Vol. 32, No. 3 Autumn 2004
Editor: Norman T. Gates Associate Editor: David Wilkinson
520 Woodland Avenue, The Old Post Office Garage, Chapel Street, St. Ives,
Haddonfield, NJ 08033-2626, USA. Cornwall TR26 2LR U.K.
E-mail ntgates@worldnet.att.net E-mail: books@book-gallery.co.uk
RA and H.D. Website: http://Imagists.org
Correspondent and website editor: Paul Hernandez
Correspondents: Catherine Aldington, Michael Copp, C.J. Fox, Stephen Steele, F.-J. Temple, Caroline Zilboorg
Correspondent and Bibliographer: Shelley Cox. Biographers: Charles Doyle, Jean Moorcroft Wilson
* * * * * * * * * *Welcome new NCLS member Jonathan W. Malino who is a philosophy professor at Guilford College, Greensboro, NC, as well as a rabbi. He writes: "From last January through May, I directed a study abroad program at Schloss Brunnenburg, where, along with my students, I studied Pound's Cantos with Pound's daughter, Mary de Rachewiltz. In reading Canto 77 of the Pisan Cantos, I discovered a reference to Dr. Henry Slonimsky, with whom I studied when I began rabbinical school in 1966, and with whom my father studied from 1931-35, and to whom he was extremely devoted. It was only in finding the reference to Slonimsky in the Cantos that I became aware of his encounter with the Imagists in London in 1912, and his subsequent close friendship with Aldington and H.D. from then on. I am now trying to construct a portrait of Slonimsky, and I would like to gauge what material might be available in various archives of those with whom he was friendly. Since scholars of Aldington, H.D., John Cournos and Ezra Pound will already have studied these archives, it would be immensely helpful to know from them whether these archives contain letters from Slonimsky to these people. I am particularly curious to determine why the conversation with Pound and Slonimsky made enough impression on Pound to turn up in an essay on Remy de Gourmont (1915), and an essay on Unemployment (1931) and again in the Pisan Cantos. I am curious about Slonimsky's decision to leave Johns Hopkins as a result of the clash between his pacifism and the atmosphere there at the time. And finally, I am curious to understand whether Slonimsky had any influence on the literary work of H.D. and Richard Aldington, or on their dealings with Pound over his fascism and anti-Semitism."
* * * * * * * * * *
Paul Hernandez writes to say that José Paz Saz, head of the Spanish publishing house, Bartleby Editores, is currently in negotiations with Rosica Colin Ltd. over publishing translations of some of RA's works.
* * * * * * * * * *
Shelley Cox reports that a signed copy of Death of a Hero is offered on eBay. This is the Chatto and Windus first edition and is penciled inside: "Signed presentation copy 1929, to Stuart Gilbert from Richard Aldington, Paris 1.ll.29." Stuart Gilbert was a friend of James Joyce. Andrew Frayn also reports having bought a number of RA items on eBay “without any problems.” He also recommends www.abebooks.com
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLSN, 32.2.1 erroneously listed Martin Stannard as coeditor with Robert Hampton of Ford Madox Ford's Modernity. NCLS member Max Saunders edited this with Robert Hampton.
* * * * * * * * * *
Stephen Steele found a short letter from RA to Ruth Hamilton Kerr, literary agent for Ford Madox Ford. The typewritten letter encloses a sum for Ford's part in the American issue of Imagist Poets, 1930 and promises to forward future royalties. This letter was among the Kerr mss., 1921-1954, Lilly Library.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Jelka Kershaw attended the July Aldington Conference in Les Saints-Maries-de-la-Mer. Jelka is the widow of RA's former secretary, good friend, and literary executor, Alister Kershaw. For newer members who may not remember all that Alister did for RA, see the tributes paid to him in NCLSN, 23.1,2,3, and the "Introduction" to A Checklist of the Letters of Richard Aldington, p. 17.
* * * * * * * * * *
Welcome new NCLS member Joseph DiNunzio who recently reviewed Michael Copp's An Imagist at War: The Complete War Poems of Richard Aldington. Dinunzio begins his essay in The Review of English Studies, New Series, Vol. 54, No. 246-48 by saying: “Copp’s scholarly and workmanly edition offers us a view of Aldington within the choir of Great War poets instead of his usual spot among the back-up singers of high modernism.” He concludes: “Aldington’s war poetry is revealed more clearly and practically in this edition than ever before, and while we await a similar collection of the prose, Copp has greatly facilitated the kind of scholarly revaluation of Aldington’s war writings which this book clearly intends.”
* * * * * * * * *
RA is one of the war poets mentioned by member Anne Powell in her excellent six-page introductory essay, “The Summer of 1914” in Palladour Books Catalogue Number 39 [Summer 2004]. Anne and Jeremy then list six of RA’s books for sale.
