The Life and Work of T. E. Hulme.

Abstract

The Life and Work of T. E. Hulme reappraises the contribution to twentieth-century literature of the man preceded his friend Ezra Pound in Imagist theory, helped to introduce the philosophy of Henri Bergson into Engl and and America, was one of the first of the English critics to write about modern art when modern art was new, and helped to form T. S. Eliot's ideas about classicism and Original Sin. It attempts to clear up some of the misunderst and ings that have surrounded Hulme by retelling the story of his life, in much greater detail than before, against the appropriate background, while setting out his ideas and publications in chronological order. The study includes dozens of letters to and from Hulme which have never before been made public. It presents new information on Hulme's family and background, his education at Newcastle High School, and his two periods of study at Cambridge. It contains details of the various philosophical congresses he attended and gives large extracts from a previously-unknown article by him on the 1911 Philosophical Congress at Bologna, Italy, which throws new light on the breadth of his philosophical knowledge. This study also provides new information on Hulme's connection with T. S. Eliot and the Moore and Wittgenstein school of philosophy, and attempts to clarify some of the confusion caused by Herbert Read's haphazard editing of Hulme's posthumous Speculations (1924). The annotated bibliography lists, in addition to Hulme's own works, over 300 books and articles written about him between 1909 and 1983.