- Richard Aldington
Richard Aldington (born Edward Godfree Aldington July 8, 1892 – July 27, 1962) was an English writer and poet.
Aldington was best known for his
World War I poetry , the 1929 novel "Death of a Hero ", and the controversy arising from his 1955 "Lawrence of Arabia : A Biographical Inquiry". His 1946 biography, "Wellington", was awarded theJames Tait Black Memorial Prize for that year.Early life, World War I
Aldington was born in Portsmouth and educated at
Dover College and theUniversity of London ; he was unable to complete his degree because of the financial circumstances of his family. He met the poetH.D. in 1911 and they married two years later.His poetry was associated with the
Imagist group, and his work forms almost one third of the Imagists' inaugural anthology "Des Imagistes" (1914). At this time he was one of the poets around the proto-ImagistT. E. Hulme ; Robert Ferguson in his life of Hulme portrays Aldington as too squeamish to approve of Hulme's robust approach, particularly to women. He knewWyndham Lewis well, also, reviewing his work in "The Egoist" at this time, hanging a Lewis portfolio around the room and (on a similar note of tension between the domestic and the small circle ofLondon modernists regretting having lent Lewis his razor when the latter announced with hindsight a venereal infection. [(Paul O'Keefe, "Some Sort of Genius", p.164).] Going out without a hat, and an interest inFabian socialism , were perhaps unconventional enough for him. [ (John Paterson, "Edwardians").] At this time he was also an associate ofFord Madox Hueffer , helping him with a hack propaganda volume for a government commission in 1914 [ ("When Blood is Their Argument: An Analysis of Prussian Culture"),] and taking dictation for "The Good Soldier" when H.D. found it too harrowing.In 1915 Aldington and H.D. moved within London, away from
Holland Park very nearEzra Pound and Dorothy, toHampstead , close toD. H. Lawrence and Frieda. Their relationship became strained by external romantic interests and the stillborn birth of their child. Between 1914 and 1916 he was literary editor of "The Egoist".He joined the army in 1916, was commissioned in the Royal Sussexs in 1917 and was wounded on the
Western Front [ [http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=81592&hl=] .] Aldington never completely recovered from his war experiences, and although it was prior to diagnoses of PTSD, he was likely suffering fromPost Traumatic Stress Disorder . Aldington and H. D. attempted to mend their marriage in 1919, after the birth of her daughter by a friend of writerD. H. Lawrence , named Cecil Gray, with whom she had become involved and lived with while Aldington was at war. However, she was by this time deeply involved in alesbian relationship with the wealthy writerBryher , and she and Aldington formally separated, both becoming romantically involved with other people, but they did not divorce until 1938. They remained friends, however, for the rest of their lives.Relationship with T. S. Eliot: rise and fall
He helped
T. S. Eliot in a practical way, by an introduction to the editorBruce Richmond of the "Times Literary Supplement ", for which he reviewed French literature. He was on the editorial board, withConrad Aiken , Eliot, Lewis andAldous Huxley , ofChaman Lall 's London literary quarterly "Coterie" published 1919-1921. WithLady Ottoline Morrell ,Leonard Woolf andHarry Norton he took part inEzra Pound 's scheme to 'get Eliot out of the bank' (Eliot had a job in the international department of Lloyd's, a London bank, and well-meaning friends wanted him full-time writing poetry). This manoeuvre towards Bloomsbury came to little, with Eliot getting £50 and unwelcome publicity in the "Liverpool Post", but gaveLytton Strachey an opening for mockery.Aldington made an effort with "A Fool I' the Forest" (1924) to reply to the new style of poetry launched by "
The Waste Land ". He was being published at the time, for example in "The Chapbook", but clearly took on much hack work just to live. His interest in poetry waned.His attitude towards Eliot shifted, from someone who would mind the Eliots' cat in his cottage (near
Reading, Berkshire , in 1921), to a supporter of Vivienne Eliot in the troubled marriage, and the savage and jealous satirist on her husband in "Stepping Heavenward" (1931). By that time he had been in Paris for years, living with Brigit Patmore, and being fascinated byNancy Cunard whom he met in 1928. After his divorce in 1938 he married Netta, née McCullough, previously Brigit's daughter-in-law as Mrs. Michael Patmore.Later life
