Perhaps better known by her pseudonym “H.D.,” the poet Hilda Doolittle’s spare, emotionally-disconnected poetry helped to usher in the modern aesthetic in poetry, despite the fact that her work was little read or appreciated in its day. However, she became a feminist icon when rediscovered by scholars during the 1970s women’s movement.

Hilda Doolittle was born in 1886 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to an astronomer father and Moravian mother, whose family influence on Hilda was strong.

While attending Bryn Mawr, Doolittle befriended poets Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound, whom would be an especially important influence on her career as a poet, as Pound, to whom Doolittle was engaged for a time, would be the first to champion her poetry by placing it in Poetry magazine.

Doolittle traveled to Europe in 1909, ostensibly on vacation, but she would remain for the rest of her life, spending most of the time in England or Switzerland. As an expatriate, she began writing poetry in earnest, under the name H.D, her work appearing in anthologies – such as Pounds Des Imagistes, which would forever link H.D. with the poetic Imagist movement, long after she moved on from the Imagist style – and in journals. Throughout her life, Doolittle would give conflicting reasons for writing under this and other pseudonyms. From 1913-1938 Doolittle was married to Richard Aldington, who edited one of the journals who published her poetry.

The first volume of verse published under the name H.D., Sea Garden, appeared in 1916 and established Doolittle’s critical reputation. Doolittle wrote prolifically in both poetry and prose, not to mention her prize-winning translations, right up until her death in 1961, although many of her works were published posthumously as her reputation continued to grow.

Poetry volumes by H.D. include:

Prose works by H.D. include:

Selected poems by H.D.:

Heat

Stars Wheel in Purple

Leda