Pre-WWI London
Aldington rapidly attracted the notice of Ezra Pound, through whom he met Brigit Patmore, with whom he had an affair, and Hilda Doolittle (“H.D.”). In 1913, Aldington joined H.D. and her parents on a tour of Italy, which he financed, in part, by contributing 22 weekly Letters from Italy to New Age magazine, which was edited by A. R. Orage.
Aldington married H.D. that year. The Aldingtons had a baby girl in May 1915, but it was stillborn. This was to put severe strains on their marriage.
Pound also introduced Aldington to Harriet Monroe, publisher of the Chicago-based Poetry, and his poem Choricos appeared in the second issue of that journal (November 1912), setting a pattern of trans-Atlantic publishing that was to last until the end of his life.
Pound was the sponsor of the Imagist poetry movement, in which Aldington and H.D. were leading lights. In late 1913, Aldington, at the recommendation of Pound, replaced Rebecca West as Assistant Editor of The New Freewoman, a feminist newspaper that in January 1914 changed its name to The Egoist. The Egoist effectively became a broad-sheet for the Imagists.
Walter Pater
The Renaissance
London, Macmillan, 1912
Aldington’s copy with his signature dated 1912 and with “Dedit H.D.” in pencil underneath. On the rear endpapers are two manuscript poems by Aldington: Angelico’s Coronation of the Virgin [to H.D.] and “Swpθv ύrvϽЈ” {unmixed wine], neither of which has been published. “Swpθv ύrvϽЈ” is dated “Louvre 26/5/12. This volume appears to have been given to Aldington’s sister, Margery, following his death.
By kind permission of the Estate of Richard Aldington, c/o Rosica Colin Limited, London.
Words by E.H., H.D. [Hilda Doolittle], and R.A. [Richard Aldington]; music by Walter Morse Rummell
Ten Songs for Children Young and Old
London, Augener Ltd., 1913
Photocopy.
A very early joint publication by Aldington and H.D. Walter Rummell. Rummell was a friend of Ezra Pound and then of H.D. Aldington contributed three songs: Mister Rain, The Seven Swan Ladies and Sir Lancelot
The Earl of Lytton
The Peacock Dinner
Photograph, January 18, 1914
The Peacock Dinner, so named because peacock was served, was a lunch organized by Ezra Pound to honor the poet Wilfred Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) and to garner publicity for the Imagists, a new poetic group. The figures in the photograph are, from left to right, Victor Plarr, Thomas Sturge Moore, W.B. Yeats, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, Ezra Pound, Richard Aldington and Frank Flint. The poets presented Blunt with copies of their poems in a marble box carved by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska. Aldington’s inclusion illustrates his rapid success in penetrating the London literary scene.
By kind permission of Philip Knebworth, WSB Archive.
Des Imagistes
The Glebe, Vol. 1, No. 5, February 1914
New York, Albert and Chales Boni, New York, 1914
Des Imagistes initially appeared in this edition of The Glebe and was subsequently published as a standalone volume by Albert & Chales Boni in New York, and by the Poetry Bookshop in London. Des Imagistes included poems by Aldington, H.D., F.S. Flint, Ford Maddox Hueffer, James Joyce, Amy Lowell, Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, and was the first of the five Imagist anthologies. The anthology was organized by Ezra Pound, and included eleven poems by Aldington, more than from any other contributor.
The Egoist
Vol. I, No. 11, June 1, 1914
New York, Reprint by Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1967
The Egoist commenced publication in 1913 under the title The New Freewoman, and changed its name to The Egoist in 1914. Aldington succeeded Rebecca West as Assistant Editor in 1913. The June 1, 1914, issue included Aldington’s essay Modern Poetry and the Imagists. It also included an installment of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
