{"id":70,"date":"2017-09-19T08:50:49","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T08:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/?p=70"},"modified":"2017-08-29T10:38:16","modified_gmt":"2017-08-29T10:38:16","slug":"richard-aldington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Aldington"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the course of an academic career, you tend to become associated with particular ideas, topics and authors.\u00a0 This can often happen in part by chance \u2013 being in the right place at the right time.\u00a0 As many of you will know, my main research interest is in the First World War.\u00a0 It\u2019s what I wrote my PhD on, and my monograph<\/a>, along with all sorts of other publications.<\/p>\n

In this and a subsequent post, I want to point you to a couple of authors who might not be familiar to you, but who I\u2019m interested in, have worked on quite a bit, and am involved with author societies or other means of promoting their legacy.<\/p>\n

\"Richard

Richard Aldington<\/p><\/div>\n

Richard Aldington<\/strong> has become a figure I\u2019ve returned to throughout my academic career, since writing about him for my MA thesis (now longer ago than I would prefer to think about).\u00a0 He\u2019s probably still best known as one of the original Imagist poets, along with H.D. (who was for a time his wife) and Ezra Pound; much of his poetry is available online for free at archive.org<\/a>. \u00a0I was particularly drawn, though, to his First World War novel Death of a Hero<\/em> (1929).\u00a0 Angry, bitter, and sharply critical of the British literary and political establishments, Death of a Hero<\/em> is a satire so brutal that it is often misunderstood.\u00a0 Aldington\u2019s position, though, was that the brutality of the war should be matched by the form of writing about it.\u00a0 For him, to write in a polite and measured way about the conflict was fundamentally to misunderstand and misrepresent the experience of it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve recently written an overview of his war poetry Images of War<\/em> (1919)<\/a> and Death of a Hero<\/em> for a forthcoming Handbook of British Literature and Culture of the First World War<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Death of a Hero<\/em> was so confrontational and shocking that it was originally expurgated \u2013 Aldington worked with his editor at Chatto & Windus to remove sections that were thought likely to be unacceptable to a contemporary readership.\u00a0 The removed words, sentences and sections are indicated in the text by asterisks as Aldington wanted the reader to know where emendations were made.\u00a0 Sadly, the recent Penguin<\/a> republished the expurgated text, which I thought a missed opportunity to demonstrate the vitality of Aldington\u2019s prose; I\u2019d recommend looking out for the unexpurgated version, which you\u2019ll find in most 1960s paperbacks (published by Four Square and Sphere) and the 1980s Hogarth Press edition.<\/p>\n

For information about Richard Aldington, you can look at the New Canterbury Literary Society Newsletter<\/a>.\u00a0 Originally founded as a paper newsletter by the late Aldington scholar Norman T. Gates, I\u2019ve recently \u201crebooted\u201d it as a blog.<\/p>\n

Please do let me know if you read any Aldington and want to talk about it some more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the course of an academic career, you tend to become associated with particular ideas, topics and authors.\u00a0 This can often happen in part by chance \u2013 being in the right place at the right time.\u00a0 As many of you will know, my main research interest is in the First World War.\u00a0 It\u2019s what I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":71,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14,22,18,19,21],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-andrew-frayn","tag-first-world-war-literature","tag-modernism","tag-modernist-studies","tag-richard-aldington","post-preview"],"yoast_head":"\nRichard Aldington - English at Edinburgh Napier University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Richard Aldington - English at Edinburgh Napier University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the course of an academic career, you tend to become associated with particular ideas, topics and authors.\u00a0 This can often happen in part by chance \u2013 being in the right place at the right time.\u00a0 As many of you will know, my main research interest is in the First World War.\u00a0 It\u2019s what I […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"English at Edinburgh Napier University\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-19T08:50:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2017\/08\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1277\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew Frayn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@afrayn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Frayn\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Andrew Frayn\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b58acba64d9cfda4dc9acb948b90f14\"},\"headline\":\"Richard Aldington\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-19T08:50:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":483,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/45\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"andrew frayn\",\"first world war literature\",\"modernism\",\"modernist studies\",\"richard aldington\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Research\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/\",\"name\":\"Richard Aldington - English at Edinburgh Napier University\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/45\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-19T08:50:49+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b58acba64d9cfda4dc9acb948b90f14\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/45\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/45\\\/2017\\\/08\\\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1277,\"caption\":\"Part of my Richard Aldington collection.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/richard-aldington\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Richard Aldington\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/\",\"name\":\"English at Edinburgh Napier University\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8b58acba64d9cfda4dc9acb948b90f14\",\"name\":\"Andrew Frayn\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/acb524b8578d0b705481bca126e77cfdc3cfdb54ebd65935e5bfe70ee53f220c?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/acb524b8578d0b705481bca126e77cfdc3cfdb54ebd65935e5bfe70ee53f220c?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/acb524b8578d0b705481bca126e77cfdc3cfdb54ebd65935e5bfe70ee53f220c?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andrew Frayn\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/afrayn\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\\\/english\\\/author\\\/andrewfrayn\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Richard Aldington - English at Edinburgh Napier University","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Richard Aldington - English at Edinburgh Napier University","og_description":"In the course of an academic career, you tend to become associated with particular ideas, topics and authors.\u00a0 This can often happen in part by chance \u2013 being in the right place at the right time.\u00a0 As many of you will know, my main research interest is in the First World War.\u00a0 It\u2019s what I […]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/","og_site_name":"English at Edinburgh Napier University","article_published_time":"2017-09-19T08:50:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2000,"height":1277,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2017\/08\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Andrew Frayn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@afrayn","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrew Frayn","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/"},"author":{"name":"Andrew Frayn","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#\/schema\/person\/8b58acba64d9cfda4dc9acb948b90f14"},"headline":"Richard Aldington","datePublished":"2017-09-19T08:50:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/"},"wordCount":483,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2017\/08\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg","keywords":["andrew frayn","first world war literature","modernism","modernist studies","richard aldington"],"articleSection":["Research"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/","name":"Richard Aldington - English at Edinburgh Napier University","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2017\/08\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg","datePublished":"2017-09-19T08:50:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#\/schema\/person\/8b58acba64d9cfda4dc9acb948b90f14"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2017\/08\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2017\/08\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg","width":2000,"height":1277,"caption":"Part of my Richard Aldington collection."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/richard-aldington\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Richard Aldington"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/","name":"English at Edinburgh Napier University","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/#\/schema\/person\/8b58acba64d9cfda4dc9acb948b90f14","name":"Andrew Frayn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acb524b8578d0b705481bca126e77cfdc3cfdb54ebd65935e5bfe70ee53f220c?s=96&d=blank&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acb524b8578d0b705481bca126e77cfdc3cfdb54ebd65935e5bfe70ee53f220c?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/acb524b8578d0b705481bca126e77cfdc3cfdb54ebd65935e5bfe70ee53f220c?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Andrew Frayn"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/afrayn"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/author\/andrewfrayn\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2017\/08\/cropped-dsc_06401.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}