Ezra Pound
Born in 1885, Ezra Pound was one of the founders and central figures of Modernism. He is perhaps best known for “The Cantos,” a long poem begun (with a translation of a translation) in 1915 and left incomplete at his death, and for his many translations from the Chinese and other languages. He also wrote highly influential and pungent literary criticism.
Pound was close to many major twentieth-century literature figures. He befriended William Carlos Williams and Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) while still in college; served as W.B. Yeats’s secretary; created and promoted the Imagist movement in poetry; served as foreign editor of Harriet Monroe’s Poetry magazine and Scofield Thayer’s The Dial; and encouraged The Little Review to undertake the serial publication of Joyce’s Ulysses. He also edited and reshaped T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” submitted it to The Dial, and badgered the editors until they awarded it their poetry prize in 1922.
After moving to Italy in 1924, Pound promoted the Objectivist poet Louis Zukofsky in his own little magazine, The Exile. He also persuaded a young visitor from Harvard, James Laughlin IV, to give up writing poetry and “go back and do something useful … be a publisher.” The first New Directions anthology (edited by Laughlin) appeared in 1936. Among the many young translators he corresponded with and influenced were Mary Barnard, W.H.D. Rouse, Robert Fitzgerald, and Dudley Fitts.
During the 1930s Pound became preoccupied with the deteriorating economic and social conditions throughout Europe and the United States, and came to admire Mussolini. In 1940 he began a series of broadcasts on Rome Radio, “Ezra Pound Speaking,” combining a highly colloquial explication of political and economic ideas with contemptuous attacks on American and British politicians and policies, and virulent anti-Semitic commentary. He was formally indicted for treason in 1943, and arrested by the U. S. Army in May of 1945. Confined to a temporary prison in Pisa until December, Pound began work on what would become “The Pisan Cantos.” Declared unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity in December 1945, Pound was confined to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington for thirteen years. In 1958 he was released into his wife Dorothy’s custody, and the couple returned to Italy. In 1962 Pound joined Olga Rudge, his companion of many years, in Venice and died at her home in October 1972.
The Beinecke’s Pound Collection is vast, and contains a great deal of material relating to his translations from the Chinese and Italian, as well as to work by other translators.
Ezra Pound Papers Collection Guide
CORRESPONDENCE
Tze-chiang Chao, Includes translations from the Chinese [1954]-60 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 8, folder 373-375 (request)
Robert Fitzgerald, includes poems by Fitzgerald (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 16, folder 736 (request)
Correspondence with W. H. D. Rouse
Some highlights: “memento vitae” & on editing (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 45 Folder 1946-47
“translation theory”(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 45 Folder 1949 (request)
on politics(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 45 Folder 1953 (request)
MANUSCRIPTS
Arnaut Daniel
Three Cantos
Canzoni
Cathay
Cavalcanti
Other Translation Materials
Arnaut Daniel
Autograph ms. n.d.(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2974 (request)
Typescript n.d.(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2975 (request)
Typescript, original and carbon n.d.(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2976 (request)
Typescript n.d.(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2977 (request)
Autograph ms. n.d.(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2978 (request)
Typescript n.d.(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2979 (request)
Typescript n.d.(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2980 (request)
Typescript n.d. Page 109 of 338(VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2981 (request)
Autograph ms., and typescript With: proof sheets pasted in n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2982 (request)
Glamour and Indigo: proofs, with IX and XVII, lacking XI n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2983 (request)
Note on Canzoni: typescript n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2984 (request)
“Razo”: typescript n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2985 (request)
[Copies of excerpts]: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 68, folder 2986 (request)
Three Cantos
Notes n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3102 (request)
Autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3103 (request)
Autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3104 (request)
Autograph ms. and typescript n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3105 (request)
Typescript 1917 Mar-Aug (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3106 (request)
Typescript n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3107 (request)
Typescript 1917 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3108 (request)
