EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

24 Oct.

Dear Zuk :

Wonners will nevuHH cease. I have just read.
nooz from Harriet that she is puttin you at the wheel
for the Spring cruise.

I dunno whether in L'annonce fait
a L.Z. she mentioned the foreflying occasions ?????

At any rate since it was a letter from donal mckenzie that
smoked me up into writin Harriet the letter that awoke
in her nobl booZUMM the fire of enthusiasm that led her
to let you aboard

I

wd. appreciate it if you wd. invite
mckenzie to do one of the prose articles for the number
and state his convictions as forcibly as possible ....

after which I see no reason
why you shdnt. add a editorial note saying why you
disagree.

Poetry has never had enUFF disagreement INSIDE
into own wall.

n need hardly say that I am ready to be of any assistance
I can. I do NOT think it wd. be well to insert
my point of view. I shd. like you to consider mckenzie's
point of view and your own.

IF there is anyone whom you want to include and cant get
directly, I might be of use in raking them in,
but I dont want to nominate any one.

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

I shdnt. be in any hurry. Take your time and you can
produce something that will DATE and will stand against
Des Imagistes.

I think I wrote you that I refused to contribute to
Aldington's Imagist mortology 1930 (or 1929 or whenever it
might be)

I don't know that I mentioned my
statement to R.A. or praps it was to W.C.W. that
I shd. have considered tying up with a game a species
of betrayal of your generation. ( or some less rhetorical
term, probably a list mentioning you and McA. )

As H. says she has invited your prose comment, it strikes
me that you need not limit yourself to unpubd work.

The body of the issue shd. naturally be new stuff, but there
is no reason why you shd.nt have a small print senction
of 8 or 12 pages with the classics of the intervening
period.

( I have in mind Hemingways " They all made peace " and the
Neothomist poem ( with title correctly spelled ).

I can't think of anything else that you wd. be likely to
overlook, or of any other writer who wdnt. stand perfectly
fair chance of having an unpubd poem as good as anything
he has already pubd.

The thing is to get out something as good as Des Imagistes

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

That is to say.

I shd. try to get a fairly homogenous number ; emphasis
on the progress made since 1912 ; concentrated drive ;
not attempt to show the extreme diversity ;
though it cd. be mentioned in yr. crit.

This also wd. make it a murkn number ; excludin the
so different English ; though you cd. be broadminded an mention
'em in a brief article ( Basil's from L'indice ; or a
condensation ; or yr. own.

If you cover yourself with glory an' honour, H.M. might even
let Basil 'dijJ try his hand at showin what Briton can do.

or you in yr. now sproutin advisory capacity cd.
tell her that Basil ( often tres constipé ) had done an
article that has appeared in a furrin tongue. ....

Or still also prejektin into the future ; Basil cd. crit.
your number after the act , that wd. prob. be the best ;
you do yr. american damndest and then call in the furrin
critic to spew forth his gall and tell what the Britons
wd. LIKE to do that you aint done.

//

with mckenzie ; I shd. carefully consider anything he
nominates. Then let him know what you have chosen
and base his article on his disagreement with you ;
simply let him say what he wd. have done if he had

have
him

EZRA POUND

You have got to disentangle a far more multitudinous etc.
etc.

plenty of chaps meaning what they say ( with no
lit. capac. )

they are your basis. you've got so to choose
'em as to hide their defects off.

By getting the ten good lines the barstuds have
writ , you compose more or less one hole man out of
the lot , or one author.

Keep at 'em till you get stuff that is good enough.
Fight with 'em the day after ; that don't matter.

If they don't send in something good ; relegate 'em to
the historic section in small print. ten or a dozen poems
wd. cover that.

Carnevali can prob. do as well as he ever has done.
Cummings and Hem. ??? hist. sec. only.

Fer the rest , it is up to you to tell me. I can NOT
be expected to know wot the young are doin'

I see NO reason to tell anyone that I have had an indirect
participation in the whatshall we nego=well=ci=moreorless=ation.

The fact that it will be hard for you to satisfy yourself
among yr. con'empraries is all to the good.

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

The opportunity is larger than you had grasped on
13 th inst.

To save time I spose I'll have to " indicate ".

you ll have to go thru Pagany ; New Masses, Morada ,
for talent.

Horace Gregory's book has been pubd. by Covici.

I can not damitall MY recommendation now means too
much.

You can make twenty bad guesses and have 30 expectations
without doing yourself any harm and without injustice to
the men you omit.

Take New Masses, Pagany, Morada and start to debunk and
eliminate.

