26 Nov.

res publica, the public convenience

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

Dear Z :

There is no time to elaborate a program
if it is to reach you by Dec. 8.

HOWEVER, main points for any group of " young writers, especially in America. "

1. Neither crab no flatter each other. Look for the ten percent of possible good in each other's work.

2. Decide or dig out the two or three points on which you agree and fight those issues against the outer darkness.

3. Ivory Tower attitude is ambiguous and misunderstood. It is O.K. if it means attending to your own job, first last and always. One decent poem is more aggressive than any amount a talk-round and about the matter.

BUT, aloofness on part of yr. elders went too far, they got superior, couldn't touch contemporary issues.

It is probably not your job to mess into politics, but when the unspeakable filth, bureaucracy, half-men anthropoids etc, who boss the general show trespass on your ground, when they pass legislation definitely interfering with your job, then you should fight like tiger cats, every day and all day, until these infamies are removed.

Among these assaults and infamies, are

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO
VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

1.

ART · 211. of the Penal Code.

( Borrow, INSTIGATIONS FROM BILL, and
read it to the plighters ) P, 247

THAT represents the unspeakable shit which your fatners
have permitted to govern the country. The blue-arsed
baboons who passed that are the RULERS of you
bleeding and witnering country.

2. The same snits, in a later crop have tied up
the fronters with passport system, you can no
longer as you cd. have done before 1914, wander about
in peace free from interference of ronds de cuir.

3. You can't have your intellectual communications
circulated at reasonable rate, because of a copyright law
, ninety years behind those of all other civilized
countries.

4. Your frontiers are watched by a set of lice
who interfere with the import of books and works of
art. Including, Mine, Hokusai's and Brancusi's.

YOU HAVEN'T THE LEAST IDEA OF
THE POWER YOU ACTUALLY POSSESSED;
I.E. IF YOU WILL ACT TOGETHER,

yrs.

or of the power actually used
by your semblables, the
intelligentzia in other
literate countries.

3 Dec.

1928

Dear Z:

I do NOT believe that anybody who gets up
and lectures on Philosophy will ever start anything
save a circle of ladies to listen to him talk about
phyloserfy.

Abstract mind ( or Ersatz ). Nothing connected
with Gurdjeff will ever act constructively re/ art or
licherchoor.

Contact is merely Bob McA. and he is busy in
france where printing is cheaper.

Eliot as active as nature intended, but in
London. Really on the job. Can't diflect his energy
to N.Y.

I cd. hold him up to let his name be used
as committee member , but that wd. be all.

///

Covici is lying down.

///

IF my " agent " finds anything in N.Y. that will stand
me.... ( which is dubious ).....

but until some pubshr. believes in
at least me , they wont believe in Gould on my recommenda
t-ion.

/////

NEITHER DO I THINK that you or Price ought to finance
any such scheme. One or both of you ought to get
paid for running it.

////

I can't believe in Munson as a fecundity.

He has been going too long. No production.

Any kind of intemperate enthusiastic ass is better than
a cold collection of Coolidgian prudences in such
an affair as this.

Elf ?? Dangerously playful name ... who are it ?

1. Vide Enclosure : as to simultaneity. (back page 12 halio)
Arrived two days after your answer to my letter
saying the paper back was next move due.

////
The only man I know of its being ( possibly ) any
use for you to see is E.G.Rich. vide enclosure.

////
If he swung the scheme he wd. draw regular agents
commission. I don't see that it can do any damage for
you to see him. I don't see, either, where there wd.
be much rake off for you after he had finished with
his rake off. Except ... damn it all ... why you
shdnt. have secretarial fee or something ....

////
Onnerstan Mr Rich has NOT since Aug. 31 produced any
RESULTS. re my own personal affairs.

//////
You can say that YOU had asked me if anything cd.
be done for better books in the U.S.A. ; I had offered
you this scheme ; that YOU want books to read ; NOT
selected by the VanDoren family.
That you think a better grade committee cd. be formed.
Not for enormous profits, but for a possible working
wage.

Obviously Bill, Eliot, and even me, sometimes, do find
American pubshrs.

Obviously determined move on part of the three mentioned
males and editress of Dial, wd. ASSURE a certain nucleus
of reviewing for any book chosen.

The Guido will probably be out of the running. At
least I've had a draft contract ; and sent it back

EZRA POUND

RAPALLO

VIA MARSALA, 12 INT. 5

8 Dec. 1928

Dear Z :

The possibility of your being printed de looks,
with no great effort on yr. part ( other than that of
composition of the text ), seems fairly visible.

The company is, as you may observe, mixed.

The probably is how best to take advantage of the
opening, as Joseph's brothers remarked.

I think it wd. be a waste to make a
series of deBUTTS.

If you can amalgamate 3 items, or
material bulking about 3 times the size of " the ";
I think you might start off quite nicely. These
small expensive edtns. pay rather better than large
cheap ones, and in no way impede later appearance in
vulgah form.

It wd. be poss. simply to reprint " the ", but
I think it wd. be highly inadvisable, and look as if
you suffered from paucity of exuberance.

Neither do I think it advisable to use
your pre-"the" material. "the" has set a level
of expectancy, and it wd. be stupid to raise doubts.

At any rate use your best witz. and
send me whatever matter you think suitable. After which
my editorial faculties will employ themselves in the
matter.

I think it wd. also be inadvisable to mention
your expectations, until same are solidified. It is