Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
H. D.
-
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.
In the spring of 1920, Bryher and H. D.
began an extended holiday in Greece and Crete. They were accompanied by sexologist Havelock Ellis
, with whom they had first associated in 1918.
Collecott, Diana. H.D. and Sapphic Modernism, 1910-1950. Cambridge University Press, http://Rutherford HSS.
67, 186, 283
Performance of text
Bryher
The POOL
collective produced four silent films, the best-known and most ambitious of which is Borderline (1930). Presenting a seemingly disjointed, obscure mix of racial and sexual conflicts, Borderline shows the influences of Pabst
,...
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.
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.