December 7, 1945.

Mr. Ernest Hemingway
c/o Charles Scribner's Sons
597 Fifth Avenue
New York, N. Y.

Dear Sir:

I am attorney for Ezra Pound, who has been
indicted in the United States District Court for the
District of Columbia on a charge of treason. At my re-
quest, based on his mental condition, the court has sent
him to a hospital for psychiatric examination. I believe
it would be a great help to the doctors making this examina-
tion if they could see some of the letters which Pound wrote
to his friends, which I understand from Archibald MacLeish
and Henry Seidel Canby were not only obscene and erratic but
indicated paranoid tendencies. Unfortunately the letters
from Pound received by Mr. MacLeish and Dr. Canby have been
destroyed. But I understand that Pound corresponded also
with you, and I am therefore writing to inquire whether you
have any of his letters and if so whether you would be
willing to let the doctors look at them. They would be re-
garded as confidential of course, and would not go beyond the
doctors.

If you can help in this regard will you please let
me know at once, as Pound is to be examined next week.

Sincerely yours,

JC.CW

FINCA VIGIA SAN FRANCISCO DE PAULA CUBA

December 11, 1945

Julien Cornell,
Attorney,
15 William street
New York 5, N. Y.

Dear Sir:

I do not have any of Ezra Pound's letters here, since
I do not believe he has written me since 1935 or 1936. It is
very probable that I have some of his old letters stored in Paris.
I regret this very much as I would be glad to make any or all of
his correspondance available to the doctors who are examining him.

I think the last time I saw Ezra was in Paris in 1934.
At that time I did not think his mental condition was normal. I
know that I was not alone in this opinion as James Joyce asked me
to have dinner with Ezra Pound and some other guests and when I
told him I already had another engagement he asked me if I would
break it and come anyway, as he said he was convinced that Pound
was mad and that he, Joyce, did not know what Pound might do.
(Joyce was genuinely frightened of him.) I went to the dinner and
Pound spoke very erratically throughout the evening.

He was not at all like the old friend that Joyce and
I had both known and Joyce told me afterwards he was convinced
Pound was mad.

It is my considered opinion that Ezra Pound has not
been normal mentally for at least the last ten years. I think you
will find the evidence of his mind and judgement being progressively
impaired (although with occasional flashes of brilliance) in all his
later verse, writings, broadcasting and letters, and I am only sorry
that he was not writing to me in those years so that I might put
the letters at your disposal.

I consider Ezra to be one of the greatest poets that
ever lived and he was always a generous and kind friend. It is
common knowledge how many great artists have died mad, but it is
not so common knowledge how many have lived in an abnormal mental
state protected by the loyalty of their friends and the respect of
the public for their past work. Ezra was flattered and exploited
by unscrupulous people who took advantage of his ever mounting
vanity which was a part of his mental condition.