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.

World War I and after

H.D married Aldington in 1913. Their first and only child, a daughter, died at birth in 1915. Shortly after this, Aldington went to serve in the war, and H.D. became involved in a close but platonic relationship with D.H. Lawrence. In 1916, her first book, Sea Garden, appeared and she became assistant editor of The Egoist, taking over from her husband. In 1918, her brother Gilbert was killed in action. Aldington and she became estranged after he took a mistress and H.D. moved in with a friend of Lawrence's, named Cecil Gray, and became pregnant with his child. When Aldington returned from active service, he and H.D. formally separated.

Related Topics:
1915 - War - D.H. Lawrence - 1916 - 1918

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Also in 1918, H.D. met Bryher, who was to become and remain her companion for the rest of her life. They lived together until 1946. In 1919, H.D.'s daughter Frances Perdita Aldington was born, after H.D. had survived a serious bout of influenza, and her father, who had never recovered from Gilbert's death, died himself. At this time, H.D. wrote one of her very few known statements on poetics, Notes on Thought and Vision (published in 1982). In this, she speaks of poets (herself included) as belonging to a kind of elite group of visionaries with the power to 'turn the whole tide of human thought'.

Related Topics:
Bryher - 1946 - 1919 - Influenza - Poetics - 1982

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H.D. and Aldington attempted to salvage their relationship, but he was suffering from the effects of his participation in the war. From 1920, her relationship with Bryher became closer and the pair travelled in Egypt, Greece and the United States before eventually settling in Switzerland. In 1921, Bryher contracted a marriage of convenience with Robert McAlmon, which enabled him to fund his publishing ventures in Paris by using some of her personal wealth for his Contact Press.

Related Topics:
1920 - Egypt - Greece - Switzerland - 1921 - Robert McAlmon - Paris

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