The Connaught Club,
75, Seymour Street,
London, W.2.

4th March, 1934.

Ezra Pound, Esq.,
Via Marsala 12,
Rapallo.

Dear Ezra Pound,

I have not had an opportunity of answering your letter - if one may describe it as such - dated 13th January.

I notice that your portrait on your notepaper has now turned green. The previous gory version of your visage strikes me as being appropriate, though this particular green picture makes you look as cynical as you would wish to appear.

Yes, I am inclined to agree with your statement, that your remarks on Louis Untermeyer would not be worth anything to me.

Now let us get to some of the rest of your letter. You generously say that you are not asking the ALBATROSS to lose any money, but you want us to publish a few better books. How about suggesting some? You write that I said I was not interested in giving people better stuff at 10 lire per volume. This is one of your habitual inaccuracies. First of all, the ALBATROSS supplies its ordinary volumes in Italy for 9 lire, and not for 10, and secondly I did not make the remark you imagined. However little you would believe it, the ALBATROSS is interested in supplying the best stuff which it can market. The ALBATROSS on the whole is particularly fortunate because, so far, broadly speaking, the best stuff has, contrary to the experience of most publishers, found the best market for us.

You still suffer from two delusions: one, that the best stuff, as you call it, is confined to the books that you happen to like; and the other delusion is that if you do not see a particular title in the ALBATROSS that you think should be included, you imagine the cause for its absence is nothing but a mixture of my own stupidity and inefficiency. This conclusion that you draw, oddly enough, is almost invariably

1.

Ezra Pound, Esq. (contd)

4th March, 1934.

wrong. There are lots of reasons for excluding books from the ALBATROSS, which have nothing to do with my views or the merits of the book. It happens, for instance, that an author writes a book which I think is very good, but which is so long that it cannot be produced for the sum at which we must sell it. It also happens sometimes that a book is excellent, but that its subject matter goes beyond the limits of the scope I have set for the ALBATROSS - for instance, the ALBATROSS does not publish War books of a certain type, which may nevertheless be very good, etc. etc.

I would be really curious to know what these books are that you think we are keeping out of print. If you care to make some serious suggestions, I will see what I can do about it.

2.

J. Holroyd - Reece
Mas Saint Gabriel,

Saint Mathieu,
Grasse, A.M.

Mr. Ezra Pound,
Via Marsala, 12
Rapallo.

11th January 1934

Dear Ezra Pound,

Thank you for your card of the 29th and your New Year wishes.

Your comment on the Oxford Dictionary: this is almost ben
trovato. I humbly confirm that notwithstanding your opinion of
the dictionary, you appear to know the meaning of the word "appre-
ciation" -- when put to it. Perhaps I did you wrong. I took you
to be a man with a really vast knowledge of languages other than
your own.

Your statement that I can pay for anything of yours I wish to
use, if a compliment to my bank balance, and you want me to pay,
according to your statement, if I am interested in getting money
by printing it. For "only" read "also".

Anyhow, how much do you think the "anything" of yours in ques-
tion is worth? I confess I am curious to know, or would you pre-
fer me to put it another way: how much am I to pay you to give
you the advertising, which you obviously need and have the sense
-- I believe -- to desire?

I note with mixed feelings that the result of your buying and
reading -- an uncommon combination -- some Albatross Crime Club
titles, causes you feelings of clemency towards me. I feel I
should either arrange to prevent your booksellers from selling
you any more, or offer to present you with a few titles at your
choice. The decision is left to you.

I believe good temper is going to be one of your virtues.
How dull that you should have any.

May you prosper.

Yours,

pp J. HOLROYD-REECE,

P. E. Macdonald
Secretary

Mas Saint Gabriel,

Saint Mathieu,

Grasse, A.M.

Ezra Pound, Esq.,
Via Marsala, 12
Rapallo.

27th December 1933

Dear Pound,

I returned on Christmas Eve, having been absent since I wrote to you. The letter you sent on September 24th was opened and read by my office here and was not forwarded to me on my journey, for fear lest its contents might burst into flames.

I did not think that your response would be as self-revealing as it turned out to be, so I suppose I owe you more thanks than I had anticipated.

If I could afford it, I would like to present you with a copy of the Oxford Dictionary, because I think it would add to your happiness if you used some of your unquestioned abilities to learn the meaning of words. I asked for an "appreciation". I hoped that the word would convey its proper significance to you. I believe you imagine that appreciation is a synonym for praise, and in what you describe as your calm and good-tempered disgust, you answer with comments that you believe to be critical, as you refer me to the considerable mass of your criticism. But here again, you seem to think that criticism is a synonym for vituperation. This is unfortunate because I believe you really have a genuine, though small, capacity for criticism, whereas your vituperative talents should, in your own interests, be hidden from sight.