Insist on mckenzie's getting hard solid stuff from his
list of hopefuls.

Dont lean on europe. Certainly NOT a translation of
an essay on Salmon.

The thing is to cut a line livlier than H & Horn .
with just 8% more sense than N.Masses.

Get good stuff from people not perhaps good enough; but
who can get through 8 lines or a page without giving
themselves away ;

AND

a little <u>really</u> solid.

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

ONE notable difference between yr. position in 1930
and mine in 1910 is that you would LIKE to include
several older american authors. Bill, Me and I suppose
Possum Eliot, with Cummings an already known name.

immediate
It is not a factor that makes your job any easier
but it
may on the other hand have made life in general
etc....

If you cd. define and dissociate the whatshallwesay
impulses depulses etc. of yr. elders ( not AT length ;
but in say a sentence or three paragraphs ) Not merely
epigramatic whoop.

Anyhow ; the young cd. learn something from the three of
us and praps from Edward Estlin.

The number NOT to be overtopplyingly retrospective.

Mr wozisname is NOT content with his uncles.

I am glad you asked about Rakosi. The chap was feelin blue
as sombohillbo in his last letter, I wudnt be sprised if
he'd shot himself.

If he is still at Kinosha, you cd. establish personal
vivavoce.

Always something to be got out scrap that takes place
on the premises and not merely over a typewriter.

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

Dont quite know what you take to indicate the tendency. Certain procedures of F.V. himself ??

"either can I see anything that isn't puffily clear.
I objected to his trans. of "La bonne Lorraine", but
that's how he wants it.

At any rate bloody well the best thing has been in Poetry
for some time.

since we are committed to intrigue, you might in due course
tell Harriet it shd. be "prized".

am for omitting foreigners from your number. That number
shd. establish the new American line up.

always better to plan a series of things even if one
can only do ONE. If the ONE is intended as start of
series it gains a certain potentiality, and gets perhaps
completed later.

DONT comment ON Madison out lound, unless you have already
done so. Yr. aged parent was once relegated to
Crawfordsville Ind. which MUST be worse, it aint even a
state Capital. Bear, observe and BEEEE silent.

Surtout point de zele ! In time of stress reread Adams
opening chapters on Jeff's time.

Am not strong on the Darrk
night of the soul. But still you've got somethin

EZRA POUND

O goin ON; continuin'

In yr/ host survey you'll have ( I suppose ; and at yr/ discretn:
it take count of Crosby. Question of what you can GET AT
as you presumably havent seen much of his work.

I shd. think the poems in PAGANY for Winter 1930 wd.
be a just ground for your remarks.

Re/ Howard Weeks, you can't be supposed to know anything
save the disquisitory as it were Parody of Eliot in
Exile. I shdnt; reprint it. It will cost you only two
lines to refer to it and to ref my remarks in Eng.
Journal IF my essay has come out in Eng. Journal.
Otherwise you can simply say that I regarded his death as
a loss. The only reason I did not print more of him
in Xile was that the stuff seemed so certain to be
much better in a very short time.

You've got to Taupinize mainly New Masses and Pagany
as I see it. Apart from the one or two items not the
ultimate issues of Lit. Rev. ( the one pome of Hems' ) and.
Bob McA.

Cummings' stuff you know better'n nI do.

Ought to be 32 pages without padding out with ole Bill
and me. ( if you had US you'd need Gertie and Possum
etc.etc. Cummins' you get for a front page or you
don't get. If you don't get him your start AFTER E.E.C.

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

EZRA POUND
PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

30 Oct.

Dear Zuk

I am sending you all the stray mss/ that I
can find. They are of very uneven merit but the more
material you have on hand the better. Inclusion in the
pile does not imply directiveness on my part.

I.

I find I have a few inedits of Weeks. It wd. be a
suitable place to print a memorial note, but I dont
want you to do violence to yr/ critical sense. If you
use a group you cd/ simply say that I thought H.W.
showed talen and that this is all the remains that can
for the moment be found ( apart from prose stroies ).

II.

I am sending you the copy of Hem's " all made peace " for
the historic section.

III.

Carnevali's trans. from Rimbaud, which I think ought to
go in.

IV.

I find a couple of things by Rakosi, in case you cant
find him or get anything better.

V.

mss: by unknown .

VI.

Michelson was put in an insance assylum 15 years ago.
He was one of Harriet's find. I send mss: for yr/ private
inspection. Not sure it hasn't already appeared in Poetry

EZRA POUND PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED TO PALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

VII

There was also Walsh. I dunno what you may think of
him. I spose mss/ cd. be got from his relict ( Kay Boyle )
DONT mention ME. They think I was THAT crool an' hartless
not having wTHH answered his last 44 letters ( having
answerd 239 and 1/2 and bein' busy ).

