Vol. 34, No. 4 Winter 2006-2007
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* * * * * * * * * *
William Pratt writes that he is about to publish a new Pound book called Ezra Pound and the Making of Modernism. “Richard Aldington will be quoted more than once in it.” Publication details will be given later. The next Pound conference will be in Venice, June 26-29, 2007. The theme will be “Ends and Beginnings,” since Pound started his career in Venice and is buried there.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Patrick Quinn “has taken over the running of the English Department at the University of Mississippi.” An Anthology of Colonial and Postcolonial Short Fiction that Quinn co-edited with Dean Baldwin at Penn State, Erie, has just been published by Houghton/Mifflin.
* * * * * * * * * *
Member Archie Henderson noted frequent references to RA in Anne M. MacCarthy article, “Irene Rathbone’s Annotations to Brigit Patmore’s Memoir,” in ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 2006, pp. 38-44. MacCarthy writes: “Rathbone and Patmore were both involved romantically with Richard Aldington, and a lot of Patmore’s memoirs are given over to a discussion of her relationship with him. It is not surprising that Rathbone’s notes also show a firsthand knowledge of his life.” MacCarthy quotes from Rathbone’s penciled comments in her copy of Brigit Patmore’s My Friends When Young (1968).
* * * * * * * * * *
Theodore D. Sargent, Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, has made available information and images from postcards in his collection that concern H.D. The cards are dated September 17 and 19, 1908, and August 9, 1909. Transcriptions of them may be seen at http://www.imagists.org/hd/hdchron1.html The card dated September 19 is a photograph of the young H.D. See the front and back of this at http://www.imagists.org/hd/hdcard1.jpg and http://www.imagists.org/hd/hdcard2.jpg
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Archie Henderson writes: “In line with the previous notes (Vol.34.2.1, 34.3.1) on the high permission fees for reprinting copyrighted material, there is an essay by Kevin J.H. Dettmar, ‘Writers Who Price Themselves Out of the Canon,’ The Chronicle of Higher Education 52.48 (August 4, 2006), p. B6. Dettmar, who has served as co-editor of the 20th century selections for the Longman Anthology of British Literature for the past decade, concludes, ‘without some forward thinking by literary executors, 20th-century literature risks being distorted in ways none of us who love literature can easily stand by and silently watch.’”
* * * * * * * * * *
Correspondent Michel Copp writes of his cruise down the river Dnieper from Kiev to the Black sea: “One day, while strolling in Yalta under an avenue of trees I paused to browse at some second-hand booksellers’ stalls. At first I picked up, for 20 griven (about £2.00) a copy of the text of all of Bulgakov’s plays of 1920. At a second, and not very optimistically, I inquired if the bookseller had any Russian translations of RA’s work. Immediately came the response. ‘Oh, you mean the author of Death of a Hero? Well, I don’t have that, but I do have another of his novels. I can’t remember which, but if you will come back tomorrow afternoon you can have it for 10 griven (about £1.00).’ I returned the next day, half expecting to have made a wasted journey, but, no, there it was, the Russian translation of All Men Are Enemies as promised. This 1983 edition has a foreword by M.V. Urnov [a former member of the NCLS], and was printed in an edition of 500,000 copies.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Bibliographer Shelley Cox forwarded me a copy of an offering on eBay of the deluxe Folio Society edition of Boccaccio’s The Decameron translated by RA. After 22 bids it sold for $335.00. “The most expensive Aldington book that I have seen on E-Bay!” Shelley writes.
* * * * * * * * * *
Preceding M.V. Urnov’s introduction to the 1983 Russian edition of All Men are Enemies is a short note that indicates very clearly the Soviet-Marxist slant that was put upon RA’s novel, and also explains the huge print-run – 500,000:
“The novel of the English author Richard Aldington (1892-1962) narrates the fate of a bourgeois intellectual, a representative of the ‘lost generation.’ By pointing out the contrasts and contradictions of the bourgeois world, by unmasking the evil generated by it – war, parasitism, spiritual degradation, the author shows how in the consciousness of people like Antony Clarendon a recognition of historical truth took root: capitalism had become obsolete, and its downfall inevitable.”
* * * * * * * * * *
M.V. Urnov’s son, Dmitry Urnov, is a current member of the NCLS.
* * * * * * * * * *
Michel Pharand is now on the faculty of Kobe University, Kobe, Japan, where he teaches three literature classes. One of his courses is “Poets of the Great War,” which will include the poetry of RA. In Richard Aldington: An Intimate Portrait, Morikimi Megata, who was on the faculty of Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, writes of his ten years correspondence with RA.
* * * * * * * * * *
Correspondent Stephen Steele notes that the Norman Douglas Papers at Yale University contain a few documents related to RA, including two copies of the “Errant Knight of Capri” annotated by RA and a response from Douglas.
* * * * * * * * * *
This and the entry that follows were both contributed by NCLS member Archie Henderson.
