Vol. 34, No. 2 Summer 2006
Editor: Norman T. Gates
520 Woodland Avenue
Haddonfield, NJ 08033-2626, USA
E-mail: ntgates@worldnet.att.netAssociate Editor: David Wilkinson
The Old Post Office Garage
Chapel Street, St. Ives
Cornwall TR26 2LR U.K.
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* * * * * * * * * *
Many years ago, Associate Editor David Wilkinson found in a Berkshire junk shop one of Dorothy “Arabella” Yorke’s drawings that appeared to come from a book she had illustrated, The Art of Lydia Lopokova by Cyril W. Beaumont (C.W. Beaumont, 1920). Two or three years ago Wilkinson put out a “book search” for this book and it was found. Wilkinson had bought the copy of the book from which the drawing came, but sadly two of the “9 full page handcoloured illustrations (tipped in) depicting the dancer in well-known roles by Arabella Yorke” had been sold. The copy of this book the “book search” found is offered by Booth Books at £400.00.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Archie Henderson noticed an excerpt of a letter from RA to John Rodker, dated 6 August, 1928, on p.99 of Ian Patterson’s “Writing on Other Fronts: Translation and John Rodker,” Translation and Literature, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring 2003), pp. 88-113.
* * * * * * * * * *
Scholarship on RA’s writing is being discouraged by the refusal of his literary agents to differentiate between scholarly and commercial publication. Those of us who have engaged in scholarly publication will recognize the difficulties faced if high fees are imposed for articles appearing in literary journals. This is a serious problem for which I hope some of our members can suggest a solution.
* * * * * * * * * *
Welcome new NCLS member Virginia Nicholson who describes herself as a “popular social historian.” She is at present completing a book (to be published probably in late ’07) about women left single after the First World War that will mention RA in context of his relationship with Irene Rathbone. Member Nicholson’s last book, Among the Bohemians - Experiments in Living 1900-1939 (Penguin, Viking 2000, and William Morrow USA 2001) also contains several mentions of RA; “however these are mostly ‘borrowed’ from his memoirs or from Death of a Hero.”
* * * * * * * * * *
All but a few NCLS members receive the Newsletter by e-mail. Because this is a big help to your editors as our membership grows, we have two requests. 1) If you now receive your copy of the NCLSN by regular mail, but would be able to receive it by e-mail, would you please send us your e-mail address. 2) Each quarter when our e-mail edition is sent out, we have a number that cannot be delivered, because an e-mail address has been changed or the service has been discontinued; therefore, should you change your address or discontinue e-mail service, please let us know. Finally, Website Editor Paul Hernandez posts a copy of the current Newsletter on the RA and H.D. Website as soon as he receives it. You can, therefore, go to http://Imagists.org/ at anytime to read or printout current or recent issues of the NCLSN.
* * * * * * * * * *
IV International Richard Aldington Society Conference, will hold its bi-annual meeting, July 6-8, in the historic town of Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, France, on the coast of the Mediterranean in the Comargue, where Catherine Aldington has lived for many years. Conference papers will address Richard Aldington’s life and work as well as connections between Aldington and other twentieth-century writers, such as H.D., Durrell, Pound, and Hemingway. E-mail H.R. Stonebach at Stoney_Sparrow@webtv.net for details.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Neil Macrae noted the obituary for Barbara Guest (died Berkeley, California, 15 February 2006) in the Independent of 22 February that refers to her “controversial biography of the Modernist poet Hilda Doolittle (H.D.).”
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Dmitry Urnov, the son of Mikhail Urnov who was RA’s host on his visit to Russia just before his death in 1962, sends us some interesting news. After receiving a copy of the RA letter that was kindly made available to us by NCLS member Simon Hewett, Professor Urnov writes that since RA’s letter concerns All Men Are Enemies and was addressed to a Long Island resident at Oyster Bay, he and his wife, Julia Palievsky, plan to display it with their copy of All Men (that was published by Doubleday in Garden City, Long Island) at the exhibit, “Literary Long Island,” that they are preparing for the Nassau Community College Library.
Member Urnov remembers that when RA and Catherine visited his parents those present were audiotaped reading from RA’s works. Young Urnov read a passage from All Men that he connected to Russia’s political situation; when RA asked why he had chosen it, Urnov was too embarrassed to reply and Catherine rescued him. RA chose to read, “It is a threnody…” from the Glover letter that introduces Death of a Hero.
(Unfortunately, there are very few NCLS members left who knew RA so that these memories are both rare and valuable.)
* * * * * * * * * *
Responding to Ian Hamilton (NCLSN, 34.1.2), Urnov notes that in the 1930s RA was on the best sellers list, and C.P.Snow wrote about him as the leading English novelist.
