company (founded by Sylvia Beach) and certain publishing ventures. She also helped provide funds to purchase a flat in Paris for struggling artist Baroness

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven Elsa Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven (née Else Hildegard Plötz; (12 July 1874 – 14 December 1927) was a German-born avant-garde visual artist and poet, who was active in Greenwich Village, New York, from 1913 to 1923, where her radical self ...

H.D.

H.D. (1886–1961) was born Hilda Doolittle in Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of a professor of astronomy and a musically-inclined mother. While still a school-girl she met Ezra Pound, who encouraged her writing and, in 1913, proposed that she adopt the pseudonym H.D. as a pseudonym under which to publish her first poems in

Poetry Magazine ''Poetry'' (founded as ''Poetry: A Magazine of Verse'') has been published in Chicago since 1912. It is one of the leading monthly poetry journals in the English-speaking world. Founded by Harriet Monroe, it is now published by the Poetry Foundati ...

. At the same time as the problematic relationship with Pound (they were twice engaged) H.D. was carrying on a love affair with a Pennsylvania woman art student, Frances Josepha Gregg. In 1919 H.D. had a daughter, Perdita, by the Scottish composer and music critic Cecil Gray (1895–1951). It was while she was pregnant that she formed an alliance with Bryher which was to last until H.D.’s death in 1961. The relationship was an

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' ( ...

one, with both taking other partners. In 1921 Bryher entered into a marriage of convenience with the American author

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 ...

, whom she divorced in 1927. In 1928, H.D. became pregnant by Kenneth Macpherson, but the pregnancy was terminated later the same year. The complexities of H.D.'s relationships led her to consult the pioneer sexologist

Havelock Ellis Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality i ...

and to develop a deep interest in psychoanalysis: in the 1930s, she was to be analyzed by Freud, and her interest deeply marked her poems and other writings.

Kenneth Macpherson

In 1927, Bryher married Kenneth Macpherson, a writer who shared her interest in film and who was at the same time H.D.'s lover. Macpherson, was a young Scottish painter with a passion for film. H.D. seems to have fallen in love with him though Macpherson was evidently exclusively homosexual. In Burier, Switzerland, overlooking Lake Geneva, the couple, along with Doolittle, built a Bauhaus-style structure that doubled as a home and film studio, which they named Kenwin.

and Macpherson also formally adopted H.D.'s young daughter, Perdita, whose name they officially registered as Frances Perdita Macpherson.

Close Up

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 ...

was the Pool Group's main literary output, in the form of a monthly journal. The first issue of

appeared in July 1927, with Macpherson as editor, Bryher as assistant editor, and H.D. and

Oswell Blakeston Oswell Blakeston was the pseudonym of Henry Joseph Hasslacher (1907–1985), a British writer and artist who also worked in the film industry, made some experimental films, and wrote extensively on film theory. He was also a poet and wrote in non-f ...

as regular contributors. The first issue announced that next month’s contributors would be

Osbert Sitwell Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet CH CBE (6 December 1892 – 4 May 1969) was an English writer. His elder sister was Edith Sitwell and his younger brother was Sacheverell Sitwell. Like them, he devoted his life to art and ...

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism ...

, Dorothy Richardson and Doolittle. As symbol of the group’s aims, this was explained in their 1929 catalog of publications:

Publications

Other publications included books on film to novels and a German-teaching text by Bryher and Trude Weiss called “The Light-hearted Student”, exemplifying Bryher’s idiosyncratic teaching methods. The Pool-books were: Kenneth MacPherson, ''Pool Reflection'' (spring 1927); F. L. Black, the pseudonym of Bryher's younger brother John Ellerman Jr.: ''Why Do They Like It?'', with a foreword by Dorothy Richardson (spring 1927), on British public schools; Bryher: ''Civilians'' (fall 1927), on World War I; MacPherson's novel ''Gaunt Island'' (fall 1927); Oswell Blakeston: ''Through a Yellow Glass'' (1928), a ''complete guide to the cinema Studio''; Eric Elliot: ''Anatomy of a Motion Picture Art'' (1929), history of cinematography; Bryher: ''Film Problems of Soviet Russia''; Oswell Blakeston's novel: ''Extra Passenger'' (1930); Hanns Sachs: ''Does Capital Punishment Exist?'' (a pamphlet). Bryher's analyst from 1928 to 1932, Hanns Sachs (1881–1947) was one of the seven members of Freud's inner circle.

Oswell Blakeston

Most of the books were by the members of the group which had been expanded by the addition of

(né Henry Joseph Hasslacher, 1907–1985) who had started his working life in the cutting rooms at Gaumont British. A contemporary of David Lean, at around 20, Blakeston became a protégé of Macpherson and went on to a long career as writer and critic.

