Editing Richard Aldington (section)

==Career==
[[File:H.D._in_Tendencies_in_Modern_American_Poetry,_1917_-_cropped.jpg|thumb|[[H.D.]] in 1917]]
Aldington's poetry was associated with the [[Imagist]] group, championing minimalist free verse with stark images, seeking to banish Victorian moralism. The group was key in the emerging [[Literary modernism|Modernist movement]].<ref name=Doyle/><ref name=PF/> Ezra Pound coined the term ''imagistes'' for H.D. and Aldington (1912).<ref name=Doyle/><ref>Michael H. Levenson, ''A Genealogy of Modernism'' (1984), p. 69.</ref> Aldington's poetry forms almost one third of the Imagists' inaugural anthology ''Des Imagistes'' (1914). The movement was heavily inspired by Japanese and classical European art.<ref Name=PF/><ref>Robert Ferguson, ''The Short Sharp Life of T. E. Hulme'' (2002), p.&nbsp; 85.</ref> Aldington shared [[T. E. Hulme]]'s conviction that experimentation with [[Waka (poetry)|traditional Japanese verse forms]] could provide a way forward for [[avant-garde]] literature in English.<ref>Rupert Richard Arrowsmith, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MIBNXScRj3QC&dq=modernism%20and%20the%20museum&pg=PP1 ''Modernism and the Museum: Asian, African and Pacific Art and the London Avant Garde'']. Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 103–164.</ref>

Pound sent three of Aldington's poems to [[Harriet Monroe]]'s magazine ''Poetry'' and they appeared in November 1912. She notes "Mr Richard Aldington is a young English poet, one of the "Imagistes", a group of ardent Hellenists who are pursuing interesting experiments in vers libre."<ref Name=LRB/>She considered the poem "Choricos" to be his finest work, "one of the most beautiful death songs in the language",<ref>Harriet Monroe, ''A Poet's Life'', Macmillan, New York, 1938.</ref> "a poem of studied and affected gravity".<ref Name=LRB>[https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n02/robert-crawford/lithe-pale-girls ''LRB''] Vol. 37 No. 2 · 22 January 2015.</ref><ref>Glenn Hughes, ''Imagism & The Imagists'', Stanford University Press, 1931 {{OCLC|3267558}}</ref>

H.D. became pregnant in August 1914, and in 1915 Aldington and [[H.D.]] relocated from their home in [[Holland Park]] near Ezra Pound to [[Hampstead]] close to [[D. H. Lawrence]] and [[Frieda von Richthofen|Frieda]].<ref>According to Lawrence biographer [[Frances Wilson (writer)|Frances Wilson]], Aldington and H.D. are portrayed by Lawrence in ''[[Aaron's Rod (novel)|Aaron's Rod]]'': "Aldington is Robert Cunningham, 'a fresh, stoutish young Englishman in khaki', H.D. is his wife Julia, 'a tall stag of a thing ... hunched up like a witch.'" Wilson, Frances, ''Burning Man: The Trials of D.H. Lawrence'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021, p. 138. {{ISBN|9780374282257}}.</ref> They felt calmer out of the bustle of the city, with more space and green. The pregnancy ended in a stillborn daughter, which traumatised the couple and put a great strain on the relationship; H.D. was 28 and Aldington 22. The outbreak of war in 1914 deeply disturbed Aldington, though no draft was in place at this time. H.D. felt more distant from the melee, not having a close affinity to the European landscape, geographical or political. This rift also put pressure on the marriage. Unhappy, Aldington dreamed of escape to America and began to have affairs.<ref name=Zilboorg/><ref name=Doyle/> He began a relationship with Florence Fallas, who had also lost a child.<ref Name=LRB/>

Between 1914 and 1916 Aldington was literary editor and a columnist at ''The Egoist''.<ref>[[Hugh Kenner]], ''The Pound Era'' (1971), p. 279.</ref> He was assistant editor with Leonard Compton-Rickett under [[Dora Marsden]].<ref>Robert H. Ross, ''The Georgian Revolt'' (1967), p. 69.</ref> Aldington knew [[Wyndham Lewis]] well and reviewed his work in ''[[The Egoist (periodical)|The Egoist]]''. He was also an associate of [[Ford Madox Ford]]'s, helping him with a propaganda volume for a government commission in 1914<ref>''When Blood is Their Argument: An Analysis of Prussian Culture''.</ref> and taking dictation for ''[[The Good Soldier]]''.

