Vol. 32, No. 2 Summer 2004
Editor: Norman T. Gates
520 Woodland Avenue
Haddonfield, NJ 08033-2626, USA
ntgates@worldnet.att.net
Associate Editor: David Wilkinson
The Old Post Office Garage, Chapel Street, St. Ives
Cornwall TR26 2LR U.K
books@book-gallery.co.uk
RA and H.D. Website: http://Imagists.org/ Correspondent and website editor: Paul Hernandez
Correspondents: Catherine Aldingtion, Michael Copp, C.J. Fox, Stephen Steele, F.-J. Temple, Caroline Zilboorg
Correspondent and Bibliographer: Shelley Cox. Biographers: Charles Doyle, Jean Moorcroft Wilson
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Martin Stannard, a member of the English Faculty at the University of Leicester, has recently edited (with Robert Hampson) a volume entitled Ford Madox Ford's Modernity (New York and Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2003). This book contains Martin Stannard's essay "The Good Soldier: Editorial Problems" (pp. 137-148) in which he speaks generously of NCLS member Caroline Zilboorg's examination of a copy of the manuscript of Ford's novel. A discussion of the role Brigit Patmore, RA, and H.D. may have played in the novel's realization (all three served as Ford's amanuenses during its composition) is discussed on pp. 142-144.
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NCLSN, 32.4.2-3 discusses Caroline Zilboorg's new book, Women Writers: Past and Present We neglected to mention that this volume was commissioned and edited as part of the fourteen volume C.U.P. Cambridge Context in Literature series by NCLS member Adrian Barlow.
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NCLS member Patrick Quinn, who is Head, Humanities and Arts, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, plans to attend the Robert Graves Conference in Paris, 6-10 July. His edition of Graves' Seven Days in New Crete and the Golden Fleece came out in March. It is the 17th volume of the 24 volume Robert Graves Programme of which Quinn has been general editor since 1995.
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We are pleased to announce that Correspondent Michael Copp will be among the NCLS members presenting papers or having their papers read at the III International Aldington Society conference in Les Saintes-de-la-Mer, France, July 6-8. See NCLSN, 31.4.3 for complete details and call for papers.
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Chapitre.com lists two RA letters for sale at $677.39. "2 typed letters signed to Mr. Bennett (Arnold?) 12 September & 8 October 1929, with a carbon copy reply from Bennett 10/10/29." There is a brief description of the letters, mention of Louis Aragon, etc.
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The Witter Bynner Papers at Harvard (Houghton Library) contain four letters from RA to Bynner dated 1949-1951. Witter Bynner (1881-1968) was an American poet and translator.
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NCLS member Stephen Steele reports that the call for help locating Trevor Blakemore's Papers that appeared in the NCLSN, 31.4.2 was heard in Guernsey and resulted in a gift to the library of Simon Fraser University (where Steele is an Associate Professor of French) consisting of several signed volumes of poetry by Blakemore and a box of his wartime correspondence with Philip Godfray (1912-1992); also letters between Godfray and Ann Driver (Blakemore), author of "Music and Movement" and wartime BBC broadcaster. The Blakemore material in Special Collections includes a few signed manuscript and typescript poems.
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Notice that Stephen Steele, Associate Professor of French in the Department of French, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6, has been added to our list of "Correspondents." A glance at the items that he has contributed to the NCLSN during the last year or two will tell you why. His e-mail address
is ssteele@sfu.ca
NEW CANTERBURY LITERARY SOCIETY NEWS
Welcome new NCLS member Richard Aldington, son of Tony Aldington, RA's brother. This Aldington writes that he never met his uncle, although he did meet Netta and Margery Aldington. He also says that he has a fine collection of RA's autographed books that he inherited from his father.
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Correspondent Michael Copp, while researching at the University of Texas, found the following untitled poem which does not appear in The Poetry of Richard Aldington. It is typed and the envelope is date-stamped "Beenham, 29 May [19]22." There is no accompanying letter. The poem is given below with the permission of Catherine Aldington, RA's literary executor.
[1] [2]
Pulvis et umbra! Chloe, why Why, pretty fool, is that tear
Quench my desire with ill-bred gloom, Wronging the cheek I kissed so late?
Since many an amorous death we die There is no dust nor shadow here;
Ere we are borne to lie Come kiss me without fear
Loveless and chilly in th' uncomely tomb And let me bring you to the ivory gate.
