H. D.

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Standard Name: H. D.
Used Form: Hilda Doolittle
Birth Name: Hilda Doolittle
Married Name: Hilda Aldington
Self-constructed Name: H. D.
Pseudonym: John Helforth
Pseudonym: Edith Gray
Pseudonym: Helga Dorn
Pseudonym: J. Beran
Pseudonym: Rhoda Peter
Pseudonym: Helga Dart
Pseudonym: Delia Alton
Nickname: Dryad
Nickname: Dooley
Nickname: Astraea
HD, born American, who took British nationality after a marriage which lasted longer on paper than in practice, was a key figure in the international Imagist movement of the early twentieth century and in modernism more broadly: both through her own poetry and through her editing and dissemination of the work of others. As well as her imagistic pieces, she wrote complex longer poems (most published during her lifetime), translation, essays, reviews, outlines for films, and autobiographical novels which are, like most of her work, explorations of the self. Here she writes à clef of her own past, but also builds a web of mythical and psycho-analytical reference which makes her texts dense as well as rewarding. She is an explorer of the female psyche, and of the relation of gender to creativity and of myth to psychoanalysis.

Connections

Connections Author name Sort descending Excerpt
Friends, Associates Phyllis Bottome
When PB and Lislie spent the winter in Rome, Ezra Pound introduced Bottome to H. D. .
Bottome, Phyllis. The Challenge. Harcourt, Brace and Company.
384
Travel Bryher
In September 1920, Bryher's desire to meet American poets and see the liberating New World took her, H. D. , and H. D.'s daughter to the United States. Bryher met H. D.'s associate Marianne Moore
Textual Production Bryher
Desmond MacCarthy had launched Life and Letters in June 1928; it issued its last number this month, and Bryher's new publication first appeared in September. It merged it with the London Mercury after May 1939...
Family and Intimate relationships Bryher
Following Amy Lowell 's suggestion, Bryher read and was profoundly impressed by H. D. 's poetry collection Sea Garden, 1916. In July, Bryher wrote H. D. an appreciative letter that prompted their first meeting.
Bryher,. The Heart to Artemis: A Writer’s Memoirs. Collins.
187-8
Hanscombe, Gillian, and Virginia L. Smyers. Writing for Their Lives: The Modernist Women, 1910-1940. Women’s Press.
35
Cultural formation Bryher
Bryher writes that besides cross-dressing, other favourite topics of discussion between herself and Ellis included birth control, which she argued was far more important to women than votes.
Bryher,. The Heart to Artemis: A Writer’s Memoirs. Collins.
197
By this time she had read...
Residence Bryher
Bryher and H. D. , along with H. D.'s daughter Perdita , took the Riant Chateau, a pension in Territet, Switzerland, as their primary residence.
Hanscombe, Gillian, and Virginia L. Smyers. Writing for Their Lives: The Modernist Women, 1910-1940. Women’s Press.
41
Robinson, Janice S. H.D.: The Life and Work of an American Poet. Houghton Mifflin.
265
Family and Intimate relationships Bryher
At the start of their platonic marriage, Macpherson lived with Bryher, H. D. , and H. D.'s daughter Perdita , at Territet. H. D. and Macpherson had been lovers since 1926.
Quartermain, Peter, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 45. Gale Research.
132
Perdita Schaffner...
Travel Bryher
Bryher and H. D. holidayed on the Isles of Scilly off Cornwall, where each came to a significant understanding about her respective writing.
Quartermain, Peter, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 45. Gale Research.
128
Occupation Bryher
In July 1927 Bryher and Macpherson founded Close Up magazine, dedicated to avant-garde film theories and practices.
Hanscombe, Gillian, and Virginia L. Smyers. Writing for Their Lives: The Modernist Women, 1910-1940. Women’s Press.
276
Both as editor and contributor, Bryher used Close Up as a forum to develop and share her...
Friends, Associates Bryher
Bryher and sexologist Havelock Ellis began a twenty-year association. This was encouraged by H. D. , who knew of their mutual interest in depictions of cross-dressing women in Elizabethan drama.
Collecott, Diana. H.D. and Sapphic Modernism, 1910-1950. Cambridge University Press, http://Rutherford HSS.
67 and n68
Bryher,. The Heart to Artemis: A Writer’s Memoirs. Collins.
287
politics Bryher
H. D. , Edith Sitwell , Vita Sackville-West , Dorothy Wellesley , T. S. Eliot , and Walter de la Mare were among the readers at this event, which also received royal patronage.
Collecott, Diana. H.D. and Sapphic Modernism, 1910-1950. Cambridge University Press, http://Rutherford HSS.
235 and n45
Family and Intimate relationships Bryher
Following H. D. 's request, Bryher and Kenneth Macpherson adopted H. D. 's daughter Perdita (later Schaffner) .
Aldington, Richard, and H. D. “Introduction and Commentary”. Richard Aldington and H.D.: The Later Years in Letters, edited by Caroline Zilboorg, Manchester University Press, pp. 1 - 14; various pages.
2: 18
Friends, Associates Bryher
The same year Bryher provided emotional and financial support for H. D. when the latter suffered a breakdown and entered a Swiss clinic.
Quartermain, Peter, editor. Dictionary of Literary Biography 45. Gale Research.
138
After this, though their lives remained closely linked, Bryher lived largely alone.
Residence Bryher
Inspired by the Bauhaus aesthetic of Berlin, Bryher built Kenwin, her home near Montreux in the Vaud canton, Switzerland. She shared it for a time with Kenneth Macpherson , H. D. , and H. D.'s daughter Perdita .
Hanscombe, Gillian, and Virginia L. Smyers. Writing for Their Lives: The Modernist Women, 1910-1940. Women’s Press.
44
Bryher,. The Heart to Artemis: A Writer’s Memoirs. Collins.
259
Literary responses Bryher
After reading the highly enthusiastic pamphlet, Lowell sent an appreciative message to Bryher, but expressed some (ultimately unfounded) concern about it in another letter to H. D. : the girl has insight and a good...