Walsh had enthusiasm.

There is also Rorty . etc.etc. I think you will have
to sweat thru the files of the New Masses. And think
out some verbal manifestation to fit the general state
of the case.

Folk poetry is largely anonymous . The
Percy Reliques etc. not made by discriminatory process
on part of their authors. All I have ever been able
to believe about benefit of folk poesy is that they are
so goddam indiscriminate that they occasionally refrain from
killing a good thing. The Bloomsbuggers NEVER do. The
half educated invariably hate anything good. ( ?? or
what )% of invariably ??)

IF using any Weeks, you can refer to Miss Marguerite Haughey
co/ Advertisment Inc. 7310 Detroit.

Another address not for poesy but fer human contact
G.S.Seymour 1217 E . 53 d. St. Chicago

4 Nov.

The packet of mss. goes registered tomoray. Yesterday had
not from R.Johns inviting me to Paganize. That might be a place
for yr/ note on me ( the shorter one. ) I spose Eliot will
get round to uning the other in a decade or so.

EZRA POUND

res publica, the public convenience

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

8 HHHHHH Nov.

Z//

I wonder. I think possibly. In yr/ notes , you might
say that

HH Certain persons despair of the Univeristy System in the U.S.

( as you have a univ. job. it can
come from you ; and not be called
sour grapes. )

When one considers how the students are served.
which
For example the U. of. Penn. might have had the services
of E.P. offers the HHHH adolescents Mr Chas. Whatron Stork.

( perhaps it is TIME someone said so. )

I had a letter from a good writer who went to Columbia
and found Mr Ausslander . ( oh well ).

You might also say in the notes ( small print ) that
E.P. is advocating the installation of printing presses
instead of more plumbing fixtures in universities. The
idea being that the young shall learn to print and so
gradually free themselves from the general obstruction
to intellectual communication now imposed by publishers'
"overhead ".

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

KONtinuing. 8 Nov.

Z//

Continuing note of this a.m. you cd. say that

The supreme insult to American youth was the importation
of ALFRED Noyes to teach licherchoor at Princeton. It
must have put WHHHHH a whole decade of y.m. off the
subject altogether.

The only appointment that has aroused any interest or gen.
approbation was the appointment of Frost. Of course Frost
was a perfectly safe man, he didn't know much about
any literature except what he had written HHHHe himself
but he was at any rate perfectly honest and his
work though lacking in brilliance was etc......

( change the phrasing ; one never knows when HHHH one's
cadence shows thru.

I shd. be glad if you wd. print the enclosed little
oration on Carnevali. That will bring me into the number
as contributor, as well as havin me yawpin into your ears
from the side lines.

Just got another page from him; better than what I have sent but
am waiting till I can get his correction or confirmation of
two or three words. He shakes so one cant be sure he hits the
right keys on the typewriter.

EMANUEL CARNEVALI

Several years ago Professor Michaud expressed his view that Carnevali was one of the two poets in America whose work attained an international standard. Michaud was writing in a careless and ~~popular~~ manner and his judgements do not carry any particular weight, however that sort of thing is evidently good enough for the Sorbonne.

One has known of Carnevali's existence for a decade. The work has always shown temperament, "fire", a refusal to be controlled, an intensity of feeling without which no poet is ever satisfactory, though this fury is not in itself a complete poetic equipment.

For a number of years one has recognized that Carnevali was one of the few who ~~might~~, and one has speculated as to whether his handicap was too great. It seems to me that, at one time, a writer can without reservation recognize his validity as a writer cease and be regarded him as an invalid.

Mr Pound leaves the opposite space blank to indicate
the following beliefs :

A country tolerating an outrage like article 2II of the
U.S.Penal code does not deserve to have any literature
whatsoever.

Any reader who is too lazy to read this article 2II
deserves damnation, and any U.S. Official who tolerates
the article deserves damnation, and any reader who
having read the article fails to exert his maximum effort
to get rid of it, deserves damnation, and the only pity
is that we no longer believe in a red hot hell and
that we are therefor without adequate means of prodding
these verious classes of slugs into action.

There is scarcely anyone so low in temporal fortune
as not be able to annoy someone having some sort of
power and authority. It is only by a policy of constant
irration that we shall get rid of the marginal
impediments to a decent literary life in America. These
latter include publishers' " overhead ".