Poet H. D.’s writing desk, beside a portrait of her friend and literary executor Norman Holmes Pearson (Deane Keller,  n. d.).

A recent gift to the Yale Collection of American Literature, the provenance of H.D.’s desk is somewhat mysterious; H.D. biographer Barbara Guest writes: “Said to be Christina Rosetti’s, it may originally have belonged to Empress Eugenie, who spent several years in exile in England. Bryher bought the desk for H. D. at the estate sale of Violet Hunt” (Herself Defined, 56). If you have any additional information about this desk, please be in touch with curator Nancy Kuhl (nancy.kuhl@yale.edu).

Related materials and collections: H.D. Papers Finding Aid; H.D. Image Guide; Bryher Papers Finding Aid