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Pound, Thayer, Watson, and the Dial

Name: Pound, Thayer, Watson, and the Dial
Author: Walter Sutton
ISBN: 9780813013169

by Walter Sutton

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Overview

The Pound letters introduce students of modernism to fresh primary materials, written during the artistic and literary ferment of the early twenties while Pound was engrossed in promotional and acquisitions work for the Dial in England and on the continent. They make clear that nearly all the foreign contributions published in the Dial during Pound's involvement were secured by Pound himself and that Pound can be seen to have established practically singlehandedly the distinctive international flavor for which the Dial quickly became known and respected. The letters also show Pound at his critical best in his running commentary on the Dial and stand as a coherent body of his criticism of the literature of the time - American, English, and European.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In 1918, Scofield Thayer and Sibley Watson, two wealthy young men, bought the Dial, formerly a Chicago critical journal, and transformed it into a magazine of literature and the arts based in New York City. They hired Ezra Pound, then living in Europe, as their international acquisitions agent. Sutton, a professor of English at Syracuse Univ., has edited here previously unpublished letters, discovered in a trunk in Worcester, Mass., in 1987, between the three men and provided his own introductory essays. Although Pound obtained contributions from many European writers, including Yeats, Proust and Eliot, Thayer, who was suffering from mental illness, fired him in 1923. Documented in the correspondence is Pound's exasperation with Thayer's literary conservatism and his more cooperative relationship with Watson, who shared Pound's commitment to modernism. The letters also make clear that most of the magazine's foreign contributions were secured by Pound. The Dial ceased publication in 1929. Of primary interest to devotees of serious literature. Illustrations. (Dec.)

Library Journal

Sutton, who has previously edited a collection of essays on Ezra Pound, here compiles letters exchanged by Pound, Scofield Thayer, and Sibley Watson and other individuals associated with The Dial, an international literary magazine of the early 1920s. The letters focus on the logistics of soliciting manuscripts and securing financial backing. Pound's primary duty was to recruit European writers; he is credited with securing the works of Joyce, Yeats, and Eliot. Unfortunately, these missives are often repetitious and boring, though they become more interesting when the opinions of Pound and of Thayer and Watson become polarized, which led to Pound's dismissal. Ultimately, this collection tells the story of how three men became leading players in shaping modernism. At times too mundane and at times too esoteric for the average reader, this work is recommended only for specialists in early 20th-century literature.-Tim Gavin, Episcopal Acad., Merion, Pa.