===World War I and aftermath===
Aldington joined up in June 1916 and was sent for training at [[Wareham, Dorset|Wareham]] in Dorset. H.D. moved to be closer to her husband. He was then sent to a camp near [[Manchester]]. They found the duality of their lives harsh, and the gruelling, regimented nature of the training felt hard for the sensitive professional poet. He felt fundamentally different from the other men, more given to intellectual pursuits than unending physical labour that left him little time to write. Their sporadic meetings were emotionally wrenching and the couple could make no plans for their future together. He encouraged H.D. to return to America where she could make a safer and more stable home. They both watched news come in of heavy troop losses in France at the [[Battle of the Somme|Somme]] and on other battlefields. She could not have information given on her husband's future postings overseas, all held to be secret. Rationing and the forced draft began as the war turned against the British.<ref Name=Zilboorg/>

When Aldington was sent to the front in December 1916, the couple's relationship became epistolary. He wrote that he had managed to complete 12 poems and three essays since joining up and wanted to work on producing a new book, in order to keep his mind on literature, despite his work of digging graves. He found the soldier's life degrading, living with [[Body louse|lice]], cold, mud and little sanitation. His encounters with [[Chlorine gas poisoning|gas]] on the front would affect him for the rest of his life. He was given leave in July 1917 and the couple enjoyed a reunion during this brief reprieve. He felt distant from old Imagist friends like Pound who had not undergone the torturous life of the soldiers on the front and could not imagine the living conditions.<ref Name=Zilboorg/>

In November 1917, Aldington joined up in the [[Royal Leicestershire Regiment|11th Leicestershires]] and was later [[Officer (armed forces)|commissioned]] as a [[second lieutenant]] in the [[Royal Sussex Regiment]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30436 |date=18 December 1917 |page=13311|supp=y}}</ref> He finished the war as a signals officer and temporary captain, being demobilised in February 1919.<ref Name=War/> He likely never fully recovered from the trauma of [[World War I]], writing of his field experiences in the collections ''Images of War'' and ''Images of Desire'' (1919), which were suffused with a new melancholy. By the end of World War I, he was feeling disconsolate about his own talent as a poet.<ref Name=PF/> ''Exile and Other Poems'' (1923) also dealt with the process of trauma. A collection of war stories ''Roads to Glory'', appeared in 1930. After this point he became known as a critic and biographer.<ref Name=War/>

Towards the end of the war, H.D. lived with composer [[Cecil Gray (composer)|Cecil Gray]], a friend of D. H. Lawrence's. They had a daughter together in March 1919, the pregnancy much complicated by H.D.'s catching pneumonia towards the end. Neither Gray nor Aldington wanted to accept paternity. By the time of Aldington's return H.D. was involved with the female writer [[Bryher (novelist)|Bryher]]. H.D. and Aldington formally separated and had relationships with other people, but they didn't divorce until 1938. They remained friends for the rest of their lives. He destroyed all the couple's pre-1918 correspondence.<ref>Vivien Whelpton (2014) ''Richard Aldington: Poet, Soldier and Lover 1911–1929'', p. 18.</ref>

Aldington helped [[T. S. Eliot]] by persuading [[Harriet Shaw Weaver]] to appoint Eliot as Aldington's successor at ''The Egoist'' magazine. In 1919, he introduced Eliot to the editor [[Bruce Lyttelton Richmond|Bruce Richmond]] of ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]''.<ref name="Carole Seymour-Jones 2001 p. 173">[[Carole Seymour-Jones]], ''Painted Shadow'' (2001), p. 173.</ref><ref>[[Lyndall Gordon]], ''Eliot's New Life'' (1988), p. 231.</ref> Aldington was on the editorial board of [[Diwan Chaman Lall|Chaman Lall]]'s London literary quarterly ''Coterie'' (published 1919–1921), accompanied by [[Conrad Aiken]], Eliot, Lewis and [[Aldous Huxley]].<ref>[[Nicholas Murray (biographer)|Nicholas Murray]], ''Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual'' (2002), p. 103.</ref> Eliot had a job in the international department of [[Lloyds Bank]] and well-meaning friends wanted him full-time writing poetry. Ezra Pound, plotting a scheme to "get Eliot out of the bank", was supported by [[Lady Ottoline Morrell]], [[Leonard Woolf]] and Harry Norton<ref>Carole Seymour-Jones, ''Painted Shadow'' (2001), pp. 342–346.</ref> Aldington began publishing in journals such as the Imagist ''The Chapbook''. In reply to Eliot's ''[[The Waste Land]]'', Aldington wrote ''A Fool i' the Forest'' (1924).

