Richard Aldington: biography and creativity

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Our today's hero is the poet Richard Aldington. His biography will be discussed in detail later. This man is of English origin and is also known as a critic and novelist. He was born in 1892, July 8.

Biography

Richard Aldington was born to a lawyer in Portsmouth. He studied at the University of London and Dover College. Due to financial difficulties, he did not manage to become the owner of an academic degree. This is how Richard Aldington began his life. Since 1912, his work has been associated with the circle of Imagists. He entered this association along with Francis Stewart Flint, Thomas Ernest Hume and Hilda Doolittle. Ezra Pound later joined them. Our hero took part in all Imagist anthologies. He edited The Egoist. He was considered one of the representatives of Imagism as a literary movement. In 1914, representatives of this association published an anthology of their own poetry, Des Imagistes. The collection includes 37 poems, 10 of which belonged to the authorship of our hero. During this period he translated Greek and Roman poets. Together with John Kurnos -a writer who was close to the Imagist circle, our hero in 1916 for the first time translated the novel "The Little Demon" by Fyodor Sologub into English.

World War I

Richard Aldington was a combatant. In 1916, he began serving in the army as a private. Was assigned to the Royal Sussex Regiment. Later he was promoted to officer. He served on the Western Front. In 1917 he was wounded. He was treated in the hospital. The war radically changed the attitude of our hero. She left an imprint of hopelessness and severe bitterness on his work. Created during this period, the book of poems "Images of War" is recognized as one of the best collections of English-language poetry in history.

After the war, our hero suffered from post-traumatic stress, which was then little studied. In the twenties, this creative person, who had previously been mainly known as a poet, began to pay more attention to prose. His novel, Death of a Hero, is partially autobiographical. This book is today included in the list of the most famous anti-war works of this genre and is on a par with the work of Hemingway and Remarque.

A collection of short stories called "Short Answers" appeared in 1932. This book continues the above line in the work of our hero. The next novel, en titled All Men Are Enemies, appeared in 1933. He is imbued with a complete rejection of militarism. At the same time, it is a lighter and, in a certain sense, life-affirming book, if compared withDeath of a Hero.

Forties and fifties

Richard Aldington went to the USA during this period. There he took up writing biographies. He received the prestigious British Literary Prize James Tite Black. Thus was marked the biography of the Duke of Wellington written by him in 1946. He also published books dedicated to the writers R. L. Stevenson and D. H. Lawrence. In 1955, a revealing work was published about Lawrence of Arabia, who was considered a model of the English establishment. In Britain, this book was received very hostilely. Therefore, our hero decided not to return to his homeland. Towards the end of his life, he moved from the USA to Europe. Lived in France. visited the USSR. There, the writer was warmly welcomed by admirers of his talent.

Private life

Above, we have already rave about who Richard Aldington is. His personal life will be described below. In 1911 he met his future wife, Hilda Doolittle. She was a poetess. They got married two years later. The couple's child was stillborn. Since 1915 they lived separately. In 1919, they tried to save the marriage. By this point, Hilda had a daughter with Cecil Grey. She lived with them while her husband was at the front. The marriage could not be saved. They broke up. The divorce was finalized only in 1938. They were on friendly terms.

Legacy

According to contemporaries, Richard Aldington was the most "English" writertwentieth century. Our hero's name is engraved on a stone in Westminster Abbey, where sixteen "poets of the great war" are mentioned. His early military and Imagist poems became part of the golden fund of English poetry. At the same time, anti-war novels are hushed up by English literary criticism even today.

Bibliography

Here we have described the life and creative path that Richard Aldington went through. The bibliography of the writer will be given below. In 1915 the book "Images" was published. In 1919, the work "War and Love: Poems 1915-1918" appeared. In 1923, our hero published the book Link and Other Poems. In 1929, The Death of a Hero was published. In 1931, the book "The Colonel's Daughter" was written. In 1932, a collection appeared, consisting of five stories, called "Mild Answers." In 1933, the work “All people are enemies” appears. In 1934, a book was published under the title Women Must Work. In 1938, the work “Seven against Reeves” appeared. satirical novel. In 1939, our hero writes the book The Outcast Guest. In 1946, the work The Duke appeared, dedicated to the life of Wellington. In 1950, the book “Admired” was published, which tells about D. H. Lawrence. In 1954, a work was published called The Pretender Lawrence: The Man and the Legend. In 1957, The Portrait of a Rebel: The Life and Works of Robert Louis Stevenson was published. The translation of this book into Russian was carried out by G. A. Ostrovskoy. Our hero also owns the work “Images of Desire”. The poet not only wrote about others, he was also devoted to research works. In particular, M. V. Urnov releasedbook, which is called "Richard Aldington".