1892-1962

Richard Aldington is probably best known for being one of the first three Imagist poets, along with Ezra Pound and H.D. Around the Fall of 1912 in London, Pound proclaimed himself and his two good friends to be the three original Imagists, and was instrumental in getting the early poems of Aldington and H.D. published in Poetry Magazine (edited by Pound's friend Harriet Monroe in Chicago). The three poets established a set of principles to guide their writings. Pound recorded them in "A Retrospect" (Literary Essays of Ezra Pound. London: Faber & Faber, 1954):

In the spring or early summer of 1912, 'H.D.', Richard Aldington and myself decided that we were agreed upon the three principles following:
1. Direct treatment of the 'thing' whether subjective or objective.
2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.

Aldington and H.D. were married on October 18, 1913. H.D. and Pound had been romantically involved before she married Aldington, and her attraction to Pound may not have entirely disappeared after the marriage.

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