[[File:Valentine_Dobree_by_Mark_Gertler,_1919.jpg|thumb|[[Valentine Dobrée]] 1919]]
Aldington suffered a breakdown in 1925.<ref name = Zilboorg1>Caroline Zilboorg (editor), ''Richard Aldington and H.D.: Their Lives in Letters 1918–61'', p. 185.</ref> His interest in poetry waned, and he developed an animosity towards Eliot's celebrity.<ref>Carole Seymour-Jones, ''Painted Shadow'' (2001), p. 229.</ref> Aldington grew closer to Eliot<ref>Stanley Sultan, ''Eliot, Joyce, and Company'' (1987), p. 32.</ref> but gradually became a supporter of [[Vivienne Eliot]] in the troubled marriage. Aldington satirised her husband as "Jeremy Cibber" in ''Stepping Heavenward'' (1931).<ref>Carole Seymour-Jones, ''Painted Shadow'' (2001), pp. 471–472.</ref> He had a relationship with writer [[Valentine Dobrée]] and a lengthy and passionate affair with Arabella Yorke, a lover since [[Mecklenburgh Square]] days, coming to an end when he went abroad.<ref name=Zilboorg/><ref name=LRB/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.londongardenstrust.org/guides/bloomsbury.htm |title=A Walk through Bloomsbury |access-date=26 November 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081227085628/http://www.londongardenstrust.org/guides/bloomsbury.htm |archive-date=27 December 2008}}</ref>

Aldington helped [[Irene Rathbone]] publish her semi-autobiographical novel ''We That Were Young'' in 1932. They had an affair that ended in 1937. Rathbone dedicated her 1936 novel ''They Call it Peace'' to him, and she wrote a long poem, ''Was There a Summer?: A Narrative Poem'', in 1943 about their relationship.<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/93807 |pages=ref:odnb/93807 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/93807 |access-date=2023-03-03 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B. |editor3-last=Goldman |editor3-first=L.}}</ref>

===Exile===
Aldington went into self-imposed exile in 1928.<ref>[[Jonathan Bate]], Chris Baldick, ''The Oxford English Literary History: Volume 10: The Modern Movement (1910–1940)'' (2002), p. 43.</ref> He lived in Paris for years, living with Brigit Patmore and fascinated by [[Nancy Cunard]], whom he met in 1928. Following his divorce in 1938 he married Netta, née McCullough, previously Brigit's daughter-in-law.

''[[Death of a Hero]]'' (1929), which Aldington called a "jazz novel," was his semi-autobiographical response to the war. He started writing it almost immediately after the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|armistice]] was declared. The novel condemned Victorian materialism as a cause of the tragedy and waste of the war.<ref name=Doyle/> Rejectionist, an "Expressionist scream",<ref name=Hero/> it was commended by [[Lawrence Durrell]] as "the best war novel of the epoch". It was developed mostly while Aldington was living on the island of [[Port-Cros]] in Provence, building on the manuscript from a decade before. Opening with a letter to the playwright Halcott Glover, the book takes a satirical, cynical, and critical stance on Victorian and Edwardian [[Hypocrisy|cant]].<ref>Michael Copp (editor), ''An Imagist at War: The Complete War Poems of Richard Aldington'' (2002), p. 18.</ref> Published in September 1929, by Christmas it had sold more than 10,000 copies in England alone, part of a wave of war remembrances from writers such as [[Erich Maria Remarque|Remarque]], [[Siegfried Sassoon|Sassoon]], and [[Hemingway]]. The book was quickly translated into German and other European languages. In Russia the book was taken to be a wholesale attack on bourgeois politics, "the inevitable result of the life which had preceded it", as Aldington wrote. "The next one will be much worse". It was praised by [[Maxim Gorky|Gorky]] as revolutionary, and the book, along with Aldington's later fiction, received huge Russian distribution. Aldington was, however, fiercely non-partisan in his politics, despite his passion for iconoclasm and feminism.<ref name=Hero>Richard Aldington (1998). ''Death of a Hero'', Dundurn Press, p. xi.</ref>

