Thomas Ernest Hulme (; 16 September 1883 – 28 September 1917) was an English critic and poet who, through his writings on art, literature and politics, had a notable influence upon

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

. He was an aesthetic philosopher and the father of imagism.

Early life and education

Thomas Ernest Hulme — called "Ernest" by his family — was born at Gratton Hall,

Endon Endon is a village within the Staffordshire Moorlands district of Staffordshire, England. It is southwest of Leek and north-northeast of Stoke-on-Trent. Endon was formerly a township in civil parish of Leek. Together with neighbouring Stanl ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, the son of Thomas Hulme and Mary, née Young. Thomas attempted farming, but "the life proved too strenuous" for him; when his son was still young the family relocated to a house on Endon Bank, and Thomas went into business for a time as an auctioneer and sales agent before starting up a ceramics transfer business operating from a factory in

Newcastle-under-Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is adjacent to the city of Stoke-on-Trent. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the population ...

. Thomas was "a remote and hard man" with an "explosive temper", but it was Mary Hulme that was "the disciplinarian in the family... a spirited, independent woman with a good sense of humour and a command of repartee." Thomas Hulme's father, also Thomas, who lived at nearby Dunwood Hall, was a successful pawnbroker whose death in 1884 "left his family well provided for". The Hulmes were wealthy; they "had chauffeurs and gardeners at Endon Bank, but the family had regional accents rather than Oxbridge accents and there was more social mixing across the classes than was common in the cities." Hulme was educated at

Newcastle-under-Lyme High School Newcastle-under-Lyme School is a co-educational private day school in the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It came about by a merger in 1981 of the old Newcastle High School (founded in 1874) with the Orme Girls' School (f ...

and, from 1902,

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

, where he read mathematics, but was sent down in 1904 after rowdy behaviour on

Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the Uni ...

night. He was thrown out of Cambridge a second time after a scandal involving a Roedean girl. He returned to his studies at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, before travelling around

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and spending time in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

acquiring languages.

Proto-modernist

From about 1907 Hulme became interested in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

, translating works by

Henri Bergson Henri-Louis Bergson (; ; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopher who was influential in the traditions of analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, especially during the first half of the 20th century until the S ...

and sitting in on lectures at Cambridge. He translated

Georges Sorel Georges Eugène Sorel (; ; 2 November 1847 – 29 August 1922) was a French social thinker, political theorist, historian, and later journalist. He has inspired theories and movements grouped under the name of Sorelianism. His social and ...

's ''Reflections on Violence''. The most important influences on his thought were Bergson, who asserted that 'human experience is relative, but religious and ethical values are absolute' and, later,

Wilhelm Worringer Wilhelm Robert Worringer (13 January 1881 in Aachen – 29 March 1965 in Munich) was a German art historian known for his theories about Abstraction, abstract art and its relation to avant-garde movements such as German Expressionism. Through his i ...

(1881–1965), German art historian and critic – in particular his ''Abstraktion und Einfühlung'' (''Abstraction and Empathy'', 1908). Hulme was influenced by

Remy de Gourmont Remy de Gourmont (4 April 1858 – 27 September 1915) was a French symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars and Georges Bataille. The spelling ''Rémy'' de Go ...

's aristocratic concept of art and his studies of sensibility and style. From 1909 Hulme contributed critical articles to ''

The New Age ''The New Age'' was a British weekly magazine (1894–1938),credited as a major influence on literature and the arts during its heyday from 1907 to 1922, when it was edited by Alfred Richard Orage. It published work by many of the chief politi ...

'', edited by A. R. Orage. Hulme developed an interest in poetry and wrote a small number of poems. He was made secretary of the

Poets' Club The Poets' Club was a group devoted to the discussion of poetry. It met in London in the early years of the twentieth century. It was founded by Henry Simpson, a banker. T. E. Hulme helped set up the group in 1908, and was its first secretary. ...

, attended by such establishment figures as

Edmund Gosse Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhood ...

and

Henry Newbolt Sir Henry John Newbolt, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps ...

. There he encountered

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

and

F. S. Flint Frank Stuart Flint (19 December 1885 – 28 February 1960) was an English poet and translator who was a prominent member of the Imagist group. Ford Madox Ford called him "one of the greatest men and one of the beautiful spirits of the country". L ...

. In late 1908 Hulme delivered his paper ''

A Lecture on Modern Poetry "A Lecture on Modern Poetry" was a paper by T. E. Hulme which was read to the Poets' Club around the end of 1908. It is a concise statement of Hulme's influential advocacy of free verse. The lecture was not published during Hulme's lifetime. The ...

'' to the club. Hulme's poems "Autumn" and "A City Sunset", both published in 1909 in a Poets' Club anthology, have the distinction of being the first

Imagist Imagism was a movement in early-20th-century poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. It is considered to be the first organized literary modernism, modernist literary movement in the English language. Imagism has bee ...

poems. A further five poems were published in ''The New Age'' in 1912 as ''The Complete Poetical Works of T. E. Hulme''. Despite this misleading title, Hulme in fact wrote about 25 poems totalling some 260 lines, of which the majority were possibly written between 1908 and 1910.

