cover image Richard Aldington: Autobiography

Richard Aldington: Autobiography

Richard Aldington. Pennsylvania State University Press, $86.95 (402pp) ISBN 978-0-271-00832-5

British writer Richard Aldington (1892-1962) was an important force in the Modern Movement as an early Imagist poet, novelist, biographer, critic and translator. These revealing letters, heavily footnoted and arranged chronologically with introductory essays by Gates ( The Poetry of Richard Aldington ) were written from 1912 to 1962. Aldington's first novel, Death of a Hero , brought him fame, but his career went into an eclipse after he published a controversial biography of T. E. Lawrence. His letters to writers such as the poet H. D. (his first wife), Ezra Pound, D. H. Lawrence and Amy Lowell show his passionate commitment to the world of letters but also reflect his romantic life (he left H. D. for another woman), his snobbism and the racism and homophobia of the times. (Sept.)