Hilda Doolittle (1886 - 1961)

American poet, novelist, playwright, translator, and self-described "pagan mystic," born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She attended Bryn Mawr College, where she became friends with Marianne Moore and Ezra Pound.   Leaving college due to illness in 1906, she left for Europe in 1911 for a holiday and ended up becoming a permanent resident, living mainly in England and Switzerland.   Ezra Pound had preceded her to England and forwarded some of her poems, "Hermes of the Way," "Orchid," and "Epigram," to Poetry magazine, which accepted and published them in 1913.   The poems had been written under the initials, "H.D.," and these became her permanent pen name.  That same year, she married Richard Aldington,  to whom she had been introduced by Pound.  The following year, more of her poems were included in Ezra Pound's Des Imageists, and The Egoist, a literary journal which Richard Aldington edited. Her first volume of poems, The Sea Garden, was published in 1916.  Her poems were based upon the Imagist school, which was centered on the principles of direct treatment of the subject, use of only those words most essential to the presentation, and an emphasis on flow rather than rhythm. Hilda's marriage was troubled, and she usually lived in the downstairs section of the home she shared with her husband, while Richard openly shared the upstairs with his mistress.   During this time she developed a friendship with D.H. Lawrence and had an affair with a friend of Lawrence's, Cecil Gray, with whom she had a daughter, Perdita.  Suffering illness following Perdita's birth, she developed a friendship with a fan of her poetry, Annie Ellerman, who wrote under the name "Bryher."   In the time their friendship developed into love.   Bryher was married to Robert McAlmon, who was himself gay and published many of the works of Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway.   H.D. accompanied them on a trip to Paris, which eventuallt led to H.D. and Bryher travelling extensively throughout Europe, usually identifying themselves  as "cousins."   Richard appears to have been very much aware of the relationship between H.D. and Bryher, and not to mind, possibly because of his own adulterous affairs.  During this time H.D. produced the poetry volumes Hymen (1921), Heliodora and Other Poems (1924), and Red Roses for Bronze (1931).   She also appeared in the films Foothills (1927) and Borderline (1930), produced by the film company co-founded by Bryher and her second husband, Kenneth MacPherson. During the 1930s HD and Bryher lived together at Bryher's house in Switzerland, and HD began seeing Sigmund Freud, though she referred to herself not as a patient but as his student.   In 1938 she became divorced from Richard Aldington, though they remained friends.   At the outbreak of World War II, she was forced to leave Switzerland with Bryher for England.   During this time she developed a friendship with T.S. Elliot, and began a trilogy of verse volumes which marked her break from the Imagist style.   She also developed interests in spiritualism, astrology, and mysticism.   Following the war, she suffered a nervous breakdown, and  spent some time at the Kusnacht clinic in Switzerland.   She then lived in a variety of hotels, remaining in Switzerland for the remainder of her life. H.D.'s last years proved to be her most productive.   A series of autobiographical novels, Tribute to Freud (1956), Bid Me to Live (1960), and End to Torment (posthumously published in 1979) were written, in addition to more poems and translations.   In July 1961 she suffered a stroke while speaking on the phone to her doctor.   Semi-conscious for three months, she finally died in September.   During her illness and after her death, her works continued to be published, and critical attention assured her place among the greatest writers of the twentieth century. Links: H.D., A Brief Biography American Literature on the Web HD (Hilda Doolittle) HD (Hilda Doolittle): Sea Poppies Pink Moth HD HD (Hilda Doolittle) - University of Illinois Queer Theory - Hilda Doolittle Hilda Doolittle - Academy of American Poets HD (Hilda Doolittle) Hilda Doolittle Hilda Doolittle - Britannica.com HD (Hilda Doolittle) Home Page KeywordTitleAuthor