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Richard Aldington
(1892-1962)

Active: 1912-1962 in England, Britain, France, Italy, Europe

(Edward Godfree Aldington)

By Patrick Quinn (University College Northampton)

Indexing Data:

  • Active In: England, Britain, France, Italy, Europe
  • Born In: England, Britain, Europe
  • Activity: Poet, Novelist, Biographer, Essayist

Life, Works and Times

Reader Actions

Edward Godfree (Richard) Aldington was born at Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, on July 8, 1892. He was one of four children who grew up near Dover and the surrounding countryside. His mother, May Aldington, was one of those particular breed of middle class Victorian women who suffered from materialism and a dream of upward mobility. She was a romantic novelist who irritated her son with her hollowness and cant. In later life, Aldington was to portray his mother with critical acuteness through the characters of Mrs. Winterbourne in Death of a Hero (1929) and Mrs. Withers in The Colonel's Daughter (1931). His father, Albert Edward Aldington, was a solicitor with little talent or direction. Aldington was seemingly aware of his

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First published 07 July 2001

Citation: Quinn, Patrick. "Richard Aldington". The Literary Encyclopedia. 7 July 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=65, accessed 20 November 2009.]