Bryher (1894-1985)—adventurer, novelist, publisher—flees Victorian Britain for the raucous streets of Cairo and sultry Parisian cafes. Amidst the intellectual circles of the twenties and thirties, she develops relationships with Marianne Moore, Freud, Paul Robeson, her longtime partner H.D., Stein, and others. This compelling memoir, first published in 1962, reveals Bryher’s exotic childhood, her impact on modernism, and her sense of social justice by helping over 100 people escape from the Nazis. “A work so rich in interest, so direct, revealing, and, above all, thought-provoking that this reader found it the most consistently exciting book of its kind to appear in many years.”—The New York Times
Bryher (born Annie Winifred Ellerman) is perhaps best known today as the lifelong partner of the poet H.D. She was, however, a central figure in modernist and avant-garde cultural experimentation in the early twentieth century; a prolific producer of poetry, novels, autobiography, and criticism; and an intimate and patron of such modernist artists as Gertrude Stein, Marianne Moore, and Dorothy Richardson. Bryher’s own path-breaking writing has remained largely neglected, long out of print, and inaccessible to those interested in her oeuvre. Now, for the first time since their original publication in the early 1920s, two of Bryher's pioneering works of fictionalized autobiography, titled Development and Two Selves, are reprinted in one volume for a new audience of readers, scholars, and critics. Blending poetry, prose, and autobiographical details, Development and Two Selves together constitute a compelling bildungsroman that is among the first ever to follow a young woman's process of coming out. Through the fictionalized character Nancy, the novels trace Bryher’s life through her childhood and young adulthood, giving the reader an account of the development of a unique lesbian, feminist, and modernist consciousness. Development and Two Selves recover significant work by one of the first experimenters of the modernist movement and are a welcome reintroduction of the enigmatic Bryher.
"This dual biography takes on the daring task of examining how two women, who didn't feel like women, survived as a couple, raising an illegitimate child during a period when such arrangements were frowned upon, if even recognized. When they met in 1918, H.D. (born Hilda Doolittle in 1886), had already achieved recognition as an Imagist poet, engaged in a lesbian affair, was married to a shell-shocked adulterous poet, and was pregnant by another. She fell in love with Bryher (born Annie Winifred Ellerman in 1894), trapped both in a female body and in the shadow of her father, Sir John Ellerman, a wealthy shipping magnate. They felt a telepathic and electric connection, bonding over Greek poetry, geography, ancient history, and a shared bodily dysphoria. Bryher introduced H.D. to cinema, psychoanalysis, and politics, herself rescuing refugees from Nazis throughout the 1930s. Bryher engaged in legal strategies to protect H.D., marrying Kenneth Macpherson, who adopted H.D.'s child and collaborated with the couple in filmmaking, discovering his queerness. Both H.D. and Bryher were on vision quests, and their cerebral eroticism led them to otherworldly experiences. During World War II, they held séances in London. After "V-J Day" was announced, H.D. had a severe nervous breakdown, which Bryher, taking great pains, ensured she survived. As a love story born out of war and modernism, the book speaks to their struggles to escape binary gender, homophobic and white supremacist agendas, while celebrating their creative triumphs and courageous aspirations"--
At the heart of this collection of correspondences are the letters of the poet H.D. (1886-1961) to her companion, the novelist Bryher, during the time she underwent psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud. Friedman (English and women's studies, U. of Wisconsin at Madison) presents the letters as giving an alternative view of Freud's therapeutic style, as well as offering portraits both of late 19th century Vienna and of the literary circle H.D. was part of, which included Havelock Ellis, Kenneth MacPherson, and Ezra Pound. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
For many years young writers experimenting with forms and aesthetics in the early decades of this century, small journals known collectively as "little" magazines were the key to recognition. Joyce, Stein, Eliot, Pound, Hemingway, and scores of other iconoclastic writers now considered central to modernism received little encouragement from the established publishers. It was the avant-garde magazines, many of them headed by women, that fostered new talent and found a readership for it. Jayne Marek examines the work of seven women editors—Harriet Monroe, Alice Corbin Henderson, Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, H.D., Bryher (Winifred Ellerman), and Marianne Moore—whose varied activities, often behind the scenes and in collaboration with other women, contributed substantially to the development of modernist literature. Through such publications as Poetry, The Little Review, The Dial, and Close Up, these women had a profound influence that has been largely overlooked by literary historians. Marek devotes a chapter as well to the interactions of these editors with Ezra Pound, who depended upon but also derided their literary tastes and accomplishments. Pound's opinions have had lasting influence in shaping critical responses to women editors of the early twentieth century. In the current reevaluation of modernism, this important book, long overdue, offers an indispensable introduction to the formative influence of women editors, both individually and in their collaborative efforts.
Winged Words puts the work of H.D., including her poetry, translations, and prose, in the context of her life. Because the majority of H.D.’s oeuvre was unpublished until recently, author Donna Hollenberg, who’s written three previous books about H.D., is able to account for and analyze significantly more of H.D.’s work than previous biographers. H.D.’s friends and lovers were a veritable Who’s Who of Modernism, and Hollenberg gives us a glimpse into H.D.’s relationships with them. With rich detail, the biography follows H.D. from her early years in America with her family, to her later years in England during both world wars, to Switzerland, which would eventually become H.D.’s home base. It explores her love affairs with both men and women; her long friendship with Bryher; the birth of her daughter, Perdita, and her imaginative bond with her; and her marriage to (and later divorce from) fellow poet Richard Aldington. Additionally, the book includes scenes from her relationships with Ezra Pound, Marianne Moore, William Carlos Williams, and D.H. Lawrence; H.D.’s fascination with spiritualism and the occult; and H.D.’s psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud. The first new biography of H.D. to be published in over four decades, Winged Words is a must-read resource for anyone conducting research on H.D.
This book explores the personal and professional lives of Richard Aldington and H.D.'s intimate correspondence between 1918 and 1961, including extensive biographical commentary of one of the 20th century's most fascinating literary couples and pioneers of Modernist literature.
In this remarkable novel, Bryher takes the reader into sixth century Britain—Cornwall, the Scillys, Ireland and Wales. Arthur is dead and the uneasy peace which he established is drawing to its close. Young Ruan, nephew of a high priest, is destined for the priesthood. Turbulent and restless for adventure, he feels caged and longs for the high seas. At last he breaks free and sets out on the quest for those islands which are to him both an image and reality. The sights, sounds, passions and ordeals of Celtic Britain filter through Bryher’s haunting prose. With Ruan’s eyes we see the throngs at the Cornish fair, the religious ritual, the burial of the king on the mysterious Scilly Isles. With him we experience the mariners’ winter camp in Ireland and with him we flee for life through an Irish bog.
This collection of twelve essays discusses the principles and practices of women's autobiographical writing in America, England, and France from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries.