* * * * * * * * * *
Your editors wonder whether any of our NCLS members know of a newsletter devoted to a single literary figure that has been in existence longer than the NCLSN.
* * * * * * * * *
On a postcard dated July 8 that depicts on its face a field of poppies, Anne Powell writes: “We passed RA’s birthplace this afternoon—opposite the cathedral and now a modern block of apartments—only half a mile from where we live—and then on reading The Times later we were delighted to see he was remembered.” NCLS member Powell enclosed a column titled “Anniversaries” from the London Times dated Thursday July 8 2004 which reads under the heading “BIRTHS”:
Serving in France during the First World War naturally had a major impact on the young Richard Aldington, and it was evident not only in poems such as Bombardment but also in his first and best-known novel, Death of a Hero (1929). Aldington was born in Portsmouth on this day in 1892.”
Three nights we dared not sleep,
Sweating and listening for the imminent crash
Which meant our death.
The fourth night every man,
Nerve-tortured, racked to exhaustion,
Slept muttering and twitching,
While the shells crashed overhead.
* * * * * * * * * *
We have printed and bound with the “Index” a new supply of the NCLSN, Vols. 1-30. Costs remain the same as on our original run: Vols. 1-30 bound with “Index,” postpaid U.S. = $30., postpaid U.K. =$35. The cost of the “Index” alone, postpaid U.S. = $3.50, postpaid U.K. $5.00.
* * * * * * * * * *
RA bibliographer Shelley Cox writes: “A new version of my copyright duration chart for archivists and librarians, ‘Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States,’ is now available at http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm” Cox adds that this is oriented for US users, in that the UK will look differently on the same item. For instance, most of RA’s early work in now in the public domain, but his middle and later work, if published in compliance with US copyright, is still restricted. Death of a Hero and the other big novels will be copyright until 2023 or later, and papers and letters, which are covered for the life of the author plus seventy years, will be restricted until 2032. See the website for complete details.
* * * * * * * * * *
The third International Richard Aldington Society Conference was held in Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer July 6-8. Catherine Aldington read excerpts from her father’s letters to her. Papers were presented by Michael Copp, Andrew Frayn, Norman T. Gates, Jane Eblen Keller, Daniel Kempton, James H. Meredith, H.R. Stoneback, and Caroline Zilboorg, among others. The Society will publish the Conference proceedings.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Andrew Frayn attended the III International Richard Aldington Society Conference, and sends the following report: “The event started with a convivial reception at ‘Mas Les Pellegrins,’ the wine and ubiquitous sangria flowing to accompany poetry readings from Catha Aldington, the Waughs, and Mike Copp. H.R. Stoneback read a moving anniversary poem to Sparrow, and we were then treated to his baritone accompanying the guitar through a selection of traditional American and bluegrass songs, leaving the gathering musing on the possible links with Provençal music.
The first day opened with Catha’s memories of her father and Lawrence Durrell, related via an incredible stack of correspondence mainly from the 1950s. An impressive variety of papers were presented throughout the conference, not only on Aldington and his contemporaries, but also impressions and images of Provençe and the Comargue, and Provençal culture.
There was a strong American contingent, particularly as expected from SUNY New Paltz, but I was slightly disappointed that there were only 2 of us from the UK. I would hope that more people from this country might be able to join Michael [Copp] and myself as representatives in the future—the Comargue is a beautiful place to spend a week, as most of us saw on the final night with a trip around the walled town of Aigues-Mortes and to the port of Le Grau de Roi. I certainly look forward to repeating the experience in 2006.”
* * * * * * * * *
Member Frayn comments on Derwent May’s book on the TLS (see NCLSN, 30.1.3): There are a number of references in his 600+ magnum opus to RA’s time as the French Literature reviewer for the TLS, and also of the reception for Death of a Hero on publication. The review itself is in the TLS of 19 September 1929 should anyone want to consult this.
Frayn also noted that Peter Brooker’s book Bohemia in London: The Social Scene of Early Modernism covers the period 1900-1914, looking at the relationships between RA, H.D., Eliot, Pound, Lewis and others of the Modernist and Imagist circles. (Frayn’s paper on RA [see NCLSN, 32.1.3] is now available on the Internet in Word format at http://www.art.man.ac.uk/english/manuscript/backiss/content/fraynald.doc )
* * * * * * * * * *
Associate Editor David Wilkinson went to Malthouse Cottage, Padworth, recently when visiting his son who lives nearby. He recalled that I first went there with my wife some twenty-five years ago and began the relationship between David and me that has lasted ever since.
