Hilda Doolittle | Biography

Hilda Doolittle is best known as the "perfect" Imagist. Since the publication of three short poems in January 1913, under the name "H. D., Imagiste," she has been the model of Imagism, the 1913-1917 literary movement which marked the starting point of twentieth-century American poetry. H. D.'s poems are, indeed, excellent examples of Imagist form and theory, but a too limited and too facile adherence to this categorization has distorted her critical reputation. Although H. D. has written extensively in several genres, little critical attention has been paid to either her later, post-1925 writings, or to the shape of her career. This neglect is surprising since H. D.'s themes and techniques place her near the center, rather than at the periphery, of modern literary development. Peers such as Ezra Pound and Denise Levertov have acknowledged her power as a poet and her influence as an example. She was intimately involved...
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