"Death of a Hero", published in 1929 was his literary response to the war, commended by
Lawrence Durrell as 'the best war novel of the epoch'. He went on to publish several works of fiction. In 1930 he published a bawdy translation of "The Decameron ". In 1942, having moved to theUnited States with his new wife Netta Patmore, he began to write biographies. The first was one of Wellington ("The Duke: Being an Account of the Life & Achievements of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington," 1943). It was followed by works onD. H. Lawrence ("Portrait of a Genius, But...," 1950),Robert Louis Stevenson ("Portrait of a Rebel," 1957), andT. E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry," 1955).Aldington's biography of Lawrence made many controversial assertions. He was the first to bring to public notice the fact of Lawrence's illegitimacy. He also asserted that Lawrence was homosexual, a claim that has never been born out and is not likely to be, given the fact that Lawrence lived a celibate life and that none of his close friends (of whom several were homosexual) believed him to be gay. More importantly, he attacked Lawrence as a liar and a charlatan, claims which have colored Lawrence's reputation since the publication of Aldington's book, but which were proven to be largely baseless once all the confidential government files concerning Lawrence's career had been released, proving the accuracy of Lawrence's own account. Aldington's reputation has never fully recovered from what later (and with justification) came to be seen as a venomous personal attack upon Lawrence's reputation. Many believe that Aldington's suffering in the bloodbath of Europe during World War I caused him to resent Lawrence's reputation, gained in the more minor Middle Eastern arena.
Aldington died in
France on July 27, 1962, shortly after being honoured and feted inMoscow on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. His politics had in fact moved far towards the right — opinions he shared with Lawrence Durrell, a close friend since the 1950s — but he had felt shut out by the British establishment after his T. E. Lawrence book. He lived inProvence , atMontpellier andAix-en-Provence .On November 11th, 1985, Aldington was among 16 Great War poets commemorated on a slate stone unveiled in
Westminster Abbey 'sPoet's Corner [http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/wwi/poets/poets.html] . The inscription on the stone was written by a fellow Great War poet,Wilfred Owen . It reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity." [http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/wwi/poets/Preface.html]A savage style and embitterment
Aldington could write with an acid pen. The
Georgian poets , who (Pound had decided) were the Imagists' sworn enemies, he devastated with the accusation of "a little trip for a little weekend to a little cottage where they wrote a little poem on a little theme". He took swipes atHarold Monro , whose "Poetry Review" had published him and given him reviewing work. (On the other side of the balance sheet, he spent time supporting the alcoholic Monro, and others such asF. S. Flint andFrederic Manning who needed friendship.)Alec Waugh ("The Early Years") described him as embittered by the war, and offeredDouglas Goldring as comparison; but took it that he worked off his spleen in novels like "The Colonel's Daughter" (1931), rather than letting it poison his life. His novels in fact contained thinly-veiled, disconcerting (at least to the subjects) portraits of some of his friends (Eliot, D. H. Lawrence, Pound in particular), the friendship not always surviving.Lyndall Gordon characterises the sketch of Eliot in the memoirs "Life for Life's Sake" (1941) as 'snide'. As a young man he enjoyed being cutting aboutWilliam Butler Yeats , but remained on good enough terms to visit him in later years atRapallo .Works
*"Images (1910 – 1915)" (1915) as "Images - Old and New" (1916) (US)
*"The Poems of Anyte of Tegea" (1916) translator
*"Images of Desire" (Elkin Mathews , 1919)
*"Images of War" (1919)
*"War and Love: Poems 1915-1918" (1919)
*"Greek Songs in the Manner of Anacreon" (1919) translator
*"A Book of 'Characters' from Theophrastus, Joseph Hall, Sir Thomas Overbury, Nicolas Breton, John Earle
*"Hymen" (Egoist Press , 1921) withH. D.
