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.

Legacy

The rediscovery of H.D.'s work from the 1970s onward coincided with, and was assisted by, the emergence of a feminist criticism that found much to admire in the questioning of gender roles that is so typical of her writings. Specifically, those critics who were working to challenge the standard view of English-language literary modernism, based on the work of such male writers as Pound, Eliot and James Joyce, were able to restore H.D. to a more significant position in the history of that movement.

Related Topics:
1970s - Feminist - James Joyce

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Her writings also have served as a model for a number of more recent women poets working in the modernist tradition. Examples include the New York School poet Barbara Guest, the Anglo-American poet Denise Levertov and the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poet Susan Howe. Her influence is not limited to women poets. Many male writers, including Robert Duncan and Robert Creeley, have acknowledged their debt to her.

Related Topics:
New York School - Anglo-American - Denise Levertov - L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E - Susan Howe - Robert Duncan - Robert Creeley

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