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While at Texas, Copp, beside going through all of RA's letters to Flint, also went through all of Flint's papers and letters, the latter addressed not only to RA, but also to Pound, Harriet Monroe, Amy Lowell, as well as to various editors, publishers and critics, and a long list of leading French literary figures (Claudel, Cocteau, Appollinaire, etc.) Copp has two projected books in mind as a result of his visit to Austin: 1. A Collected Poems of F.S. Flint; 2. A Selection of the letters of RA and Flint combined.
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May Sinclair: A Modern Victorian (Oxford, O.U.P., 2000) by Suzanne Raitt includes a number of references to RA.
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Michael Copp found an early version of RA's poem "Retreat" (Complete Poems, p. 167) is in the middle of a letter to Flint, dated 29 October 1921. Only a few words have been changed in the published copy.
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Correspondent/Bibliographer Shelley Cox reports on her experiences with "RA on E-Bay." "I have now bought four more items from e-Bay for the Aldington bibliography. Since I am primarily interested in acquiring those pesky reprints which most libraries do not have, e-Bay and other on-line sources have provided me with access to those. Conditions range from awful to mint, with "well used" being most common. Many items, however, have dust jackets or remnants of dust jackets which help me with the bibliography but which are in poor condition. Another use e-Bay has been to me is to provide excellent color photographs of the covers, dust jackets and other features of the books. I am now printing these in color for reference when I write up chapters of the bibliography. Although I wrote extremely detailed descriptions of covers and dust jackets, it is much faster seeing them in front of you! As of today [April 20], there are 29 Aldington items on e-Bay, ranging from a first edition of Last Straws and a limited edition of Aurelia, through reprints of Decameron and Candide [the most common items] to a copy of The Poetry of Richard Aldington, for a princely price of $17.00--most books sell for less than $10.00.
Any place that sells books online, new or used, will have some Aldington items. Since there are few new Aldington items, sadly, places dealing with used or antiquarian books will have the most selection. The two best in my opinion are ABEBooks.Com (www.abebooks.com) which is currently the largest site I have found dealing with antiquarian and out of print titles. This data base covers the stock of thousands of dealers, and you deal with the dealer himself. A similar site, maintained by the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America (www.abaa.org) covers the stock of their members, and is, as you might expect, more antiquarian and covers more first editions than 'used books.'
Despite all the ugly stories that you may hear, all of my buying forays on e-Bay have been pleasant and I have gotten exactly what I thought I was purchasing." (In fact, Cox has been praised on-line as a "highly recommended ebayer, who is pleasant and easy to deal with, and an excellent customer.")
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NEW CANTERBURY LITERARY SOCIETY NEWS
Around January, 2005, Special Collections at Morris Library, Southern Illinois University, will be moving its reading room. See http://www.lib.siu.edu/hp/about/library_renovation.shtml for the entire story. If you are planning to use the collections, contact Shelley Cox or David Koch, Curator of Special Collections, by telephone at 618-453-2516 or e-mail scox@lib.siu.edu or dkoch@lib.siu.edu to arrange your visit.
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As of October 1, 2004, Correspondent and Bibliographer Shelley Cox will take an early retirement from SIU. She plans to continue working on her RA bibliography, and, if she remains in Carbondale, will be glad to help anyone with questions about the collections. We are sure that she will also remain an active NCLS member.
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On May 4, Michel Pharand e-mailed from Japan (see NCLSN, 32.1.3); "It's been a long month, but we made it safely across and are now (nearly) settled in our little apartment on the 13th floor high-rise in a suburb of Sapporo." For more news about our NCLS member-in-Japan you can e-mail him at ncrff848@ybb.ne.jp
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Noted on e-Bay: "RICHARD ALDINGTON 1892-1962 A Catalogue of The Frank G. Harrington Collection of Richard Aldington and Hilda "H.D." Doolittle Comprising Books & Manuscripts and Miscellanea. Special Collections Department Temple University Libraries, 1973. … Quite scarce, Limited to 450 copies only."
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Michael Copp was able to buy a copy of RA's Last Straws (Hours Press, 1930) in a second-hand bookshop in Virginia. It was not one of the 200 signed copies, but was No. 235.
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Member John Morris is now "a retired gentleman." He has published a collection of short stories entitled Time Lines ~ Tales of the Absurd written over the last thirty years. A copy can be obtained from him for £12 postage paid by writing him at "Poynings," Elkington Road, Taplow, Maidenhead, SL60BA or telephoning 01628-638812. "Morris interrogates the mundane, visible world to make it confess its mystery" writes Gary Day.
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RA Website Editor Paul Hernandez noticed that, while David Ayers' 1998 article was mentioned in the NCLSN, his 1999 book was not. Here is the citation for Ayers' works as they now appear in the bibliography portion of the Aldington website:
Ayers, David. "Richard Aldington's Death of a Hero: A Proto-Fascist Novel," English, Vol. 47, No. 188 (Summer 1998), pp.89-98.