*"Medallions in Clay" (1921)
*"The Good-Humoured Ladies: A Comedy byCarlo Goldoni " (1922) translator, withArthur Symons
*"Exile and other poems" (1923)
*"Literary Studies and Reviews" (1924) essays
*"Sturly by Pierre Custot" (1924) translator
*"The Mystery of the Nativity: Translated from the Liegeois of the XVth Century" (Medici Society , 1924) translator
*"A Fool I' the Forest: A Phantasmagoria" (1924) poem
*"Voltaire" (1925)
*"French Studies and Reviews" (1926)
*"The Love of Myrrhine and Konallis: and other prose poems" (1926)
*"Cyrano De Bergerac, Voyages to the Moon and the Sun" (1927)
*"D. H. Lawrence: An Indiscretion" (1927)
*"Letters of Madame De Sevigné" (1927) translator
*"Letters Of Voltaire And Frederick The Great" (1927) translator
*"Candide and Other Romances by Voltaire" (1928) translator withNorman Tealby
*"Collected Poems" (1928)
*"Fifty Romance Lyric Poems" (1928) translator
*"Rémy De Gourmont: Selections." (1928) translator
*"Death of a Hero: A Novel" (1929)
*"The Eaten Heart" (Hours Press , 1929) poems
*"A Dream in the Luxembourg: A Poem" (1930)
*"The Memoirs and Correspondence of Mme. D'Epinay" (1930) translator
*"Euripedes' Alcestis" (1930) translator
*"At All Costs" (1930)
*"D. H. Lawrence: A Brief and Inevitably Fragmentary Impression" (1930)
*"Last Straws" (1930)
*"Medallions from Anyte of Tegea, Meleager of Gadara, the Anacreontea, Latin Poets of the Renaissance" (1930) translator
*"The Memoirs of Marmontel" (1930) editor, withBrigit Patmore
*"Roads to Glory" (1930) stories
*"Tales from the Decameron" (1930) translator
*"Two Stories" (Elkin Mathews , 1930)
*"Letters to the Amazon byRémy de Gourmont " (1931) translator
*"Balls and Another Book for Suppression" (1931)
*"The Colonel's Daughter: A Novel" (1931)
*"Stepping Heavenward: A Record" (1931) satire aimed atT. S. Eliot
*"Aurelia byGérard de Nerval " (1932) translator
*"Soft Answers" (1932) five short novels
*"All Men Are Enemies: A Romance" (1933)
*"Last Poems of D. H. Lawrence" (1933) edited withGiuseppe Orioli
*"Poems of Richard Aldington" (1934)
*"Women Must Work: A Novel" (1934)
*"Artifex: Sketches And Ideas" (1935) essays
*"D. H. Lawrence" (1935)
*"The Spirit of Place" (1935), editor, D. H. Lawrence prose anthology
*"Life Quest" (1935) poem
*"Life of a Lady: A Play in Three Acts" (1936) withDerek Patmore
*"The Crystal World" (1937)
*"Very Heaven" (1937)
*"Seven Against Reeves: A Comedy-Farce" (1938) novel
*"Rejected Guest" (1939) novel
*"W. Somerset Maugham; An Appreciation" (1939)
*"Life for Life's Sake: Memories Of A Vanished England & A Changing World, By One Who Was Bohemian, Poet, Soldier, Novelist & Wanderer" (1941) memoir
*"Poetry of the English-Speaking World" (1941) anthology, editor
*"A Wreath For San Gemignano" (1945) sonnets ofFolgore da San Gemignano
*"A Life of Wellington: The Duke" (1946)
*"Great French Romances" (1946) novels by Madame De Lafayette, Choderlos De Laclos, the Abbe Prévost, Honoré de Balzac
*"Oscar Wilde Selected Works" (1946) editor
*"The Romance of Casanova: A Novel" (1946)
*"Complete Poems" (1948)
*"Four English Portraits 1801-1851" (1948)
*"Selected Works of Walter Pater" (1948)
*"Jane Austen" (1948)
*"Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio" (two volumes)" (1949) translator
*"The Strange Life of Charles Waterton 1782-1865" (1949)
*"A Bibliography of the Works of Richard Aldington from 1915 to 1948" (1950) withAlister Kershaw
*"Selected Letters of D. H. Lawrence" (1950) editor
*"An Appreciation: D. H. Lawrence 1885 – 1930" (1950) also as D. H. Lawrence Portrait of a Genius But...
