Prospects for the Study of H.D.

Abstract

This essay looks to the future of literary scholarship about modernist writer H.D. (Hilda Doolittle). Readers can now easily obtain almost all of H.D.'s writings—which remained, for decades, ensconced in the archives—and the question becomes what else is needed in H.D. studies. New biographies are desperately needed, and edited volumes of letters are the logical complement to the biographies. Digitization of H.D.'s papers, which has begun, would make materials increasingly available to scholars, established and new. Editions are still needed for a few texts, and scholarly editions would assist our understanding of the most important works. Electronic tools are being developed and need financial support for development and publication, and the more traditional venues of selected essay volumes, reference books, and journal special issues are called for. Additionally, as the volume of scholarly work on H.D. increases, we need new critical lenses through which to read her writing.