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American Colloquialism, colloquial speech, Frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New E ...

met Hulme in 1913 and was influenced by his ideas. The publisher of the book 'Ripostes' (to which Pound appended the 'complete' poetical works of T. E. Hulme) spoke in that book of Hulme 'the meta-physician, who achieves great rhythmical beauty in curious verse-forms.' In his critical writings Hulme distinguished between

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

, a style informed by a belief in the infinite in man and nature, characterised by Hulme as "spilt religion", and

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

, a mode of art stressing human finitude, formal restraint, concrete imagery and, in Hulme's words, "dry hardness". Similar views were later expressed by

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

. Hulme's ideas had a major effect on

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''Blast (British magazine), Blast'', the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His ...

and for a time the two were friends, later coming to blows over

Kate Lechmere Kate Elizabeth Lechmere (13 October 1887 – February 1976) was a British painter who with Wyndham Lewis was the co-founder of the Rebel Art Centre in 1914. As far as is known, none of Lechmere's paintings have survived.

, Lewis coming off the worse during this encounter which ended when Hulme hung Lewis upside down by the cuffs of his trousers from the railings of Great Ormond Street. He championed the art of

Jacob Epstein Sir Jacob Epstein (10 November 1880 – 21 August 1959) was an American and British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British subject in 1910. Early in his ...

and

David Bomberg David Garshen Bomberg (5 December 1890 – 19 August 1957) was a British painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys. Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Hen ...

, was a friend of Gaudier-Brzeska, and was in on the debut of Lewis's literary magazine ''

BLAST Blast or The Blast may refer to: *Explosion, a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner *Detonation, an exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front *A planned explosion in a mine, ...

'' and

vorticism Vorticism was a London-based Modernism, modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist mani ...

. Hulme's politics were conservative, and he moved further to the right after 1911 as a result of contact with

Pierre Lasserre Pierre Lasserre (1867–1930) was a French literary critic, journalist and essayist. He became Director of the École des Hautes-Études. He was an ''agrégé'' in philosophy, contemporary with Henri Vaugeois and Louis Dimier. As a young man ...

, who was associated with ''

Action Française ''Action Française'' (, AF; ) is a French far-right monarchist and nationalist political movement. The name was also given to a journal associated with the movement, '' L'Action Française'', sold by its own youth organization, the Camelot ...

''.

First World War

Hulme volunteered as an artilleryman in 1914 and served with the

Honourable Artillery Company The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...

and later the

Royal Marine Artillery The history of the Royal Marines began on 28 October 1664 with the formation of the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot soon becoming known as the Admiral's Regiment. During the War of the Spanish Succession the most historic achi ...

in France and Belgium. He kept up his writing for ''The New Age''. Notable publications during this period for that magazine were "War Notes", written under the pen name "North Staffs", and "A Notebook", which contains some of his most organised critical writing. He was wounded in 1916. Back at the front in 1917, he was killed by a shell at

Oostduinkerke Oostduinkerke (; ; ) is a place on the southern west coast of Belgium, located in the province of West Flanders. Once a municipality of its own, Oostduinkerke now is a sub-municipality in the municipality of Koksijde. The name ''Oostduinkerke'' ...

near Nieuwpoort, in

West Flanders West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemis ...

..On 28 September 1917, four days after his thirty-fourth birthday, Hulme suffered a direct hit from a large shell which literally blew him to pieces. Apparently absorbed in some thought of his own he had failed to hear it coming and remained standing while those around threw themselves flat on the ground. What was left of him was buried in the Military Cemetery at
Koksijde Koksijde (; ; ) is a town and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in Belgium. It is located on the North Sea coast in the southwest of the Flanders, Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises apart from Koksijde, the v ...
, West-Vlaanderen, in Belgium where—no doubt for want of space—he is described simply as 'One of the
War poet War poetry is poetry on the topic of war. While the term is applied especially to works of the First World War, the term can be applied to poetry about any war, including Homer's ''Iliad'', from around the 8th century BC as well as poetry of th ...
s'."Ferguson, Robert (2002). ''The Short Sharp Life of T. E. Hulme''. London: Allen Lane, p. 270.

Works

*
Notes on Language and Style
' (1929, University of Washington Book Store); in ''The Criterion'', Vol. 3, No. 12, (July 1925) (ed.

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read wa ...

) *
Speculations: Essays on Humanism and the Philosophy of Art
' (1936, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.), edited by

* ''Further Speculations of T. E. Hulme'' (1955, University of Minnesota), edited by Samuel Hynes * ''The Collected Writings of T. E. Hulme'' (1996, OUP), edited by Karen Csengeri * ''Selected Writings of T. E. Hulme'' (2003, Fyfield Books), edited by

Patrick McGuinness Patrick McGuinness (born 1968) is a British academic, critic, novelist, and poet. He is a professor of French and comparative literature at the University of Oxford, where he is fellow and tutor at St Anne's College. He is a Fellow of the Roy ...

