ABOUT THIS BOOK

A concise biography of the modernist poet and avant-garde woman.

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961), best known for her imagist poetry, was one of the first writers of free verse in English. For over forty years, H.D. wrote poetry about forgotten ancient goddesses and autobiographical prose about her own traumas and desires. Dubbed the “perfect bi –” by Sigmund Freud, she was also a scholar of religion, mythology, and history, a translator of ancient Greek, and an avant-garde filmmaker. This new biography explores the fascinating life and work of this important but often overlooked modernist figure.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Lara Vetter is professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and her books include A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose.

REVIEWS

"A compelling introduction to this most fascinating life."

— Francesca Wade, author of 'Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the Wars'

"Vetter’s elegantly compact biography of modernist poet H.D. opens tantalizingly. What follows is a lively introduction to the remarkable life of a bold, brave, and visionary woman. Written for a broad audience, H.D. is the story of how the girl Hilda Doolittle grew up to become the writer, H.D., one of the greatest modernist American poets of the twentieth century."

— Cynthia Hogue, author of 'Instead, It Is Dark'

“[An] acute, compact biography [written] with exquisite delicacy . . . The life that mattered was in the perpetual motion of creation that made biography problematic. She created herself in her writing about her analysis of Freud, about mythology, religion, and a range of ancient and modern subjects that has made it difficult for her biographer to pin down her subject. To Ms. Vetter’s credit, she does not discount the difficulty. . . Such admissions ought to weaken the biographer’s authority, but in Ms. Vetter’s case the opposite is true because she is as supple as her subject.”

— New York Sun

"Engaging and well-paced."

— Gay and Lesbian Review

"Vetter's well-written, compact biography is an excellent place to start for an overview of H.D.'s remarkable life and career. . . . Highly recommended."

— Choice

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
Chapter 1: ‘Inexorably entangled’, 1886–1911
Chapter 2: ‘My pencil run riot!’, 1911–14
Chapter 3: 'The black cloud fell’, 1914–18
Chapter 4: ‘To make a self’, 1919–26
Chapter 5: ‘The perfect bi-’, 1927–39
Chapter 6: ‘This is not writing . . . this is burning’, 1939–46
Chapter 7: ‘Content, besieged with memories, like low-swarming bees’, 1946–61

References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements

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