H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)

Lara Vetter, Vetter, Lara

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781789147599
• eBook ISBN: 9781789148220
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Artist Biographies
• Index: Literature

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961) was one of the first writers of free verse in English, best known for her sparse Imagist poems. For over forty years she wrote poetry that resurrected forgotten ancient goddesses, and autobiographical prose that explored her trauma, her desires and the unique struggles of a twentieth-century woman writer. She was also a scholar of religion, mythology and history, a translator of ancient Greek, and worked in early avant-garde film. Dubbed the 'perfect bi-' by Sigmund Freud, she placed issues of sexuality and gender at the centre of her writings. This new biography explores the fascinating life and work of this important modernist figure, once written out of literary history but now receiving the attention she deserves.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1 ‘inexorably entangled’, 1886–1911
• 2 ‘my pencil run riot!’, 1911–14
• 3 ‘the black cloud fell’, 1914–18
• 4 ‘to make a self ’, 1919–26
• 5 ‘the perfect bi-’, 1927–39
• 6 ‘this is not writing, this is burning’, 1939–46
• 7 ‘content, besieged with memories, like low-swarming bees’, 1946–61
• References
• Select Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Photo Acknowledgements