Now I have had a large number of comments, criticisms, suggestions and an almost perfect specimen of vulgarity, in response to my request for an appreciation of the aforesaid Anthology. I am proposing, at a later date, to publish some of these and to save you the bother of replying, I take it that I may quote from your letter unless you reply, mentioning your objection. I hope you will allow me the same opportunity with regard to the letter you have written to Untermeyer on this subject.

I hope to write to you again before the time comes for which you seem to sigh, to wit, when I am guillotined.

J. Holroyd - Reece

Ezra Pound, Esq.,
Via Marsala, 12/5
Rapallo.

18th September 1933

Dear Ezra Pound,

It is the privilege of the mighty to be thus familiarly addressed,
so I hope you will pardon me.

I have just returned from a lengthy and tedious trip, to my new
abode, whose address is given at the head of this letter, and learn
on arrival that since seeing you last, you have been good enough to
continue to take an interest in a mere publisher, to the extent of
informing my belle-fille, Miss Diane van Dommelen, that you wish to
assassinate me. I cannot, at the moment, recall any action on my
part which merits such extreme attention on your part, and for this
reason I would be beholden to you if, before you assassinate me, you
would allow me to give you real cause to do so.

This is what I am about to do:

We are publishing the "Albatross Book of Living Verse" in England
on October 2nd, cloth bound, for 5/-.

Seeing that I have had to pay a lot of assassins like yourself,
five guineas for reprinting, as in your own case, a poem which you
would have liked to have seen substituted by something else, you
may believe me when I tell you that to issue such a collection of
verse at 5/-, represents what publishers consider a very remarkable
feat.

It means, in point of fact, that this is the first occasion on
which a book of such scope is brought within reach of a public that
has looked with longing on such publications as the "Oxford Book of
English Verse", but cannot afford the higher price.

J. Holroyd-Reece

Ezra Pound, Esq.

-2-

18.9.33.

I much regret my present inability to hear you express the vices
of this particular selection, which has my very genuine admiration.
What we little publishers think of it is set out in the front pages
and Collins' Autumn List, which I hope you will be good enough to
look over.

My next job is to supply you with a block on which to chop off
my head, and I should like, if you please, for you to cut off my
head on this very book, and I am therefore sending you a copy of
the India paper edition.

You can see how intelligent the Collins publicity manager is
when I tell you that he has written to me specially to try to ob-
tain from you a short letter, expressing your views of the Anthology.

I don't suppose I need to ask you specially to be as mordant as
is your wont, but if you can express yourself in terms that will
not obliterate the printer's ink, the Albatross will be very glad
to have a letter of "appreciation".

I hear that you have just perpetrated an Anthology yourself,
so I pray that the mood of "appreciation" of a fellow anthologist
is still upon you.

With kindest greetings and in the happy anticipation of my
imminent assassination by your very own hand,

I remain,

Yours,

Enclosure: Collins Autumn Books, 1933.

THE ALBATROSS

37 Rue Boulard · Paris · XIV

PUBLISHERS OF THE ALBATROSS MODERN CONTINENTAL LIBRARY

Directors : J. Holroyd Reece and M.C. Wegner

TELEGRAMS : Pegasedit-Paris. TELEPHONE : Ségur 95-82

Ezra Pound Esq.,
Via Marsala 12-5,
Rapallo,
Italie.

12.11.32

Dear Sir,

With reference to your letter of the 10th inst.,
for which we thank you we have pleasure in informing you
that, as we are not a British firm, our accounts are not
subject to British income tax. We therefore think you will
have no difficulty with the cheque with the cheque we sent
you on November the 8th.

10th March, 1934.

Dear Ezra Pound,

Thanks for your letter of the 8th, but do not rest on
your laurels, such as they are, just yet. No, I am not
offering you a job as a publisher's reader. Your position,
as I understand it, is that you are interested in getting
books published that you think ought to be published, and I
am offering you an opportunity of satisfying your desires; that
is to say, if, instead of saying merely that the Albatross
publishes a lot of rubbish, you would tell me what you think
the Albatross ought to include, I am willing to have the books
or manuscripts read and considered, and, beyond that, I feel
prepared, if I can agree with you about the virtues of your
recommendations, to take a long chance commercially, and
further, if it is any attraction to you, I will pay you a
handsome share in the profits of any such books, if there are
any.

So that there shall be no misunderstanding about
the last part of my suggestion, I do not intend to pay you a
share in the profits of books that you may suggest that we would
be publishing in the ordinary course of events, but if you care
to send a list of books that you recommend and they have either
been previously turned down or are not contracted for already,
you are welcome to a share in the profits.

Now let us see what you can do.

Kindest regards to your family,

Yours,