Richard Aldington (8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962), born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet.

First edition. New York. Wrappers. Bruno Chap Books - Special Series Number 5. Edited by Guido Bruno in his garret on Wahsing Square, Fifteen Cents

The author's first or second book. Four page article on the Imagists, followed by one poem by H.D., two by Richard Aldington and one by F.S. Flint.

Guido Bruno (1884–1942) was a well-known Greenwich Village character, and small press publisher and editor, sometimes called 'the Barnum of Bohemia'.
He was based at his "Garret on Washington Square" where for an admission fee tourists could observe "genuine Bohemian" artists at work. He produced a series of little magazine publications from there, including Bruno's Weekly, Bruno's Monthly, Bruno's Bohemia, Greenwich Village, and the 15 cent Bruno Chap Books. [1]

Aldington was best known for his World War I poetry, the 1929 novel, Death of a Hero, and the controversy arising from his 1955 Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry. His 1946 biography, Wellington, was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It has been described as the most influential movement in English poetry since the activity of the Pre-Raphaelites.[1] As a poetic style it gave Modernism its start in the early 20th century,[2] and is considered to be the first organised Modernist literary movement in the English language.[3] Imagism is sometimes viewed as 'a succession of creative moments' rather than any continuous or sustained period of development.[4] Rene Taupin remarked that 'It is more accurate to consider Imagism not as a doctrine, nor even as a poetic school, but as the association of a few poets who were for a certain time in agreement on a small number of important principles'.[5]

Aldington's poetry was associated with the Imagist group, and his poetry forms almost one third of the Imagists' inaugural anthology Des Imagistes (1914). Ezra Pound had in fact coined the term imagistes for H.D. and Aldington, in 1912.[2] At this time Aldington's poetry at this time was unrhymed free verse, whereas in later his verse the cadences are long and voluptuous, the imagery weighted with ornament.[3] At this time, he was one of the poets around the proto-Imagist T. E. Hulme; Robert Ferguson in his life of Hulme portrays Aldington as too squeamish to approve of Hulme's robust approach, particularly to women.[4] However, Aldington shared Hulme's conviction that experimentation with traditional Japanese verse forms could provide a way forward for avant-garde literature in English, and went often to the British Museum to examine Nishiki-e prints illustrating such poetry.[5][6]