Lara Vetter – författare

A Curious Peril examines the prose penned by modernist writer H.D. in the aftermath of World War II, a little-known body of work that has been neglected by scholars, and argues that the trauma H.D. experienced in London during the war profoundly changed her writing. Lara Vetter reveals a shift in these writings from classical “escapist” settings to politically aware explorations of gender, spirituality, nation, and imperialism. Impelled by the shocking political crises of the early 1940s, and increasingly sensitive to imperialist logics, H.D. began to write about the history of modern Europe using innovative forms and genres. She directed her well-known interest in mysticism and otherworldly themes toward the material world of empire-building and perpetual war. Vetter contends that H.D.’s postwar work is essential to understanding the writer’s entire career, marking her entrance into late modernism and even foretelling crucial aspects of postmodernism.

H.D. called By Avon River “the first book that really made me happy.” In this annotated edition, Lara Vetter argues that the volume represented a turning point in H.D.’s career, a major shift from lyric poetry to the experimental forms of writing that would dominate her later works.Near the end of World War II, after having remained in London throughout the Blitz, H.D. made a pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace. This experience resulted in a hybrid volume of poetry about The Tempest and prose about Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Featuring a tour-de-force introduction and extensive explanatory notes, this is the first edition of the work to appear since its original publication in 1949.Increasingly after the war, H.D. sought new forms of writing to express her persistent interests in the politics of gender and in issues of nationhood and home. By Avon River was one of her only postwar works to cross over to mainstream audiences, and, as such, is a welcome addition to our understanding of this significant modernist writer.

A Curious Peril examines the prose penned by modernist writer H.D. in the aftermath of World War II, a little-known body of work that has been neglected by scholars, and argues that the trauma H.D. experienced in London during the war profoundly changed her writing. Lara Vetter reveals a shift in these writings from classical "escapist" settings to politically aware explorations of gender, spirituality, nation, and imperialism.

Two little-known story collections from H.D. that offer new ways of thinking about the role of the short story genre in the writer’s career and the modernist movementThe Imagist poet H.D. is widely regarded as one of the most innovative writers of free verse in English. In the last few decades, her poetry and novels have received increasing scholarly attention, but her short prose has rarely been studied. Until now, many of her short stories have been inaccessible for readers, either long out of print or never having been published.In this volume, Lara Vetter introduces two short story cycles by H.D.—The Usual Star, which comprises two stories, “The Usual Star” and “Two Americans”; and The Moment, which contains the stories “Hesperia,” “Aegina,” “The Moment,” “Jubilee,” “The Last Time,” “The Death of Martin Presser,” and “The Guardians.” Presenting these two collections in their entirety alongside a critical introduction and explanatory notes that frame the stories in their historic, literary, and social context, this volume argues for the serious study of H.D.’s work in this genre.The stories featured in these collections were written between the 1920s and 1940s, offering an opportunity to study the format as it evolved in H.D.’s thought and practice. This edition situates the stories, some biographically based, within the larger arc of H.D.’s life and career. H.D.’s short stories offer a glimpse into the art and experiences of a queer woman writer of the modernist era.

The poet Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) came on the literary scene in the 1910s as a young American expatriate living in England. Her early lyric poems, in Sea Garden, helped launch the free verse movement known as imagism. Her work as a whole, spanning five decades, includes long narrative poems, novels, memoirs, and translations. Her experience of the two world wars in Europe is felt throughout her oeuvre, much of which focuses on the power and destructiveness of war. Other recurring topics are ancient models of civilization, comparative mythology, and female deities suppressed in the modern era.