Hilda Doolittle - HD
Poet, Memoirist, Actor, Mother, Feminist, "Don't strap me into a box" Kindred Spirit.
Sept. 10, 1886-
Sept. 27, 1961
When I read her poems, I am reminded of another poet I adore, the soul opening Mary Oliver.
When I read of her life, I am reminded of many of the women whose work I have been using as a focus. She attended a woman’s college, Bryn Mawr, before she later attended University of Pennsylvania where she met Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. She was misunderstood by most so a short trip abroad turned into a lifetime as a resident of Europe, primarily. Her life was filled with tragedy and passion, interchangeably. She had quite a long list of famous friends, included among them those I listed above as well as Gertrude Stein and DH Laurence.
She was an actor as well as a poet. She wrote memoir and novels, too. Her words were lyrical and they were few. Her poetry reminds me a bit of Adelaide Crapsey (Read about her on from my Women in Literary History Post - A is for Adelaide Crapsey.)
Though known as an imagist, she expanded those boundaries quickly. Then, as now, identification can prove to be fatal to one’s fame so the addition of “Feminist” to “Imagist” was a death knell for her work. People applied “imagist” rather than actually experiencing her words so she had limited success and acclaim during her lifetime. Thankfully, she has become known more widely since her death due to stroke in 1961.
When I sought a source for quotes, I found in the conventional quote sources there were few and they never used her moniker, HD, they instead used the conventional “Hilda Doolittle”. I wonder if this would bother her?
She was also a member of the “Pool Group”, three individuals: Kenneth Macpherson, Winifred Bryher and H.D. They lived, worked and created together in Switzerland. They published a literary magazine Close Up and also created a classic feature length silent film, Borderline. It featured an inter-racial theme and for the times very sophisticated sexual themes. HD had the leading female role in the production.
Among all the rest of these facts, HD had a daughter, Perdita, who was raised in the “Pool Group” home, where she was exposed to many avante garde artists and writers. I cannot begin to imagine what that would have been like. She went on to be a servicewoman in World War II before moving to the US and living a rather conventional adult life, complete with a home in Manhatten and four children, all of whom became writers.
As often happens, the more I discover of HD the more I want to know and the more I want to share with you. Instead, I will close with several of her quotes:
“Writing. Love is writing.” H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)
“Words were her plague and words were her redemption.”
― H.D., HERmione
“We are voyagers, discoverers
of the not-known,
the unrecorded;
we have no map;
possibly we will reach haven,
heaven.”
H.D. (Aka Hilda Doolittle)
"Consider the birds. Be wise as serpents."
And finally, a trailer for the Silent film – I could only find a version in German, but mostly I hope you will watch the storytelling in this montage of images.
This blog post is an entry in the A to Z Challenge. Each day in April (except Sundays) I will be featuring a woman in literary history. If you click on the logo below, you will be introduced to the writing of more than a thousand bloggers writing on a wide variety of topics in April, all from A to Z!
Julie Jordan Scott has been a Life & Creativity Coach, Writer, Facilitator and Teleclass Leader since 1999. She is also an award winning Actor, Director, Artist and Mother Extraordinaire. She was twice the StoryTelling Slam champion in Bakersfield. She teaches a teleclass/ecourse "Discover the Power of Writing & Telling Engaging, Enlightening Stories" which begins again April 19, 2012. Find details by clicking this link.
Did you enjoyed this essay? Receive emails directly to your inbox for Free from Julie Jordan Scott via the Daily Passion Activator. One inspirational essay and poem (almost) every week day. Subscribe here now -
Subscribe to DailyPassionActivator
Powered by us.groups.yahoo.com
Recent Comments