Literary Biography - Authors' Families, World War II - Prisoners of War, American & Canadian Letters, Prisoners of War

Ezra and Dorothy Pound

Name: Ezra and Dorothy Pound
Author: Omar Pound and Robert Spoo
ISBN: 9780195107937

by Omar Pound and Robert Spoo

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Overview

These fascinating letters capture the most traumatic experience of Ezra Pound's life, when he was incarcerated at the end of World War II and indicted for treason. Omar Pound and Robert Spoo have collected and edited the unpublished correspondence between the poet and his wife, combining it with military and FBI documents, previously unknown photographs, and an extensive, insightful introduction, to create the definitive work on this period of Pound's life.
During his incarceration in a U.S. Army detention camp outside Pisa, Pound was allowed to write only to his wife, so these letters afford a unique look at a painful yet highly productive period, when Pound wrote his acclaimed Pisan Cantos and worked on his translations of Confucius. Readers will discover many fresh insights into the sources and contexts of the Cantos and the circumstances of their composition. Here, too, are many moving passages testifying to Pound's partnership with Dorothy and her courageous efforts to help him; her experiences no less than his come to life in this volume. But perhaps the most moving are the harsh conditions Pound found himself in: at one point, in the Pisan camp, he was confined for three weeks in an open air cage, until the sixty year old poet suffered a breakdown and was moved to a tent in the medical compound. The editors connect the anxious lyricism of the Pisan Cantos to these dramatic experiences, as the poet alternated "between savage indignation and suave serenity." The book also covers Pound's return to the United States and his confinement in a federal mental institution there.
With more than 150 previously unpublished letters and documents, all authoritatively annotated, Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945 1946, offers a rare glimpse into the life and work of one of our century's greatest literary figures.

About the Author, Omar Pound and Robert Spoo

Omar Pound is a translator of Persian and Arabic poetry and is presently editing letters written during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey. Robert Spoo is Associate Professor of English at the University of Tulsa and Editor in Chief of James Joyce Quarterly. He lives in Tulsa.

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Editorials

Library Journal

Ezra Pound was one of the giants of modernism. While his literary output has often been the focus of attention, the private Pound has not always been easy to study. Now two collections of previously unpublished letters throw new light on his not-so-pleasant personal life. The letters to his wife were written while Pound was incarcerated for treason near Pisa at the end of World War II. Allowed to write only to her, Pound chronicled a difficult period, revealing the depth of their relationship as well as the harsh conditions he endured, including confinement to a cage for several weeks. In addition to these previously unpublished letters, the editors have included military and FBI documents, previously unpublished photographs, and coverage of Pound's return to the United States and his placement in a federal mental institution. Pound's correspondence with Olivia Rossetti Agresti, written between 1937 and 1959, reveals much about his prejudices and outright hatreds. His targets included the United States, Great Britain, the Catholic Church, Jews, and Marxists. As this book shows, the period following World War II was one of the most productive for him: "The Pisan Cantos" was critically received, and he translated Confucius and wrote "Rock Drill" and "Throne" during this period. The editors hope Pound will not be totally condemned for his offensive views. Taken together, these volumes contribute a sometimes disturbing but necessary look at a complicated literary genius and allow readers to evaluate his darker side. Recommended for literary collections.--Ronald Ray Ratliff, Chapman H.S. Lib., KS

Kirkus Reviews

Was the great poet a traitorous madman or an quixotic visionary? These previously unpublished letters and documents give more evidence for his sanity than for any lack of it. Beginning in 1940, Pound voluntarily broadcast pro-fascist speeches from Italy, aimed at listeners in the US. Americans, he declaimed, had betrayed their own tradition. Not Roosevelt but Mussolini was the inheritor of the American revolutionary legacy: "The heritage of Jefferson...is HERE, NOW in the peninsula at the beginning of the fascist second decennio, not in Massachusetts or Delaware." Pound expounded crackpot economic views (anti-Semitic conspiracy theories) while dispensing Confucian wisdom. In May 1945, American authorities arrested and indicted the 60-year-old poet for treason. He was found insane and committed to a federal mental institution. The documentation here seems contradictory. Reports of Poundns behavior at the time suggest that he was sporadically delusional. For example, when arrested, Pound insisted that he was the right man to negotiate peace with Japan on behalf of the US: "Subject became very indignant," observed his FBI interrogator to J. Edgar Hoover, when the FBI refused to cable his offer to Truman. However, in letters to his wife, Dorothy, Pound comes across here as mundanely sane, even vigorously, impishly self- possessed. He offers her nnooz itemsn and asks for hers, in return; reports on gifts received (nEileen have came again with masses of chocolate & a copy of Verlainen); provides congratulations (nGlad you are payin income tax, indicates existence of incomen;and conducts literary conversation in his signature wry lingo (in a cover note to a military censor about poemsforwarded to Dorothy, he declared, nThe Cantos contain nothing in the nature of a cypher or intended obscurityn). Spoo (English/Univ. of Tulsa) and Omar Pound, the poet's son, offer copious and needed annotations to the highly allusive, typically playful letters. As ever, Pound remains a spitfire conundrum.