Thursday 3 May, 1944, EP is collected from the house at Sant’Ambrogio by two ex-Fascist crooks hoping to make a buck by handing him in to the Americans. They walked him down the hill to Rapallo, this footpath the salita, to be driven on to Zoagli; during which descent EP stopped to collect a dried eucalyptus pip from beneath its tree.

Curious, is it not, that Mr Eliot
has not given more time to Mr Beddoes
  (T.L.) prince of morticians
 where none can speak his language
centuries hoarded
to pull up a mass of algae
    (and pearls)
or the odour of eucalyptus or sea wrack
 cat-faced, croce di Malta, figura del sol
 to each tree its own mouth and savour
 “Hot  hole  hep  cat”
or words of similar volume
  .  .  .  .
the cat-faced eucalyptus nib
  is where you cannot get at it
  .  .  .  .
so that leaving America I brought with me $80
 and England a letter of Thomas Hardy’s
 and Italy one eucalyptus pip
from the salita that goes up from Rapallo
     (if I go)
  .  .  .  .

        — Canto XXX

A home recording of Ezra Pound: American Odyssey (1985), a film documentary on the life of Ezra Pound. Untested. A home recording from the first broadcast, thus preceding the Mystic Fire Video Voices and Visions: Ezra Pound (1995) re-release by ten years. Playtime c. 55 mins. Light aging to the slipcase.

A radio play about Pound in Venice in the 60’s, his friendship with his gondaliere Mr. Greenhill (i.e. Monteverdi), his visiting by a young fan whose belief in Pound’s economics creates tensions with his father, a sly pair of journalists, an amusing Allen Ginsberg, and a protective Olga Rudge. Brilliantly researched, voiced and performed; one of the very best dramatic pieces after Pound. Home recordings from the BBC Broadcast, 2 March 1997. Unavailable till now, here.

A radio documentary on Olga Rudge, her career as an internationally renowned violinist, secretary of the Accademia Musica Chiggiana, and her dedication to Ezra Pound. CD, from the broadcasting house. Annotated in ink, “£70”. Title and credits attached by two pieces of tape, otherwise an anonymous disc in anonymous case. Unavailable till now, here.

A look at Pound’s politics of the 30’s and 40’s, his trial, the public’s reaction, and his release. Interviews with Mary de Rachewiltz, David Moody, Helen Dennis and Bernard Kops, a number of audio clips also included from his play Ezra. A home recording after the original BBC Radio 3 broadcast, Sunday 20th July 2008. Unavailable until now, here.

A BBC Radio 4 production, first broadcast 2 December 2012. On Pound’s Imagiste doctrine, in discussion with a number of poets on their relationship with Pound’s Don’ts, as well as David Moody in interview. CD from the broadcasting house. Unavailable until now, here.

Selections of Pound’s compositions in the main from Le Testament (1923, E3h), Fiddle Music (1923-33, E3d) and Cavalcanti (1932, E3a). Conducted by Robert Hughes, one of the great Poundian musicologists who visited Pound in St. Elizabeths in 1958 and composed a number of pieces after Pound’s poetry (listen to The Music of Robert Hughes and the Poetry of Ezra Pound here). CD and case in fine condition. Booklet sunned to spine; errata slip laid-in, occasional pencil annotation from David Moody. Slipcase with one scuff to bottom corner of spine and a little wear on the fore-edge, mostly fine.