“RA’s private view of D.H. Lawrence’s sexuality as expressed in a 1960 letter to Harry T. Moore was quoted in the revised edition of Moore’s The Intelligent Heart: The Story of D.H. Lawrence (New York, Grove Press, 1962), p. 84, and reprinted in John W. Haegert, ‘Turning One’s Back on Lawrence or the Function of Friendship Once More,’ Southern Review (Adelaide), XI.1 (1978), p. 89 n. 4.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“An excerpt of a letter from RA to Marie Sturge Moore, 10 Feb. 1924 (see NCLSN, 15.1.1) mentioning his two reviews of Valéry in the Times Literary Supplement, is quoted in Michael Rilby, ‘An Early English Admirer of Paul Valéry: Thomas Sturge Moore,’ Modern Language Review, LXXXXIV,3 (July 1989), p. 566 n.7. The books of Valéry which were reviewed by RA in the TLS were Album de vers anciens, 1890-1900 (‘Recent French Poetry,’ TLS no.1009 [19 May 1921], p. 317) and Variété (‘M. Paul Valéry,’ TLS no.1185 [2 Oct. 1924], p. 606).”
* * * * * * * * * *
HDSOC-L@LISTSERV.UCONN>EDU members were made aware of the H.D. scholars attending the MSAS Conference the week of 16 October where there were at least five papers given on H.D.
* * * * * * * * * *
Heather Hernandez, co-editor of http://Imagists.org/ where she edits the H.D. website and her husband, Paul Hernandez, edits the RA website, has offered to provide space on her website for papers presented at the MSA or ALA Conferences on H.D. This offer also extends to RA scholars and related topics—“imagists” in the broadest sense.
* * * * * * * * * *
Michel Pharand calls our attention to a very interesting website “A Bibliography of Japan in English-Language Verse of the Early 20th Century” by David Ewick. There are 71 references to RA that you can see by going to http://themargins.net/bibliography.html and putting RA’s name in the “search” box. There is also reference to Morikimi Megata, former NCLS member who contributed to Richard Aldington: An Intimate Portrait.
* * * * * * * * * *
On 26 October three NCLS members (Michael Copp, Sarah Davison and Andrew Frayn) who had participated in the IV IRAS Conference at Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer met up again in the English Faculty building of the University of Oxford. Michael had been invited by Sarah to contribute a seminar paper to the interdisciplinary series “Fin de Seicle,” covering the years 1870-1920. Michael’s topic was “The Fourth Imagist: F.S. Flint and the Road to Modernism.” Andrew had traveled down from Manchester to attend this seminar and spend some time in the Bodleian Library.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Gemma Bristow found the following most interesting sale listing for a manuscript at the Advanced Book Exchange:
A sixty-six page typescript. This is Aldington’s early working draft for “The Poems of Richard Aldington” published by Doubleday, Doran & Company in 1934. The Introduction reads (in part): “Ten years have passed since the last of these pieces was published. …” (Exiles and other Poems. 1923). This places the typescript date at 1933, which agrees with an ink ownerscript inscription “Yvonne Charteris 1934” on the front flap. Whereas the considerably expanded Introduction to the 1934 published volume reads “More than twenty years have passed since the first three poems in this book were published… .”The really exciting feature of this find is that the typescript contains three watercolour miniatures (they each measure 3 x 2 inches) by Aldington to accompany the poems, or verses of poems, in typescript opposite. These are: (1) “The Ruined House”., (2) Stanzas 1 and 11 of “A Village”., and, finally (3) stanza IV of “A Village”..
“The willow boughs are red with sap.. “. The book is roughly sewn with red wool along the top edge and spine. The covers are heavy gray paper. The title lettering is inked in outline and then colored with red fill. There is a manuscript correction to the word “promonory” in the first line of the poem “Exile” that reads “Misprint in book? Copied exactly. surely promontory”. There is a working drawing for a bookplate that we think is by Lawrence Whistler. jpg images are available, by request.
The seller is the Sanctuary Bookshop, 65 Broad Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset, UK; e-mail books@lyme-regis.demon.co.uk.
* * * * * * * * * *
Correspondent Stephen Steele sends information on two collections of RA correspondence listed in my Checklist, but without this additional information:
Aldington appears in the Robert Allerton Parker Papers which are found in the Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley. Parker (1888-1970) was an American journalist, editor, biographer and critic. His papers contain nine letters from RA written between 1956 and 1960.
The Earl Roy Miner Papers in the Young Research Library at UCLA contain unspecified [the Checklist shows three letters] correspondence from Aldington. The Miner Papers are partially processed at this time. Miner (b. 1927), a former English Professor at Princeton, is the author and editor of numerous books.
* * * * * * * * * *
Palladour Books (NCLS members Jeremy and Anne Powell), in their Catalogue Number 42, Autumn 1006, lists three of RA’s books: A Fool I’ the Forest, Roads to Glory and The Colonel’s Daughter.
