Pound Ezra: a short biography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Ezra Pound is a key figure in the American modernist movement, one of the founders of the Imanzhenism movement in literature. Engaged in publishing and editorial activities. The world community is also known as an ardent supporter of fascism.

Childhood and youth

The future poet was born in October 1885 in the US state of Idaho. His mother was Isabel Weston and his father was Homer Pound. Ezra was the only child in this family.

His father held a position at the Hailey Land Office. Ezra's ancestors came to America in the seventeenth century from England. His paternal grandfather was engaged in logging, had several sawmills, but the business did not bring tangible profits, his grandfather remained bankrupt.

Isabelle did not like their life in Hayley, and in 1887 she and her son left for New York, from there the family moved to Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.

After graduating from elementary school, Pound Ezra was assigned to the Military Academy, where he studied Latin, history, and military science. A feature of the training was that the prototype of the Civil War uniform served as a uniform for students.

At the age of thirteen, Ezra traveled abroad for the first time. His mother took him on a tour of Europe.

At the age of eleven, Pound began to publish some of his written works. And at fifteen he enters the University of Pennsylvania in the Faculty of Arts.

There he met Hilda Doolittle, who was the professor's daughter. Ezra Pound, whose sexual orientation was obvious because he was reputed to be a terrible womanizer, did not come to court in the Dolittle family. However, he still proposed to the girl. But got rejected. By the way, not the last one in my life.

In 1906, Pound Ezra received a master's degree and defended his thesis on the work of Lope de Vega. He also won a grant of five hundred dollars, thanks to which he was able to leave for Europe.

In London

Pound spent the next twelve years in Foggy Albion, communicating with poets, studying Romance languages and developing his own system of versification. He lectured at a local college on the development of literature in Europe.

In London, Ezra meets William Yeats and works as his secretary for a while. Thanks to his friend, he met Dorothy Shakespeare, his future wife, at one of the literary salons. They married in 1914.

Pound Ezra did not stop publishing, his work was evaluated ambiguously. Someone was fascinated, someone saw the obvious influence of other poets (for example, W alt Whitman).

In 1915, his book "Imanzhenizm" was published, which is a synthesis of poetry and the theory of this direction. Imanzhenism began to attract attentioncritics.

Pound Ezra was also involved in publishing. For example, he contributed to the publication of the books by J. Joyce "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", T. Eliot "The Love Songs of Alfred Prufrock".

In Paris

In 1920, Ezra and Dorothy decided to move to Paris, which they did a few months later.

In Paris, he did a lot of publishing, including befriending the young Hemingway and helping him get published.

There he met the American violinist Olga Raj, an affair with which lasted almost fifty years. Poor Dorothy endured all the betrayals of her husband, who practically did not hide from her.

In Italy

The family did not live long in the capital of France. Dorothy did not like the local climate, and Ezra's he alth needed more sun. Therefore, it was decided to move to Italy.

The Italian period of their lives lasted more than twenty years. Ezra's mistress Olga followed them, and a few months later she gave birth to a daughter, Mary, who she gave up to be raised by a local peasant woman.

When Dorothy found out about this event, she did not talk to her husband for several months, and after that she left on a trip to Egypt. It probably did her good, because after returning she herself became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Omar.

In Italy, Pound began to work seriously on a large poetic work called "Cantos".

In 1933, Ezra meetsMussolini and imbued with his ideas. He even gives lectures at universities. Since 1939, he began to publish anti-Semitic materials in print media, speaks on the radio and propagates the ideas of fascism everywhere.

In 1943, in the United States, Pound was sentenced in absentia to arrest for treason. The poet does not react to this news in any way, but continues his propaganda activities. In 1945 he was arrested.

Return to USA

Some time after his arrest, he was transferred from one Italian prison to another, journalists were freely allowed to see him.

November 15, Pound was transported to America. He was accompanied by medical staff from a psychiatric hospital, as it was believed that the poet was out of his mind (due to his ideas of changing the economic situation in the world by destroying some castes of people).

Ezra was admitted to St. Elizabeth. Dorothy was appointed as his legal guardian. Thanks to the efforts of Pound's lawyer, he was declared insane and allowed to stay in more favorable conditions, with the possibility of visits and walks. So he lived for the next twelve years.

In 1949, Pound received the Congressional Award for "The Cantos of Pisa", which caused a great outcry in literary circles.

During his forced treatment, Ezra Pound, whose quotes were no longer remembered, was translating.

Recent years

After his release, Ezra returned to Italy, where he lived until his death. He wrote almost nothingwas in a deep depression. Ezra Pound, whose work can be analyzed from different points of view, has spoken derogatoryly about his work in recent years.

Died in Venice at eighty-seven. Buried there.