Typescript 1917 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3109 (request)
Typescript 1917 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3110 (request)
Setting typescript 1917 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3111 (request)
Proof for printing in Lustra 1917 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70, folder 3112 (request)
Three Cantos I, typescript (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 70 Folder 3115 (request)
Canzoni
Canzon: [“The Spear”], (Part of early draft, “When April’s green the land arrays…”): autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3519 (request)
Canzon: “The Vision”: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3520 (request)
Canzoni: “The Altar”: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3521 (request)
Canzoni: “Au Jardin”: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3522 (request)
Canzoni: “Au Salon”: autograph ms. See: “Verities” [Au Salon] n.d. Page 131 of 338 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3523 (request)
Canzoni: “blandula, tenulla, vagula”: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3524 (request)
Canzoni: “Erat hora”: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3525 (request)
Canzoni: “The Flame”: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3526 (request)
Canzoni: “La nuvoletta”: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3527 (request)
Canzoni: “Prayer for his Lady’s Life”: autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3528 (request)
Canzoni: “Psyche of Eros” (early draft of “Speech for Psyche in the Golden Book of Apuleius”): autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3529 (request)
Canzoni: “Rome” (Du Bellay): autograph ms. n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3530 (request)
Canzoni: “Translations from Heine”: autograph ms. and typescripts With: 2 notes to William Carlos Williams from E. P. [1910?](VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3531 (request)
Cathay
Cathay: setting typescript n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3542 (request)
Cathay: Autograph ms. and typescript [1942](VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3543 (request)
Cavalcanti Translations: Sonnets and Ballate
“Ten Sonnets [V, VII, VIII, XV, XVIII, XXII, XXIII, XXXIII, XXXV]” Autograph ms. [1910] (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3546 (request)
Sonnets: autograph ms. [1910] (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3547 (request)
Madrigal: autograph ms. [1910] (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3548 (request)
Sonnets: autograph ms. [1910] (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3549 (request)
Sonnets: typescript, 2 L (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3550 (request)
Sonnet XXI (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 80, folder 3551 (request)
Donna mi prega with Traduction and Commentary (printed pages from the Dial, Jul 1928): pp. 1-20 with ms. notations (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43box 80, folder 3557 (request)
Other Translation Materials
Ariga Kutsugen (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 99 f 4221 (request)
Notes and Translations from the Chinese in Pound’s hand (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 100, folder 4230 (request)
Fenollosa Notebooks (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 101 folder 4236 (request)
Sappho—EP Notes and translation by others (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 106, folder 4423 (request)
Aeschylus—EP Comments and mss. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 106, folder 4424 (request)
Notebook 42: [The Confucian Odes: No. 1] 1946 Apr-1947 Jan (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 116, folder 4910 (request)
Notebook 44: Confucian Odes: 3 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 116, folder 4912 (request)
Notebook 60: [The Confucian Odes: The Chinese Sound Vol. 1] [1947 May-Jun] (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 117, folder 4928 (request)
Pound Notes on The Seafarer (metrical) (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 135, folder 5894 (request)
Talmud or The Fountain of Evil: typescript [1939] (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 137, folder 5999 (request)
Manuscripts, Translations (for Italian readers) Tigullio (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 138 Folder 6043 (request)
Terra Italica (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 138 Folder 6009 (request)
Le Testament of François Villon (George Antheil’s score with Pound’s manuscript text) (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Oversize Box 238 Folder 13 (request)
translations from the French (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 138 Folder 6067- (request)
translations from the Latin , Catullus 52 (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 138 Folder 6072 (request)
Ezra Pound, “Catullus,” (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 Box 138 Folder 6075 (request)
The Wisdom of Poetry: typescript n.d. (VIEW)
Call Number: YCAL MSS 43 box 140, folder 6181 (request)
Mary Barnard | Robert Fitzgerald | Langston Hughes
The Practice of Literary Translation: Resources