Beatrice Hastings ― On the Life & Work of a Lost Modern Master

Poetry. Edited by Benjamin Johnson and Erika Jo Brown. "A principal member of the 'dark' avant-garde—the many artists marginalized even from the margins, often because of their social and political extremes—Beatrice Hastings wielded over a dozen noms de guerre (among them, Beatrice Hastings) and all with searing wit and considerable stylistic precision. And she had opinions—strong ones—on everything from motherhood (no) to war (no) to Futurism (maybe) to outrageous hats (definitely). A woman at the head of her time with a passionate commitment to progressive culture, she lived as vigorously and vehemently as possible. Her tone and turns of phrase take us back to the early years of radical European experimentalism with a truly uncommon vivacity."—Cole Swensen

"Beatrice Hastings offers readers of this collection extraordinary insights into the possibilities and constraints of modernist writing. With her passion for both playful and furious repartee between her many alter egos and print pseudonyms, she embodies the richness and urgency of early twentieth century print culture. Yet her own voice has been little heard; her self-multiplying strategies have effaced her from modernist culture and history. This terrific collection finally redresses this neglect, and offers fresh perspectives on what it was like to write at the interstices of feminism, modernism, and literature. Hastings's writings range across gender, maternity, eugenics, parody, poetry, and war. She engages with—and satirizes—major aspects of early twentieth century culture and social experience. The accompanying contextual essays set Hastings in dialogue with a stellar early twentieth century cast, including Virginia Woolf, Ezra Pound, the Women's Social and Political Union, and Katherine Mansfield. She emerges as a maverick figure whose brilliance and venom are sensitively explored in this collection."—Lucy Delap