Our hero today is the poet Richard Aldington. His biography will be examined in detail later. This man is of English origin and is also known as a critic and prose writer. He was born in 1892, on July 8.
Biography
Richard Aldington was born in a family of a lawyer in Portsmouth. He was trained at the University of London and Dover College. Due to financial difficulties, he did not manage to become a holder of a scientific degree. So began his journey of life, Richard Aldington. His work since 1912 is connected with a circle of imagists. He joined the association with Francis Stewart Flint, Thomas Ernest Hume and Hilda Doolittle. Later, Ezra Pound joined them . Our hero took part in all the Imagist anthologies. He was editing The Egoist. He was considered one of the representatives of Imagism as a literary trend. In 1914 representatives of this association published an anthology of their own poetry Des Imagistes. The collection included 37 poems, of which 10 belonged to the authorship of our hero. During this period he translated Greek and Roman poets. Together with John Cournos - a writer who was close to the Imagist circle, our hero in 1916, for the first time translated the novel "Petty Devil" by Fyodor Sologub into English.
World War I
Richard Aldington was a member of the fighting. In 1916 he began to serve in the army as an ordinary soldier. He was seconded to the Royal Sussex Regiment. Later he was promoted to officer. I 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 postponed the imprint of hopelessness and bitter bitterness on his work. Created in 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 then was poorly understood. In the twenties, this creative man, who was previously primarily known as a poet, began to pay more attention to prose. His novel entitled "The Death of a Hero" is partly autobiographical. This book is included today in the list of the most famous anti-war works of this genre and stands in line with the works of Hemingway and Remarque.
A collection of stories called "Mild Answers" appeared in 1932. This book continues the above line in the work of our hero. The next novel, entitled "All People - Enemies" appeared in 1933. He is imbued with a complete rejection of militarism. At the same time, it is a lighter and, in a sense, life-affirming book, if you compare it to the work "The Death of a Hero."
Forties and fifties
Richard Aldington in this period went to the United States. There I undertook the writing of biographies. He received the prestigious British literary prize of James Tait Black. Thus, the biography of the Duke of Wellington, written by him in 1946, was noted. He also published books on writers RL Stephenson and DG Lawrence. In 1955, a public disclosure about Lawrence of Arabia was published , which was considered a model of the English establishment. In Britain, this book was adopted very hostile. Therefore, our hero decided not to return to his homeland. Closer to the end of life, he moved from the United States to Europe. Lived in France. Visited the USSR. There the writer was warmly greeted by admirers of his talent.
Personal life
Above we were already screaming about who Richard Aldington is. His personal life will be described further. In 1911 he met his future wife Hilda Doolittle. She was a poetess. They got married two years later. The child who appeared in this pair was stillborn. Since 1915 they lived separately. In 1919, they tried to save the marriage. By this point, Hilda had a daughter from Cecil Gray. She lived with them while her husband was at the front. It was not possible to save the marriage. They broke up. The divorce was issued only in 1938. They were on friendly terms.
Heritage
According to contemporaries, Richard Aldington was the most "English" writer of the twentieth century. The name of our hero is engraved on a rock in Westminster Abbey, where sixteen "poets of the great war" are mentioned. His early military, as well as imagist poetry became part of the golden fund of English poetry. At the same time, anti-war novels are hushed up by English literary criticism today.
Bibliography
Here we have described the life and creative path that was passed by Richard Aldington. The bibliography of the writer will be given below. In 1915 the book "Images" was published. In 1919 the work "War and Love: Verses of 1915-1918" appeared. In 1923, our hero published a book "Reference and other poems." In 1929, "Death of the Hero" was published. In 1931 the book "Daughter of the Colonel" was written. In 1932, a collection of five novellas appeared, entitled "Mild Answers". In 1933, the work "All People Are Enemies" appears. In 1934 a book was published titled "Women must work." In 1938 there was a work "Seven against Reeves. A satirical novel. " In 1939, our hero wrote the book "The Outcast Guest". In 1946, the work "Duke" appeared, devoted to the life of Wellington. In 1950, the book "Delighted" was published, which tells about G. G. Lawrence. In 1954, the work was published under the title "Pretender Lawrence: Man and the Legend." In 1957, the book "Portrait of a Rebel: Life and Works of Robert Lewis Stevenson" was published. The translation of this book into Russian was done by GA Ostrovskaya. Also to our hero belongs the work "Images of desire." The poet not only wrote about others, he also devoted research works. In particular, MV Urnov published a book, which is called "Richard Aldington".