Ezra Pound

James J. Wilhelm

This third and final volume of Wilhelm's life of Ezra Pound commences with Pound's departure from Paris at the height of his writing career for Italy, where he hoped to find a quieter life, and it takes him to his death in 1972. It tells how he settled in Rapallo and soon found Mussolini's fascism to be amenable to his own political and economic ideas, especially during the dark days of the Great Depression. As Italy girded itself for World War II, Pound was almost haphazardly drawn into the web, and he foolishly agreed to broadcast on Radio Rome for the Duce, even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. When Italy fell to the Allies, Pound was put first into a dreadful American detention camp at Pisa and then was flown to Washington to be tried for treason. He escaped conviction on grounds of insanity, but he was then remanded to St. Elizabeths Hospital, where he languished for twelve years. Despite the incarcerations, Pound produced during this time some of his most magnificent poetry, including The Pisan Cantos and numerous excellent translations from the Chinese and Greek. He also heavily influenced an entire generation of poets ranging from Robert Lowell to Allen Ginsberg. With the help of Archibald MacLeish and Robert Frost, Pound was eventually freed in 1958. He returned to Italy, where he lived for a time with his wife and daughter. During the final years of his life, he eventually returned to live with his aged lover, Olga Rudge, in Venice and Rapallo. He died in Venice in 1972 and is buried next to Igor Stravinsky, whose work his own strongly resembles, since they both fought for liberation from traditional forms.