(24th in a series of posts on H.D.)
Finding H.D.:
A Community Exploration of the Life and Work of Hilda Doolittle
Bethlehem-born writer Hilda Doolittle — H. D. — (1886-1961) is
the “Lehigh Valley’s most important literary figure.”
Contributions to fund the museum-quality portrait of H. D. by local artist Angela Fraleigh that will hang prominently in the library are lagging. Can you please help? Visit http://www.bapl.org/hd/
Mark your calendars Sept. 28 for “H.D.’s Bethlehem: A Walking Tour,” led by Seth Moglen. Further details will be announced.
Those of you attending “Finding H. D.” events or following reports of them here on the blog (see Hilda Doolittle on the sidebar) know that H. D. left Bethlehem at age 10, but returned to it artistically throughout her life, and was buried here in Nisky Hill cemetery.
People come to Bethlehem to pay homage at her grave site.
H. D. not only adds to the artistic luster of our town but continues to chip in economically too!
Gadfly has heard more than one talk of difficulty finding the site.
Seth will guide us.
photo by Jennie Gilrain
One visitor wrote: “The old granite is covered in tokens left by visitors; pebbles, shells [familiar imagery], feathers and folded sheets of paper tucked under a rock and recently plastered to the stone by a night of mid-summer rain. Often, visits to grave sites are lonely affairs, a simple place to stand and be reminded of a literary life well-lived. But H.D.’s memorial does not feel that way. Rather, it suggests that it is its own destination, a place where the writer came full circle, a place others have visited recently and where more are sure to swing by soon; a writer’s end very much connected to her beginning.”
Bethlehem was very special in H. D.’s life.
Finding H.D.:
A Community Exploration of the Life and Work of Hilda Doolittle
