H.D.

Hilda Doolittle (September 10, 1886, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania – September 27, 1961, Zürich), prominently known only by her initials H.D., was an American poet, novelist and memoirist. She is best known for her association with the key early 20th-century avant-garde Imagist group of poets, although her later writing represents a move away from the Imagist model and towards a distinctly feminine version of modernist poetry and prose.

Early life and work

Hilda Doolittle was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Her father, Charles Doolittle, was professor of astronomy at Lehigh University and her mother, Helen (Wolle), was a Moravian with a strong interest in music. In 1895, Charles Doolittle was appointed Flower Professor of Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, and the family moved to a house in Upper Darby, an affluent Philadelphia suburb.

Related Topics:
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania - Astronomy - Lehigh University - Moravian - Music - 1895 - University of Pennsylvania - Upper Darby - Philadelphia

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Doolittle attended Philadelphia's (Society of) Friends Central High School, located at Fifteenth and Race streets, graduating in 1903. A year earlier, she met and befriended Ezra Pound, who was to play a major role both in her private life and her emergence as a writer. In 1905, he presented her with a sheaf of love poems with the collective title Hilda's Book.

Related Topics:
(Society of) Friends - 1903 - Ezra Pound - 1905

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That same year, Doolittle attended Bryn Mawr College to study Greek literature, but she left after three terms because of bad grades and poor health. While at the college, she met the poets Marianne Moore and William Carlos Williams. Her first published writings, some stories for children, were published in a local church paper between 1909 and 1913, mostly under the name Edith Gray. In 1907, she engaged Pound. Her father disapproved of Pound, and by the time her father left for Europe in 1908, the engagement had been called off. Around this time, Doolittle entered into a relationship with a young art student named Frances Josepha Gregg. After spending part of 1910 living in New York City's Greenwich Village, she sailed to Europe with Gregg and Gregg's mother in 1911.

Related Topics:
Bryn Mawr College - Greek literature - Marianne Moore - William Carlos Williams - 1909 - 1913 - 1907 - Europe - 1908 - 1910 - New York City - Greenwich Village - 1911

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