* * * * * * * * * *
NCLS member Andrew Frayn gives us clarifying details on the Checklist’s entry for Frederic
Manning. The actual location of the two letters at UCLA is “Miscellaneous Manuscript Collection, Collection 100, Box 101.” The letter of 12 March 1921 (more a short note) is actually from RA to Manning’s friend Eva Fowler, passing on condolences to Manning of the death on his companion Arthur Galton. It is addressed from Malthouse Cottage. The letter of 19 October 1920, addressed from Chapel Farm Cottage, is an extended literary discussion between RA and Manning. It seems that Manning has asked RA about the possibility of submitting a poem in heroic couplets, to which RA’s response is a query, “Do you think heroic couplets could be used seriously today?” There is an extended discussion of Greek literature, firstly of Epicurus, and then of RA’s translation of Meleager. RA asks for a clarification from Galton or Manning regarding some points of translation, commenting that “my knowledge of Greek is not sufficient to keep me from errors.” Aldington finished with a dismissal of Pound’s poetry, which he has been rereading, finding that “His early romantic style is intolerably hirsute and his later style uselessly complex.”
The Derek Patmore collection at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, contains a series of 13 items of correspondence from Manning to RA, but no letters from RA to Manning.
* * * * * * * * * *
Catha Aldington writes that she has just received a copy to a new Penguin edition of First World War Poems that includes poems by RA.
* * * * * * * * * *
In Newsletter, 33.4.3, Correspondent Michael Copp reported on the launch of the first five titles in the series, “The War Poets,” published by Cecil Woolf Publishers, London, with our RA biographer, Jean Moorcroft Wilson, as General Editor. This year, on 16 November, Copp attended the London launch of the next four titles: Dominic Hibberd, Harold Monro and Wilfred Gibson: the Pioneers; John Press, Charles Hamilton Sorley; Christopher Saunders, Edward Thomas and the Great War: All Roads Lead to France; and Merryn Williams, T. P. Cameron Wilson. The event was also attended by two other NCLS members, Alan Blaylock and Anne Powell. Among other guests Michael had the pleasure of meeting the novelist, Dame Beryl Bainbridge, and Antony Curtis who wrote the obituary notice for RA, which appeared in The Daily Telegraph on 29 July 1962.
* * * * * * * * * *
Correspondent Copp also reports that he has been invited to contribute a profile on F.S. Flint for The Literary Encyclopedia.
* * * * * * * * * *
Some of the earliest letters we have from RA to F.S. Flint give us fascinating glimpses of the literary scene that they were both penetrating and the contacts they were making.
On 29 October 1913: “I have just heard from Mrs. Hueffer [Violet Hunt] that she has sent you a formal invitation for Tuesday, & she asks me to say that you are to come! Marinetti will be there, so you may have some fun with him, & Ezra is coming up if he can.”
On 12 November 1913: “Ford Madox Hueffer wants to talk to you about things – Claudel, [Harley Granville] Barker, jobs &c. He will give you the introduction to Barker if you want it. Will you therefore come to me on Saturday night about 7.30, & then we can go to Hueffer’s afterwards. Be sure to come; Hueffer is very interested in you, and is awfully kind. I met Mrs. Souter [literary hostess and wife of John Galsworthy] out last night and we talked of you. She is glad you’re coming to her.” [Found in RA’s letters by Correspondent Copp.]
* * * * * * * * * *
“I have recently come across a controversial article about RA and HD in English, the journal of the UK English Association: Charles LaChance, ‘The Sexual Sublime and Hilda Doolittle” (English. vol 53 no 205, Spring 2004, pp. 31-59). LaChance sets out to ‘read HD’s imagism with a new emphasis … on heterosexual and masculinist [sic] themes – as against lesbian, bisexual, asexual, androgynous or feminist ones.’ He argues that the ‘novelty, complexity, cohesion and power of HD’s imagist poetry are qualities amplified by her resourceful use of traditions involving divine rape and the sublime.’ Frequently citing Zilboorg’s editions of the Letters of HD and RA, LaChance comments that ‘from the very outset of her career, HD followed masculine poetics and Dionysian scripts.’ He notes that ‘Among her lovers, one very visible “daemon” was Aldington. Another, Pound. Both were in fact “possessive” of their “Maenad.”’ He continues, ‘in 1912, an acknowledgement of heterosexuality’s worth becomes relevant in HD’s life, as she ends whatever closeness she had with Frances Gregg and begins her long intimacy with Richard Aldington, her great soul mate and ‘Faun’.”
* * * * * * * * * *
“The following passage appears on page 231 of Frank Vigor Morley’s Literary Britain: A Reader’s Guide to Writers and Landmarks (London: Hutchinson): ‘Aldington, even more than Lytton Strachey, suffered from unusual jealousies, his occasional way of easing (so it seemed) some hidden mortification; I would not advise believing what Aldington’s ill moods made him say about such one-time close friends of his as D.H. Lawrence, Monro, Pound and Eliot.’” [The above two items were contributed by NCLS member Adrian Barlow.]
* * * * * * * * * *
