H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)

Reading "Helen in Egypt" (37:52)
MP3 , RealAudio

The text of Helen in Egypt is available from New Directions.

Contents of the Helen in Egypt Sound Recording:

Time codes and page numbers (which refer to the New Directions edition of Helen in Egypt) are given in parentheses.
Commentary (0:00-0:30)
Pallinode 1.3, ll. 16-30 (0:33-1:13; p. 6)
Pallinode 1.4 (1:27-2:42; pp. 7-8)
Commentary (2:46-3:05)
Pallinode 1.6 (3:07-4:27; pp. 11-12)
Pallinode 1.7 (4:28-5:45; pp. 13-14)
Commentary (5:48-5:59)
Pallinode 1.8 (6:00-7:59; pp. 16-17)
Commentary (8:03-8:30)
Pallinode 3.3 (8:32-9:29; pp.39-40)
Pallinode 2.4 (9:32-11:15; pp. 24-25)
Commentary (11:19-12:23)
Leuke 3.1 (12:24-13:39; pp. 132-133)
Leuke 3.2 (13:40-14:33; pp. 134-135)
Commentary (14:34-14:54)
Leuke 3.3 (14:55-15:52)
Leuke 2.2 (15:54-17:21; pp. 121-122)
Commentary (17:25-17:40)
Leuke 3.6 (17.42-18:35; pp. 141-142)
Leuke 3.7 (18:36-19:45; pp. 143-144)
Leuke 3.8 (19:48-20:46; pp. 145-146)
Commentary (20:49-20:56)
Pallinode 4.1 (20:57-22:06; pp.49-50)
Pallinode 4.3 (22:07-23:30; pp. 53-54)
Commentary (23:34-23:48)
Leuke 2.3 (23:49-24:26; p. 123)
Leuke 2.5 (24:27-; pp. 125-126)
Leuke 2.6 (25:24-26:28; pp. 127-128)
Leuke 2.7 (26:29-27:25; pp. 129-130)
Commentary (27:27-27:35)
Eidolon 2.5, ll. 1-9 (27:36-27:52; p. 230)
Eidolon 2.4 (27:53-28:33; p. 229)
Eidolon 2.6, ll. 1-9 (28:33-28:55; p.232)
Commentary (28:57-29:02)
Eidolon 2.7 (29:03-30:17; pp. 234-235)
Eidolon 2.8 (30:17-31:12; pp. 236-237)
Commentary (30:15-31:29)
Eidolon 3.1 (31:30-32:56; pp. 238-240)
Commentary (32:58-33:11)
Eidolon 3.3 (33:12-34:27; pp. 243-244)
Eidolon 3.4 (34:28-35:26; p. 245)
Commentary (35:28-35:35)
Eidolon 3.5 (35:36-36:49; pp. 247-248)
Eidolon 3.7 (36:50-37:42; pp.251-252)
Eidolon 6.8 Eidolon, ll. 16-18 (37:43-37:52; p. 304).

A Brief Note on H.D.’s Recording of Helen in Egypt:
H.D. made these recordings of Helen in Egypt in Zurich in 1955 (Morris 60). In a letter dated February 3, 1955, to her friend and literary executer, Norman Holmes Pearson, H.D. describes the recordings: "I am so happy about the disk-work [sic], went in yesterday by car and E[rich Heydt] came along and helped me.  I did just 21 minutes this time, some of the first section with captions.  It came up quite well--the first set, of Jan. 26, sent surface, is really the second disk, in time.  The first one I did is more lyrical and has sections from Eidolon; this one of Feb. 2 has Egypt and Some Leuke; one side of disk is Achilles, the other, Paris. . ." (Hollenberg 176-7).Pearson, in his reply (dated February 17, 1955), is equally as enthusiastic about the quality of the recordings, which he receives the same month, and suggests that they find a publisher for them.

Since these recordings were made before Helen in Egypt was completed and published, the ordering of the sections read does not exactly coincide with the subsequent published text version.  The prose sections were not yet written (as H.D. came up with the idea of adding the prose sections while making the recordings).  So, in the recordings, the lyrics are interspersed with H.D.'s preliminary commentary, which she later reworks into the published prose sections.

 Hollenberg, Donna Krolik. Between History and Poetry: The Letters of H.D. and Norman Holmes Pearson. Iowa City: U Iowa P, 1997.
Morris, Adalaide. How to Live/What to Do: H.D.’s Cultural Poetics. Urbana; Chicago: U Illinois P, 2003.

— Aliki Caloyeras (2008)

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. © 2006 by the Estate of H.D. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Company. All rights reserved by Estate of H.D. and New Directions.
Distributed by PennSound.