Selected poems

* ''Above the Dock'' * ''Autumn'' * ''A City Sunset'' * ''Conversion'' * ''The Embankment'' * ''Mana Aboda'' * ''The Man in the Crow's Nest'' * ''Susan Ann and Immortality'' * ''The Poet'' * ''A Tall Woman'' * ''A Sudden Secret'' * ''In the Quiet Land'' * ''At Night!'' * ''Town Sky-line''

As translator

,
An Introduction to Metaphysics
', (1912) *

,
Reflections on Violence
', (1915)

Articles

"Belated Romanticism,"
''The New Age'', Vol. IV, No. 17, 1909.
"The New Philosophy,"
''The New Age'', Vol. V, No. 10, 1909.
"Bergson and Bax,"
''The New Age'', Vol. V, No. 13, 1909.
"Searchers after Reality: Bax,"
''The New Age'', Vol. V, No. 14, 1909.
"Searchers after Reality: Haldane,"
''The New Age'', Vol. V, No. 17, 1909.
"A Note on 'La Foi',"
''The New Age'', Vol. V, No. 27, 1909.
"Searchers after Reality: Jules De Gaultier,"
''The New Age'', Vol. VI, No. 5, 1909.
"Notes on the Bologna Congress,"
''The New Age'', Vol. VIII, No. 26, 1911.
"Bergsonism in Paris,"
''The New Age'', Vol. IX, No. 8, 1911.
"Bax on Bergson,"
''The New Age'', Vol. IX, No. 14, 1911.
"Notes on Bergson,"
''The New Age'', Vol. IX, No. 25, 1911.
"Notes on Bergson II,"
''The New Age'', Vol. IX, No. 26, 1911.
"Mr. Balfour, Bergson, and Politics,"
''The New Age'', Vol. X, No. 2, 1911.
"Notes on Bergson III,"
''The New Age'', Vol. X, No. 4, 1911.
"Notes on Bergson IV,"
''The New Age'', Vol. X, No. 5, 1911.
"Notes on Bergson V,"
''The New Age'', Vol. X, No. 17, 1912.
"Mr. Epstein and the Critics,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 8, 1913.
"German Chronicle"
''Poetry and Drama'', Vol. II, 1914.
"Modern Art: The Grafton Group,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 11, 1914.
"Modern Art: A Preface Note and Neo-Realism,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 15, 1914.
"Modern Art: The London Group,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XIV, No. 21, 1914.
"Modern Art: Mr. David Bomberg's Show,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XV, No. 10, 1914.
"The Translator's Preface to Sorel's 'Reflections on Violence',"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVII, No. 24, 1915.
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 2, 1915 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 3, 1915 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 4, 1915 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 5, 1915 (as ''North Staffs'').
"A Notebook,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 5, 1915.
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 6, 1915 (as ''North Staffs'').
"A Notebook,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 6, 1915.
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 7, 1915 (as ''North Staffs'').
"A Notebook,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 7, 1915.
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 8, 1915 (as ''North Staffs'').
"A Notebook,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 8, 1915.
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 9, 1915 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 10, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"A Notebook,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 10, 1916.
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 11, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 12, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 13, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"A Notebook,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 13, 1916.
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 14, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 15, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"A Notebook,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 15, 1916.
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 16, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 17, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"War Notes,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XVIII, No. 18, 1916 (as ''North Staffs'').
"The Note-Books of T. E. Hulme,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXX, No. 12, 1922.
"The Note-Books of T. E. Hulme: II,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXX, No. 13, 1922.
"The Note-Books of T. E. Hulme: III,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXX, No. 15, 1922.
"The Note-Books of T. E. Hulme: IV,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXX, No. 16, 1922.
"The Note-Books of T. E. Hulme: Bergson's Theory of Art,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXX, No. 22, 1922.
"The Note-Books of T. E. Hulme: Bergson's Theory of Art, II"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXX, No. 23, 1922.
"The Note-Books of T. E. Hulme: Bergson's Theory of Art, III"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXX, No. 24, 1922.

Notes

External links

* * *
Critical discussion of Hulme's work
including texts of 16 poems
Univ. of Southern Denmark

List of manuscript and typescript poems, etc.
held a
Keele University Library

Romanticism and Classicism

A Note on the Art of Political Conversion

‘A Definite Meaning’: The Art Criticism of T. E. Hulme

The Evolution of T. E. Hulme's Thought

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulme, TE 1883 births 1917 deaths Military personnel from Staffordshire Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Alumni of University College London Royal Marines officers Royal Marines personnel of World War I British military personnel killed in World War I Imagists English literary critics People from Endon People educated at Newcastle-under-Lyme School English male poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers British Army personnel of World War I Honourable Artillery Company officers Writers from Staffordshire Burials in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries in Belgium