* * * * * * * * * *
In the “Introduction” to Selected Poems by Amy Lowell, edited by Melissa Bradshaw and Adrienne Munich (Rutgers UP, 2002), one of Lowell’s letters to RA (11 April 1918) is quoted:
“As [Lowell] explained to Richard Aldington, chastising him for writing poetry she believed would alienate the average reader, ‘Great poetry is and must be universal, above the customs and cliques of the initiated.’”
* * * * * * * * * *
Our Russian NCLS member Ludmila Volodarskaya reports the recent publication of The Encyclopedian Dictionary of English Literature. XX Century. Moscow: Nauka, 2005. Pp. 310-312 are dedicated to the prose and poetry of Richard Aldington, his life, and some bibliography.
* * * * * * * * * *
Member Volodarskaya’s recent literary work includes translation of Lawrence Durrell’s “The Avignon Quintet,” and thirteen stories by D.H. Lawrence. She has also published some articles about the history of Russian translation in Toronto Slavic Quarterly (Internet), and edited books of Thomas Moore, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Donne.
* * * * * * * * * *
In mid-March the Co-Chairs of the H.D. International Society, Annette Debo and Lara Vetter, announced that they had received approval from the MLA to begin work on Approaches to Teaching H.D.’s Poetry and Prose, notice of which appeared in the MLA Newsletter. Questionnaires were sent out to teachers of H.D. asking for information about how they taught H.D. and requesting abstracts for short essays to be considered for the proposed book.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Max Saunders advises that there is now a website for the Ford Madox Ford conference in Birmingham on September 14-16, 2006. The URL is www.english.bham.ac.uk/fordmadoxford2006
He also confirms the dates for a second conference to be held in Genoa, September 17-19, 2007. For further
Information, e-mail Professor Saunders at max.saunders@kcl.ac.uk
* * * * * * * * * *
H.D.’s Bid Me to Live was published in Russia for the first time in 2005.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS Bibliographer and Correspondent Shelley Cox noted a listing on eBay of The Home Letters of TE Lawrence and His Brothers by Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1954. The seller writes: “I obtained this book at an estate sale and found a letter signed by AW Lawrence—Arnold Walter Lawrence—tucked inside. In it he offers his very frank opinion of Lawrence of Arabia biographer Richard Aldington. At the same time I purchased a copy of the Aldington biography. Inscribed on the front page of this book is the owner’s opinion that Aldington was ‘insanely jealous’ of TE Lawrence. This opinion was written, I believe, by the Mrs. Curtis Lee who is the addressee of the AW Lawrence letter.”
Member Cox writes “…I think this letter was noted by Fred for his book.” [Richard Aldington and Lawrence of Arabia by Fred D. Crawford, SIU Press, 1998.]
* * * * * * * * * *
Correspondent Michael Copp reported that The Guardian was running a series entitled “Pieces of Me,” in which people are invited to look back on their lives through the objects that matter most to them. In the 28 March issue, one of the objects that actor Charles Dance selected was RA’s A Dream in the Luxembourg. He writes: “A Dream in the Luxembourg is a romantic novel in verse by Richard Aldington, which I found in Chichester in 1972, I think. It is an exquisite piece of writing—I tend to shove it in a suitcase when I am going away—but if you are not romantic, you may think it absolute tosh,”
* * * * * * * * * *
Do not overlook the excellent website on RA and H.D. at http://Imagists.org/ It is maintained by Heather Hernandez (for H.D.) and Paul Hernandez (for RA). It is invaluable for general or scholarly information on these two Imagist poets. Among much other interesting material, you can read current and back issues of the Newsletter, and the very interesting and valuable “H.D. Chronology” put on-line by Heather Hernandez and mentioned in NCLSN, 32.1.1.
* * * * * * * * * *
Correspondent Michael Copp found that in The New Poetry: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Verse in English (1932 edition), the editors, Harriet Monroe and Alice Corbin Henderson, included four poems by RA: “The Poplar,” “Lesbia,” “Images, I-VI,” and “Choricos.” Writing to Robert Frost in 1917, F.S. Flint informs him that he had just received the first, 1917 edition, from Amy Lowell. Flint complains: “There is a great deal too much in it of a certain gentleman you and I could name.” Flint is clearly referring to Ezra Pound, who has nineteen poems in the 1932 edition, while Flint has just three.
* * * * * * * * * *
In an article by Ken Newton in the St. Joseph (MO) News Press of October 20, 2005, “Nature Inspires Married Academics,” that was written about Leo and Ruth Galloway (see NCLSN, 34.1.1.), RA is mentioned twice: first, when Mrs. Galloway is credited with “writing her dissertation on the British poet Richard Aldington,” and again when the lines from “Images”: “The flower which the wind has shaken / Is soon filled again with rain” are quoted.
