Further Speculations by T.E. Hulme

Further Speculations by T.E. Hulme was first published in 1955.Until now, students of modern critical thought have known T. E. Hulme, the English critic, poet, and philosopher, chiefly through the relatively small portion of his work published in Speculations. That volume of Hulme’s writing was published seven years after his death, in 1924. Now, for the first time in Further Speculations, an additional collection of Hulme’s essays, poetry, and a diary is made available in book form.Hulme, who was killed in battle during World War I, has long been regarded as one of the most controversial figures of the twentieth century. His influence on modern poetry, especially through T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, is generally recognized as profound; but he was also a leading force in the formulation of modern aesthetic and philosophical thought.This volume presents a collection of 16 essays on philosophy, war, modern art, and poetry, the Hulme-Bertrand Russell controversy on pacifism and war, Hulme’s “Diary from the Trenches,” and some 200 lines of poetry. This is the first publication anywhere of the diary, and only one of the essays has been previously published in the United States. The book also includes an extensive critical introduction by the editor, a complete bibliography of Hulme’s writings, and a selected bibliography of criticism of Hulme.Especially significant are the six essays on war, to which are added Bertrand Russell’s two rejoinders. These essays will modify considerably the popular notion that Hulme was an unqualified exponent of militarism and a “proto-Fascist.” The two essays on poetry establish Hulme’s place in the history of modern poetic theory.