POOL film-making

Pool heartily approved much avant-garde work, and had an early enthusiasm for independent and private film-making. Their principal loyalties however were to German cinema, and particularly

G.W. Pabst Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967) was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He started as an actor and theater director, before becoming one of the most influential German-language filmmakers during the Weimar Republic. ...

, and to Soviet cinema, outstandingly Eisenstein. While dismissing the greater part of British and American film-making as "trash", they also recognized Hollywood’s capacity for better things, hailing films like ''

Greed Greed (or avarice) is an uncontrolled longing for increase in the acquisition or use of material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as status, or power. Greed has been identified as und ...

'' and ''The Big Parade'' as masterpieces. The only extant film still available is '' Borderline'' (1930); fragments survive of ''Wing Beat'' (1927) and ''Foothills'' (1929). (H.D. was in all three, and Bryher was in ''Borderline''.) 16mm fragments of ''Wing Beat'', ''Foothills'', and "Macpherson material," and the complete film, '' Borderline'', can be viewed at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

Film Study Center in New York City.

Opinions on contemporary cinema

Kenneth Macpherson wrote of his views on world cinema in an editorial from the first issue of ''Close Up'' that encompassed many of the Pool Group's views,

''Borderline''

The film '' Borderline'' centers on an interracial love triangle. The main narrative is concerned with racism and is illustrated without any attempt to take a moral standpoint. The film concentrated on the inner psychology of the characters, using a form of montage which had the effect of superimposition. Where the film was not banned by censorship authorities it was unenthusiastically received by the critics, and disappeared for many years. A pristine print exists however in the Swiss Film Archive, which has recently issued it in DVD form, together with Véronique Goel’s documentary Kenwin, about the house which

and Macpherson built at La Tour-de-Peilz. As well as acting in this film, H.D. with Kenneth Macpherson, wrote an explanatory pamphlet to accompany it and to distribute to the audience, a piece later published in ''Close Up''.

is the only professional actor in the film and his desire to connect to a like-minded set of individuals in Europe allegedly led him to play the role of Pete for no fee.

''Borderline'' plot and analysis

The story revolves around a guesthouse run by a set of liberal, hedonistic young people sympathetic to the emerging black American culture. In what would have been completely frowned upon at the time, the manageress played by Bryher has given a room to Pete (Paul Robeson) and his light-skinned black wife Adah, played by Robeson’s real wife at the time Eslanda Robeson. Adah though is having an affair with a white man Thorne (

Gavin Arthur Chester Alan "Gavin" Arthur III (March 21, 1901 – April 28, 1972) was an American astrologer and sexologist. He was the grandson of Chester A. Arthur, the twenty-first president of the United States. He received his early education from Co ...

), who is also involved with Astrid (played by the poet Hilda Doolittle aka HD). When Adah leaves Thorne to be with her husband Pete, Thorne is distraught and race becomes an issue. Increasingly Pete becomes the scapegoat for the heartache and conflict that follows between Thorne and Adah. When Thorne “accidentally” murders Astrid, the “liberal” Guest House is forced by the authorities to kick Pete out: “That’s what we’re like,” admits the sympathetic Manageress resignedly. To an extent, Robeson’s character could be seen as reductionist in terms of identity as he tends to be photographed in natural surroundings: sometimes with clouds and the sea as backdrops – the location set in a Swiss Alps border town is important in this respect. Likewise Pete’s behavior is stoical even in the most threatening situations. Yet on the other hand this portrays the reality of culture in this period, and besides Pete also is the character that comes out of the situation with the most dignity even when he is asked to leave town.

Disbandment of POOL and legacy

ceased publication in 1933, and Macpherson departed from the group. In the United States during the 1940s, he lived with

Peggy Guggenheim Marguerite "Peggy" Guggenheim ( ; August 26, 1898 – December 23, 1979) was an American art collector, bohemian and socialite. Born to the wealthy New York City Guggenheim family, she was the daughter of Benjamin Guggenheim, who went down wi ...

, and produced Hans Richter's '' Dreams That Money Can Buy'' (1944). During the Second World War, Bryher devoted her money and energies to helping refugees from Nazi Germany, and Kenwin became an important staging post on the flight. During the 1950s, H.D. wrote a considerable amount of poetry, most notably Helen in Egypt (written between 1952–54), a feminist deconstruction of epic poetry which uses Euripides's play Helen as a starting point for a reinterpretation of the basis of the Trojan War and, by extension, of war itself.Twitchell-Waas, Jeffrey.
Seaward: H.D.'s 'Helen in Egypt' as a response to Pound's 'Cantos'
. ''Twentieth Century Literature'', Winter, 1998. Retrieved on October 7, 2007. Bryher’s friendship with H.D. lasted to the end of their lives. H.D. spent her last years of failing health in a Swiss clinic. She died on September 27, 1961, in Zürich. Her daughter Perdita moved to the United States where she raised a family, all of whom became writers. Perdita died in 2001.

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control British artist groups and collectives