Richard Aldington (1892 - 1962)

Portrait of Richard Aldington by Man Ray. Courtesy Imagists.org British Imagist poet, critic, biographer, and novelist Richard Aldington was noted for his scathing indictment of modern society's moral hypocrisies, and also for his marriage to American poet Hilda Doolittle, who carried on a long lesbian relationship with "Bryher," aka Annie Winifred Ellerman, apparently with his full knowledge and consent.   Aldington's collection of verse, The Love of Myrrhine and Konalis, is about a pair of lesbian lovers. Aldington himself carried on numerous affairs with women while married to HD, and the one child produced from their marriage was not his.   Indeed, some accounts indicate that theirs was a largely loveless union, and Doolittle's relationship with Bryher began as a remedy to this situation. Aldington wrote numerous works of varying quality and value, including Death of a Hero (1929), The Colonel's Daughter (1931), and the poem A Dream in Luxembourg (1930).   Divorcing Hilda in 1938, he went on to write the autobiographical Life for Life's Sake (1941) and Lawrence of Arabia (1955), a largely unfavorable biography of T.E. Lawrence which formed part of the basis for the 1962 film of the same name. Links: A brief biography and poetry sample Aldington, Richard - Prelude Aldington, Richard - Poet, Novelist, Literary Scholar Aldington, Richard - Twentieth Century Literature Richard Aldington - encyclopedia article from Britannica.com Counter-Attack : Biography of Richard Aldington by Michele Fry KeywordTitleAuthor