Paint It Today (The Cutting Edge: Lesbian Life and Literature Series)

By H.D.

This novel, a never before published Roman a clef by the famous imagist writer, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), that explores H.D.'s love for women, is a lyrical recreation of the love and loss of her friend and first love, Frances Gregg, and of her later meeting with Bryher who was to become H.D.'s lifelong companion. Spanning the years from H.D.'s childhood in Pennsylvania to the birth of her daughter, Perdita, in 1919, this turbulent love story is set against the backdrop of World War I, H.D.'s involvement in early 20th century London literary circles, her brief engagement to American poet, Ezra Pound, and her shattered marriage to British novelist Richard Aldington. Paint it Today is H.D.'s most lesbian novel, a modern, homoerotic tale of passage which focuses almost entirely on the young heroine's search for the sister love which would empower her spiritually, creatively, and sexually. Cassandra Laity's introduction places H.D.'s love for the sexually magnetic, betraying Gregg and for the more nurturing and loyal Bryher in the context of the lesbian romanticism of early modern fiction. her annotations of all Greek references and literary quotations, m as well as, biographical facts represented in the text, provide nuance and detail to this engrossing work.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081473488X
• ISBN13: 9780814734889
• Release Date: July 1992
• Publisher: NYU Press
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.3" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Edition

A wonderful edition of a phenomenal book. Though unfinished, H.D.'s 'Paint it Today' is rich with symbolism and imagery. Bulding from allusions to many writers of antiquity, H.D. provides inspirational and emotive lines articulating sentiments of love and truth. As H.D. writes, "The fiance had shown Midget what love might be or become if one, in desperation, should accept the shadow of an understanding for understanding itself. . . But there are many colors to our lives, I have been led to believe. The shadow of an understanding is not a bad beginning to one's emotional radius. Against the shadow, the better things show true" (22). This particular edition's endnotes extends the meaning in H.D.'s words, informing readers of mythological, literary and personal allusions.