Writings about H.D.

Scholarly and Creative Works about H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)

Advice for Readers New to H.D.

• For information about H.D.’s life, see our biography page.
• A good place to start reading about H.D.’s writing is the H.D. section of the Multimedia Companion to the Anthology of Modern American Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2000) by Marsha Bryant.
• H.D.: Woman and Poet (edited by Michael King, Orono, Maine: National Poetry Foundation, University of Maine at Orono, c1986; ISBN #0-915032-69-4)
• Signets: Reading H.D. (edited by Susan Stanford Friedman and Rachel Blau DuPlessis, U of Wisconsin P, 1990).
• To set up a Google Scholar alert for H.D., click here

Critical Bibliographies

• The Modern American Poetry Web site includes a brief bibliography of criticism by Marsha Bryant.
• Michael Boughn’s descriptive bibliography, H.D.: A Bibliography, 1905-1990 (Charlottesville, Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, UP of Virginia, 1993; ISBN #0813914124) lists much of the criticism published prior to 1990.
• This page contains a beginner’s bibliography of criticism: Literaryhistory.com.

Periodicals of Interest

• H.D.’s Web, an e-newsletter 2007-2011
• H.D. Newsletter, 1987-1991
• Sagetrieb (1981-2014; ISSN #0735-4665, published by the National Poetry Foundation at the University of Maine, Orono, Maine).
• Paideuma, 1971-present, also published by the National poetry Foundation, devoted to the study of H.D., Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and their circle.
• Iowa Review, H.D. centennial issue. (Information contributed by Lisa Simon.)
• For a list of other special issues of periodicals, see the introduction to Annette Debo and Lara Vetter’s Approaches to Teaching H.D.’s Poetry and Prose (New York: MLA Press, 2011).

Online Articles and Reviews

• Louis Silverstein’s “Planting the Seeds: Selections from the H.D. Chronology.“
• Catherine Aldington Guillaume’s Poet on the Couch : H.D. with Freud
• Charlotte Mandel’s “Beautiful Dreamers: Helen in Egypt and The Sleeping Beauty”
• Charlotte Mandel’s “Garbo/Helen: The Self-projection of Beauty by H.D.”
• Charlotte Mandel’s “Letters Across the Atlantic : H.D., Bryher, May Sarton, During World War II”
• Charlotte Mandel’s “Magical lenses: poet’s vision beyond the naked eye”
• Charlotte Mandel’s “The Redirected Image : Cinematic Dynamics in the Style of H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)”
• Charlotte Mandel’s Review of H.D.’s The Gift 
• Marilyn Hacker’s “Brooks, H.D., and Rukeyser: Three Women Poets of the First Century of World Wars”

Creative Works Inspired by H.D. 

• Select the “Creative Inspiration” Category for recent posts about works inspired by H.D.
• Jane Augustine’s High Desert (Dos Madres Press, 2019) includes visionary poetry influenced by feminist thought and H.D.
• Finn Ó Branagáin’s one-woman monologue play, What are the Islands to Me (2019), was first performed at the University of Pottsdam in Berlin in 2020.
• Robin McCarthy’s “Dead or Alive with H.D. in Bethlehem, PA” in Pank, 15 Oct. 2014
• Hilda and Freud, Collected Words, promenade play performed by the Brazilian company, Unconscious on Stage at the UK Freud Museum in 2013
• Amy Evan’s The Sea Quells includes poems directly engaged with H.D.’s Sea Garden (Bristol: Shearsman Books, 2013). See a sample of poems here
• Robert Duncan’s The H.D. Book (Berkeley: UC Press, 2012)
• Joan Jonas, Lines in the Sand (Performance). See installation stills and and performance video at the Brooklyn Museum
• “An Exchange between Joan Jonas, Susan Howe, and Jeanne Heuving” in How2
• The H.D. Trilogy Film, directed by Larry Jordan (1990) is available from MUBI. It features poet Joanna McClure in a Mediterranean village, reading excerpts from Hermetic Definition among other texts. View a sample scene here.
• Hilda’s Book, a film by Frank Wintle
• Stephen Collis, “At the Bottom of Avon River: A Partial Alphabet of Objects for Louis Zukofsky and H.D.” from the Electronic Poetry Center
• Video Presentation of “A Photograph: Hilda Doolittle” from the University of Athens
• “Writing through Imagism” episode of Poem Talk (#36)
• Art exhibit by Oriole Farb Feshbach: H.D.’s Triology at the R. Michelson Galleries

H.D. on Radio and Television

• Podcast from Poem Talk #84 “The I as Hieroglyph: H.D., Helen in Egypt” with Julia Bloch, Dee Morris, Annette Debo, and host Al Filreis (27 Jan. 2015).
• Radio Interview on AshevilleFM’s WordPlay radio show with Annette Debo, discussing Within the Walls and What Do I Love (22 Jun. 2014) 
• Segment on BBC’s The Culture Show 18: “Wars of the Heart” (2013)

Latest Publications

• Susan McCabe Releases Poetry Collection
• The Usual Star and The Moment Edited by Lara Vetter
• “Queer Kinship Among the Stars: H.D., Silvia Dobson, and Astrology” by Victoria Papa in Modernism/modernity Plus
• “Signets Reborn: H.D.’s Serpent-and-Thistle Signet Ring and Louvre Museum Item Number BJ 1212” by Graham Borland identifies the source of H.D.’s Signets imagery