* * * * * * * * * *
In Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters I wrote: “The eight years RA spent in Berkshire with Arabella provided the time he needed to cope with the physical and mental damage that the war had inflicted on him. Like many soldiers who survived World War I, he suffered from the effects of being gassed and shell-shocked. By 1922 RA had moved from Hermitage to a cottage about fifteen miles away in the valley of the Kennet. Malthouse Cottage, built against the end wall of an old malthouse, provided exactly the seclusion and tranquil setting that he longed for. The peaceful English countryside of the Kennet and the three-day walks he took along the ancient Ridge Way helped to heal the scars of his wartime experiences. In his poems ‘The Berkshire Kennet’ and ‘A Winter Night’ and in the novel The Colonel’s Daughter RA recaptures something of the spirit of this time and place.” Twelve letters written from Padworth are included in An Autobiography in Letters.
* * * * * * * * * *
“The Central European University and the Open Society Institute recently published a Russian language encyclopedia named “Krugosvet” that can be found at www.krugosvet.ru. Krugosvet is also available as a CD-ROM. The Central European University was established 13 years ago in Budapest to advance open societies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union through education. We would like,” writes Martin Greenwald of the University, “to include a photograph of Richard Aldington in Krugosvet.” Website editor Paul Hernandez received this inquiry and forwarded it to Catherine Aldington and Joanna Marston.
* * * * * * * * * *
Shelley Cox noted the following book, not yet published, that mentions RA :McLure, Victoria. Remythologising of the British Literary Hero After World War I. Academia Press, 2005. ISBN: 1-930901-90-9 $54.95.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLSN Correspondent and RA Bibliographer Shelley Cox is retiring from SIU Carbondale on September 30, 2004. Please address all reference questions and inquiries to David Koch, dkoch@lib.siu.edu
Check the department web page for updates in staffing: http://www.lib.siu.edu/spcol/
There will be one further move of Special Collections materials within the next six months, and the department may be closed for the move for some period of time. Anyone wishing to visit should please contact the department and keep checking the library’s web page: http://www.lib.siu.edu/hp for up-to-date information. There will inevitably be delays in answering questions and providing services during these time periods.* * * * * * * * * *
Correspondent Michael Copp sends us the following three notes: “I came across a few
References to RA in Penelope Fitzgerald’s Charlotte Mew and Her Friends (London: Collins, 1984).”
* * * * * * * * * *
“While on holiday in north-east England I picked up copies of Pinorman and The Crystal World, both with dust jackets, in the splendid second-hand bookshop in Alnwick.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“We are all familiar with the woodcut of RA by Raoul Kristian that appeared in The Egoist, 1 October 1915. While visiting friends in Cumbria I was able to go to an exhibition in The Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, ‘Walter Richard Sickert: The Human Canvas,’ 1915.16. One of Sickert’s paintings there was ‘The Little Tea Party: Nina Hamnet and Roald Kristian.’ Kristain was Norwegian and was married to Nina Hamnet. His real name was Edgar de Bergen. The painting belongs to Tate Britain.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Catha Aldington advises that when the Proceedings of the III International Richard Aldington Society Conference are published they will include unpublished letters from RA to her and an unpublished story.
* * * * * * * * * *
Shelley Cox, who is always on the lookout for interesting offerings of the writings of RA, found the following listed by James Cummins Bookseller. “Death of a Hero. A Novel, London, Chatto & Windus, 1930. This copy is inscribed, ‘Ronald Coleman from Richard Aldington Oct. 1934.’ An anti-war novel by the WWI veteran Aldington, better known as a poet, friend of Pound, husband of H.D. and one of the Egoist circle. Fifth Printing (Cheap Edition), 8vo. 440 pp. Blue cloth, with staining on lower covers, else Very Good. Bookseller Inventory #54440. $250.00.” Cox comments: “There are some who would say Aldington looked a great deal like Ronald Colman, so it’s interesting to know that RA inscribed a copy to him.”
* * * * * * * * * *
[Untitled poem by RA]
It is bitter, watching the bright leaves fall,
To think: “Now I shall not see her ever,
Never once, never hear her soft voice call
My name, and clasp her hand in mine never.”
As the leaves fall I dream that you sit alone,
With hands empty and resigned, and the light
Gone from your eyes and hair, still as a stone,
And a dream face haunting your inward sight.
Time drifts with the leaves, and murmurs: “Too late.”
If we met we could but turn with a sigh:
“Too late,” O lost love hidden by Fate
And haunting my bitter heart till I die.
A corrected typescript of this poem is in the Morris Library of Southern Illinois University. No record of publication has been found. (Quoted from The Poetry of Richard Aldington [Penn State Press, 1974], p. 191.)