Timeline

July 1927: Close up. Devoted to the Art of Film began...

Writing climate item

July 1927

Close up. Devoted to the Art of Film began monthly publication in Territet near Montreux, Switzerland.

Early 1936: The Faber Book of Modern Verse, edited by...

Writing climate item

Early 1936

The Faber Book of Modern Verse, edited by Michael Roberts (who was put forward for this task by T. S. Eliot ), set out to define the modern movement, not just chronologically but according...

Texts

H. D.,. Asphodel. Editor Spoo, Robert, Duke University Press, 1992.
H. D.,. Bid Me to Live. Grove, 1960.
H. D.,. By Avon River. Macmillan, 1949.
H. D., and Ezra Pound. End to Torment. Editors Pearson, Norman Holmes and Michael King, New Directions, 1979.
H. D.,. Hedylus. Basil Blackwell, 1928.
H. D.,. Helen in Egypt. Grove, 1961.
H. D.,. Heliodora, and Other Poems. Jonathan Cape, 1924.
H. D.,. Hermetic Definition. New Directions, 1972.
H. D.,. HERmione. New Directions, 1981.
H. D.,. Hymen. Egoist, 1921.
Aldington, Richard, and H. D. “Introduction and Commentary”. Richard Aldington and H.D.: The Early Years in Letters, edited by Caroline Zilboorg, Indiana University Press, 1992, p. Various pages.
Aldington, Richard, and H. D. “Introduction and Commentary”. Richard Aldington and H.D.: The Later Years in Letters, edited by Caroline Zilboorg, Manchester University Press, 1995, pp. 1 - 14; various pages.
H. D.,. Notes on Thought and Vision. City Lights Books, 1983.
H. D.,. Paint It Today. Editor Laity, Cassandra, New York University Press, 1992.
H. D.,. Palimpsest. Contact Editions, 1926.
H. D.,. “Review of The Farmer’s Bride by Charlotte Mew”. The Egoist, Vol.
3
, No. 9, p. 135.
H. D.,. Sea Garden. Constable, 1916.
H. D.,. The Flowering of the Rod. Oxford University Press, 1946.
H. D.,. The Gift. New Directions, 1982.
H. D.,. The Walls Do Not Fall. Oxford University Press, 1944.
H. D.,. Tribute To Freud. Pantheon, 1956.
H. D.,. Tribute to the Angels. Oxford University Press, 1945.