Edward Godfree "Richard" Aldington [1892-1962]
English poet, editor, translator, novelist, biographer; his early avant garde
work attracted the attention of Ezra Pound, who introduced him to H. D. (Hilda
Doolittle); the three became the first "imagist" poets whose work was enormously
influential in the 1910s and 1920s; married H. D. in 1913 but separated in 1919
and later divorced; worked as secretary to Ford Maddox Ford; served in World War
I as a lieutenant until severely injured by poison gas, the effects of which combined
with "shell-shock" (post-traumatic stress syndrome) lingered throughout much of
his life; published highly successful novel Death of a Hero in 1929; became interested
in contemporary French and Italian poetry and published 30 volumes of translations,
in addition to 20 or so volumes of his own poetry; wrote a number of biographies
including those of Wellington, D. H. Lawrence, and Lawrence of Arabia, the latter
of which was highly controversial; edited The Viking Book of Poetry of the English-Speaking
World (1941); died during a tour of the Soviet Union