Ayers, David. English Literature of the 1920s, Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
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Caroline Zilboorg's essay "'What part have I now that you have come together?' Richard Aldington on war, gender and textual representation," was included in Gender and Warfare in the Twentieth Century, ed. Angela K. Smith (Manchester, Manchester U.P, 2004), pp. 12-32. The volume is available at £45 from Manchester or their U.S. co-publisher Palgrave. It is also available through www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk where you can write a review on it or other Aldington-related books listed on these sites.
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Professor Zilboorg will be presenting a paper at the Aldington Conference at Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, 6-8 July 2004. Her title will be "Death, Resurrection, and the Textual Representation of Otherness in Richard Aldington's War Writings," which will use RA's letters from the front to cast light on the war poems and novels bringing together his correspondence and his work.
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You may obtain information about the Zilboorgs' rental cottage at www.mycottageinbrittany.fr.st
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The following handwritten letter from RA to the editor of The Dial, Stewart Mitchell (1892-1957),
THE NEW CANTERBURY LITERARY SOCIETY NEWS
was found by Correspondent Stephen Steele among the Stewart Mitchell Papers at the Boston Athenaeum. This letter captures RA's view of the literary scene in the autumn of 1920 with comments possibly related to Pound's Paris chronicles in The Dial and to articles on Dada by Jacques Rivière and André Brenton in the August issue of La Novelle Revue Française
Hermitage
6/9/20
Dear Mr. Mitchell,
I have to thank you for your letter of 19.8.20, enclosing: Draft for £5.9.6 for H.D.'s "Phaidra rebukes Hipployta", M.S. of Moult [Thomas Moult] & Bryher [Winnifred Bryher]. I don't at all blame you for rejecting these last, but I thought you should have an opportunity of tapping all available sources.
I suspect that those Dials are held up at my club. I shall probably be in London this week and I will
call and see if they are there.
As to returning the m.s.s --I think it would be best if you return them direct to the authors who otherwise, with that charming confidence so dear to men of letters, may suspect that I have never sent them to you at all!
Of course I shall be very happy to do all I can for The Dial. Such enterprises are too rare nowadays;
Your greatest danger is the fact that you have no serious rival, for I refuse to consider The Little Review seriously.
Don't let Pound put too much "Dada" over to you; it is true that the Nouvelle Revue Française has taken up with the Dadaistes, but they won't last. A taste is more than satiety.
Ever Yours,
Richard Aldington
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While at the Harry Ransom Center earlier this year, Correspondent Michael Copp read two letters that RA sent to Violet Flint (F.S. Flint's first wife) and two to Ruth Flint (F.S. Flint's second wife). RA pleads with both of them to persuade FSF not to let his literary activity fade away. In a letter to Violet (1 July 1919) RA writes:
"Will you please use your influence to make Frank bring a poem for this new Anthology of Monro's? It should have a wide circulation and if Frank does not come in he will be doing himself an injustice…."
In a later letter (14 September 1923) RA begs Ruth in the following terms:
". . .Will you please make him [FSF] send me his notes on those Italian and Spanish periodicals at once. Everything for the Criterion is done but his notes. And will you also make him carry out his promise to me to put together his French essays into a book? The essential points are (for you will have to do it for him) (1) to keep the total number of words down to 45,000; (2) to prune quotations; (3) to get the thing typed; (4) to prevent Frank from writing a preface depreciating himself…."
However, throughout these post-war years RA's efforts to cajole work out of his friend on a regular basis were largely unsuccessful. RA knew full well that the book on the French poets that FSF had within him would have been an outstanding literary contribution. His fears that it would never be undertaken or completed were, unfortunately, well founded. RA made one more attempt, writing to Ruth (20 September 1923):
"…the main point is to keep Frank up to his promise of writing this book. As I told him he has let himself be discouraged by a pack of artful journalists who haven't half his knowledge or a tenth of his talent…. I know he gets very weary with office work but if he spends only an hour each evening and goes at it gently, without impatience, he will be surprised how quickly the book goes. He has all the material at hand, so he has only to let his mind play over it so to speak, and he will be surprised to find how much he has to say.
. . .If Frank will do this book, he will be looking for something else to do when it's finished--perhaps he will get at poetry again or a play or a novel. He has great potentialities, but needs encouragement."
These letters reveal the strong bond that existed between the two men, both on the personal and professional level, and also, how supportive of each other the small and intimate group of Imagists was.