The character of George Winterbourne is loosely based on Aldington as an artist (Winterbourne a painter rather than writer), having a mistress before and through the war, and the novel portrays locations strongly resembling those he had travelled to. One of these locations, fictionally named "The Chateau de Fressin," strongly resembled a castle he wrote about in a letter to H.D.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zilboorg |first=Caroline |date=Winter 1988 |title=Richard Aldington in Transition: His Pieces for The Sphere in 1919 |journal=Twentieth Century Literature |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=489–506 |doi=10.2307/441889 |jstor=441889}}</ref>

''Death of a Hero'', like many other novels published around this time about the war, suffered greatly from censorship. Instead of changing or cutting parts of his novel, he replaced objectionable words with asterisks. Although they looked awkward on the page, Aldington, among others, wanted to call attention to censoring by publishers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Willis Jr. |first=J. H. |date=Winter 1999 |title=The Censored Language of War: Richard Aldington's ''Death of a Hero'' and Three Other Novels of 1929 |journal=Twentieth Century Literature |volume=45 |issue=4 |pages=467–487 |doi=10.2307/441948|jstor=441948}}</ref>

In 1930 Aldington published a translation of ''[[The Decameron]]'' and then the romance ''All Men are Enemies'' (1933). In 1942, having relocated to the United States with his new wife Netta, he began to write biographies, starting with [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Wellington]]: ''The Duke: Being an Account of the Life & Achievements of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington'' (1943). It was followed by works on D. H. Lawrence: ''Portrait of a Genius, But ...'' (1950), [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]: ''Portrait of a Rebel'' (1957), and [[T. E. Lawrence]]: ''Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry'' (1955). Under financial pressure, he also worked as a Hollywood screenwriter.

Aldington's excoriating biography of T. E. Lawrence caused a scandal on its publication in 1955.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/te-lawrence-action-man-317983.html ''Independent'' Sunday 9 October 2005]</ref><ref>Crawford, Fred D., ''Richard Aldington and Lawrence of Arabia: A Cautionary Tale'' (1998).</ref> In the spirit of iconoclasm, he was the first to bring public notice to Lawrence's illegitimacy and asserted that he was a homosexual, a liar, a charlatan, an "impudent mythomaniac", a "self-important egotist", a poor writer and even a bad motorcyclist.<ref>''The Oxford Companion to English Literature'', 6th Edition. Edited by [[Margaret Drabble]], Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 16.</ref><ref>''T. E. Lawrence: Biography of a Broken Hero'' (2002) Harold Orlans, McFarland, p. 4.</ref> The biography dramatically coloured popular opinion of Lawrence.<ref Name=NDB>[https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-34440 ''Oxford Dictionary of Biography''], profile, 2011.</ref> Foreign and War Office files concerning Lawrence's career were released during the 1960s and further biographies continued to analyse the 'British hero'.<ref Name=NDB/> [[Robert Graves]], a friend of Lawrence, wrote that "instead of a carefully considered portrait of Lawrence, I find the self-portrait of a bitter, bedridden, leering, asthmatic, elderly hangman-of-letters."<ref Name=PF/> [[Robert Irwin (writer)|Robert Irwin]], in the London Review of Books, speculated that Aldington's spite was driven by jealousy and a sense of exclusion by the British establishment. Lawrence had attended Oxford and his father was a baronet; Aldington had suffered in the bloodbath of Europe during the First World War while Lawrence had gained a heroic reputation in the Middle Eastern theatre and became an international celebrity and homosexual icon. Irwin observes that he "was industrious and his portrait of Lawrence was fuelled by careful research".<ref>[https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n04/robert-irwin/top-grumpy-s-top-hate "Top Grumpy’s Top Hate"], ''London Review of Books'', Vol. 21, no. 4, 18 February 1999, Robert Irwin.</ref> [[Christopher Sykes (writer)|Christopher Sykes]], in his 1969 introduction to the Collins edition (reprinted in Pelican Biographies in 1971), stated that "for the first time, the awkward questions were faced squarely"; Sykes's final assessment of Aldington's book is that it "cleared the ground of rubbish, efficiently and thoroughly".<ref>''Lawrence of Arabia'' (1971), Richard Aldington, Pelican Biographies, Pelican Books, pp.13–23</ref>

Aldington lived in [[Sury-en-Vaux]], [[Cher (department)|Cher, France]], from 1958.<ref>N. T. Gates, ed. (1992). ''Richard Aldington: An Autobiography in Letters.'' The University of Pennsylvania Press.</ref> His last significant book was a biography of the Provençal poet and winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]], [[Frédéric Mistral]] (1956).<ref name=Doyle/>