*"The Religion of Beauty: Selections From The Aesthetes" (1950) anthology, editor
*"Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, A Lecture" (Peacocks Press , 1954)
*"Lawrence L'Imposteur: T.E. Lawrence, The Legend and the Man" (1954) Paris edition, later title "Lawrence of Arabia, A Biographical Enquiry " (1955)
*"Pinorman: Personal Recollections of Norman Douglas, Pino Orioli & Charles Prentice " (1954)
*"A. E. Housman & W. B. Yeats: Two Lectures" (Hurst Press , 1955)
*"Introduction to Mistral" (1956)
*"Frauds" (1957)
*"Portrait of a Rebel: The Life and Work of Robert Louis Stevenson" (1957)
*"The Viking Book of Poetry of the English-Speaking World Volume II" (1958) editor
*"Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology" (1960) translator with Delano Ames
*"Switzerland" (1960)
*"Famous Cities of the World: Rome" (1960)
*"A Tourist's Rome
*"Richard Aldington: Selected Critical Writing, 1928-1960" (1970) edited by Alister Kershaw
*"A Passionate Prodigality: Letters to Alan Bird from Richard Aldington, 1949-1962" (1975) edited byMiriam J. Benkovitz
*"Literary Lifelines: The Richard Aldington and Lawrence Durrell Correspondence" (1981)
*"In Winter: A Poem" (Typographeum Press , 1987)
*"Austria"
*"France"
*"Italy"References
ources
*"Richard Aldington: An Englishman" (1931)
Thomas McGreevy
*"Richard Aldington" byC. P. Snow
*"Richard Aldington. An Intimate Portrait" (1965) by Alister Kershaw, and Frederic-Jacques Temple
*"Richard Aldington 1892-1962: A Catalogue of The Frank G. Harrington Collection of Richard Aldington and Hilda "H.D." Doolittle" (1973)
*"The Poetry of Richard Aldington" (1974) Norman T. Gates
*"A Checklist of the Letters of Richard Aldington" (1977) edited byNorman T. Gates
*"Richard Aldington, Papers from the Reading Conference." (1987) edited byLionel Kelly
*"Richard Aldington, a biography" (1989) Charles Doyle ISBN 0-8093-1566-1
*"Richard Aldington: Reappraisals" (1990) edited by Charles Doyle
*"Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters" (1992) edited by Norman T. Gates"The Religion of Beauty"
"The Religion of Beauty" (subtitle "Selections From the Aesthetes") was a prose and poetry
anthology edited by Aldington and published in 1950. Listed below are the authors Aldington included, providing insight into Aldingtons generation and tastes:Prose
Aubrey Beardsley -Max Beerbohm -Vernon Lee -Edward MacCurdy -Fiona MacLeod -George Meredith -Alice Meynell -George Moore -William Morris -Frederick W. H. Myers -Walter Pater - Robert Ross -Dante Gabriel Rossetti -John Ruskin -John Addington Symonds -Arthur Symons -Rachel Annand Taylor -James McNeill Whistler Poetry
William Allingham -Henry C. Beeching -Oliver Madox Brown -Olive Custance - John Davidson -Austin Dobson -Lord Alfred Douglas -Evelyn Douglas -Edward Dowden -Ernest Dowson - Michael Field -Norman Gale -Edmund Gosse -John Gray -William Ernest Henley -Gerard Manley Hopkins -Herbert P. Horne -Lionel Johnson -Andrew Lang -Eugene Lee-Hamilton -Maurice Hewlett -Edward Cracroft Lefroy -Arran and Isla Leigh -Amy Levy -John William Mackail -Digby Mackworth-Dolben -Fiona MacLeod -Frank T. Marzials -Théophile Julius Henry Marzials -George Meredith -Alice Meynell -Cosmo Monkhouse -George Moore -William Morris -Frederick W. H. Myers -Roden Noël - John Payne -Victor Plarr -A. Mary F. Robinson -William Caldwell Roscoe -Christina Rossetti -Dante Gabriel Rossetti -Algernon Charles Swinburne -John Addington Symonds -Arthur Symons -Rachel Annand Taylor -Francis Thompson -John Todhunter -Herbert Trench -John Leicester Warren, Lord de Tabley -Rosamund Marriott Watson -Theodore Watts-Dunton -Oscar Wilde -Margaret L. Woods -Theodore Wratislaw -W. B. Yeats External links
* [http://www.imagists.org/aldington/] , [http://www.imagists.org/aldington/biography.html] [http://www.imagists.org/aldington/bibliography.html Bibliography] at Imagists.org
*NRA|P328
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