* * * * * * * * *
In NCLSN, 1.1.2 the e-mail address of Vincent Gogibu, who is assembling the letters of RA’s friend Remy de Gourmont, was given incorrectly. Should you wish to contact him regarding his work, the correct address is vincent_gogibu@yahoo.fr
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Alan Byford was given a copy of Frederick Brereton’s An Anthology of War Poems (1930), introduction by Edmund Blunden. It contains four poems by RA: “Bombardment,” “Barrage,” “Machine Guns,” and “ A Moment’s Interlude.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Website editor Paul Hernandez received a re-worked transcription of RA’s interview on French Radio from Nichole Dawe of Medical Translation Services, Okehampton, UK. Ms. Dawe found the transcript on the RA website, and feeling that it could be improved, sent her transcription to Hernandez who agreed it was better. You can read the new transcription at http://www.imagists.org/aldington/resources.html
* * * * * * * * * *
Michael Copp noticed a reference to RA’s war poem, “Soliloquy #2,” in Paul Fussell’s Killing in Verse and Prose and Other Essays.
* * * * * * * * * *
Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia, has an entry for RA that you can review and edit. NCLS members are urged to check this entry and to correct or add to it. The exact website address is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Aldington
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLSN, 33.4.3 called attention to “Modernism at the Margins: Richard Aldington’s Letters to Douglas Goldring (1932-1946) by Heesok Chang and our own Stephen Steele. This excellent study has now been published in Modern Language Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 22-55. The introduction to the letters (eight pages) discusses the relations of the two writers to each other, to their times, and to other contemporary writers. Three pages of footnotes carefully document the authors’ statements and provide considerable opportunity for further study. The “Works Cited” listing includes, besides the writings of Aldington and Goldring, the works of a number of NCLS members. There are twelve letters written by RA to Goldring between 1932 and 1935 and three written in 1946; two pages of notes help to identify people, places, and events. This group of hitherto unpublished RA letters is very helpful to a better understanding of both writers. The addresses of the letters tell of a tumultuous time in RA’s life: Capri, London, Lavandou, Connecticut, Hollywood, and Paris.
* * * * * * * * * *
Correspondent Shelley Cox writes: “The lead article in this week’s New Yorker (May 29, 2006, pp. 50-61) is “Ruffled Feathers: The Secret Deceptions of a Bird-world Hero,” by John Seabrook. The “hero” in question is Richard Meinertzhagen, the friend of TEL and not a friend of RA. Apparently he lied about everything in his life, including killing his wife, forging his own diary, and creating forged ornithology records and even faked stuffed bird skins. There is a new book about Meinertzhagen coming out this fall called Meinertzhagen Mystery by Brian Garfield, which will undoubtedly have something about RA in it.”
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLSN correspondent Michael Copp, who has looked at many RA letters, comments on their salutations: “When one considers the handful of people to whom RA wrote on the most intimate terms, it is F.S. Flint who receives the greatest variety of informal salutations. H.D. is regularly addressed as ‘Dooley,’ though he also called her ‘Dryad,’ and ‘Asterea.’ RA addressed his friend John Cournos as ‘Kourshune,’ and Brigit Patmore as ‘Soukie.’ As regards Flint, once RA got beyond ‘Dear Flint’ and ‘Dear F.S.,’ he became quite inventive: ‘Dear (old) Frankie/Franky.’ As soon as RA was in the army the variations increased: ‘Dear Boy,’ ‘My dear Lad,’ and ‘My dear old Frank.’ RA and FSF corresponded a great deal in French while RA was serving in France, with results that get: ‘Mon cher,’ Mon cher ami,’ ‘Mon bon,’ ‘Mon brave,’ ‘Mon beau,’ ‘Mon vieux,’ and ‘Mon gros.’ Both men enjoyed throwing jocular insults at each other, so we find RA addressing FSF as ‘Cher bete,’ and even ‘Sale type.’ After the war RA for a time switched to greeting his friend in Italian: ‘Caro Frank,’ ‘Caro mio,’ Caro Francaccio,’ ‘Caro Frankyaino,’ and ‘Caro Frankobollo.’”
* * * * * * * * * *
The following information from Correspondent Stephen Steele may be helpful to RA scholars. The John Rodker Personal Papers (Subseries B, Box 39, Folder 3) at the Ransom Center (University of Texas, Austin) contain letters from RA dating from 1926-1928.
* * * * * * * * * *
Paul Hernandez writes: “I was just added to the editorial board of a little known online popular culture magazine called The High Hat <http://www.thehighhat.com>. Because of my work with imagists.org, they wanted me to write a piece on RA, but I’m not much of a writer so I thought I’d pass along the call to the NCLS folks. Articles are of general interest and usually around 3000 words. The High Hat is not a scholarly publication and any article on RA should probably assume that the reader is unfamiliar with him. I would suggest reading the piece on Guy Vanderhaeghe<http://www.the high hat.com/Potlach/Vanderhaeghe_Mairs.html> to get a sense of what the editors are looking for. You can send your pitch for your proposed article (on RA or any subject) to Highhatsubmissions@gmail.com Be forewarned that the High Hat has no budget and cannot pay for articles it publishes, however, authors retain copyright and may reprint elsewhere.”