A ticket to the joint piano and violin recital held at the Salle du Conservatoire (or Ancien Conservatoire; photos), Paris, Tuesday 11 December 1923 by Olga Rudge and George Antheil. Pound met Antheil in the June of 1923, of which Antheil wrote in his autobiography, “Ezra asked me to get some of my music and go with him to the home of a friend who had a piano. I did so, went with him, played for hours, and Ezra seemed very pleased with it.” This friend was Olga Rudge, whom Pound had met the previous autumn. As Conover writes (Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound), ‘Olga suggested Pound’s initial interest in her was her mother’s piano—for Ezra, she insisted, work came first. Antheil soon set to composing a violin sonata for Olga, determined to make the music, he wrote to Ezra, “as wildly strange as she looked…”’ Pound at this time was also composing music. On his first visit to Olga’s home on the rue Chamfort, he brought with him the score of his Testament de Villon, and in 1923 was both transcribing a twelfth-century air by Gaucelm Faidet, “Plainte pour la mort du Richard Coeur de Lion,” and composing an original work, Sujet pour Violon (Resineux), (Gallup E3g) both of which, interposed by a Gavotte by J. S. Bach, were performed by Rudge as the opening to this concert. To follow was a “Première Sonate pour Violon et Piano” (Antheil), “Concerto en la majeur” (Mozart), and a “Deuxième Sonate pour Violon et Piano” (Antheil) each performed by the both, with, as reported by Irvinge Schwerke in a review dated December 15, EP turning the pages. A scarce item, with only two copies appearing in institutional holdings (both at the University of Indiana, vide); Yale appearing only to have the programme (here). Ticket numbered No. 21 of around a potential capacity of c. 750 audience members, and presumably one of 150 in the stalls. Faint suggestion of a vertical fold in middle, similar to top left corner, a little brown around “Decembre” in the left column (stub part); mostly fine.

A programme to accompany the “Settimana Mozartiana,” three evenings of Mozart’s Sonatas for violin and piano, performed by Olga Rudge (violin) and Gerhart Munch (piano), held at the Teatro “Reale” (“the local cinema house” — Schafer), Rapallo, June 26-28 1933. The first of the Rapallese Concerts organised by Pound, who composed the copy on this programme, of which there were around forty between 1933 and 1939. The entirety of Mozart’s sonatas for violin and piano were performed around this time, the further twenty-two “done privately so that a few of us heard the whole set,” Pound seeking to understand “what Mozart meant by the form or what the form meant to him.” (See Pound to Tibor Serly in Paige’s Letters, p. 442, and Schafer’s EP and Music, p. 331). With prices advertised for Boxes, First Seats, and Second Seats, taxes paid. “Sotto gli auspici dell’Istituto Fascista di Culture.” Lightly folded in four, as published; a few spots around Wednesday’s progamming, the left edge darkened with a small stain at bottom.

A memento from The Ezra Pound Centennial Conference, 19-22 June 1985, held at the University of Maine at Orono. Canto printed offset from a New Directions edition, with page number at bottom, spilling over from the leaves and concluded verso of the rear cover. Very near fine; bottom corner of rear cover lightly creased. Too late for Gallup.

Promotional ephemera from Swedish publisher Bo Cavefors Bokförlag who published a number of translations of Pound’s works between 1959 and 1972. Each a small piece of plain paper with monochrome printings of photographs of Pound post St. Elizabeths, by an unknown photographer but possibly Olga Rudge, with text verso. The photograph of EP aside the sculpture by Gaudier-Brzeska features adverts for six Swedish editions of EP published by Bo Cavefors Bokförlag, and quotes by Artur Lundkvist, Bengt Holmqvist and Göran Palm in a second column, aside the publisher’s vertical fold. The books advertised were published 1959-1962, and an announcement for an upcoming translation of The Spirit of Romance by Alex Holm for 1964, which was actually published in 1965; hence my estimated date of these items at circa 1964. The photograph of EP in the park features an Italian announcement verso that Pound has been waiting nine years to return to Italy where he will finish his 100 Cantos, otherwise he will never write verse again (from the Appunto biografico in Tre Cantos tradotti da Mary de Rachewiltz in collaborazione personale con l’autore, All’Insegna del Pesce d’Oro, 1954). Both quite fine, a little age.

The later advertisement leaf for the Square $ Series’ publication of The Unwobbling Pivot & The Great Digest; together with Ernest Fenollosa’s Essay on the Chinese Written Character, ([1951]). “(From Introduction)” is taken from Pound’s Note to The Great Digest, p.29. Price given as “One Dollar, Postpaid” in coherence with the name of the series. With Pound’s Introductory Text-book printed overleaf, signed Rapallo 1938, originally privately printed by Bonner and Company, London in 1939 (see Gallup E2r, and for other appearances of the Introductory Text-book: E2s, C1511 and C1724). This appearance recorded by Gallup under E2r who gives the date as late 1950s. Contary to Gallup’s find that ‘at least some copies with a typed statement added along the lefthand side: “Lincoln was shot for understanding what Jeff wrote to Crawford in 1816” (see B36a note)’, this copy has two amateurish typewritten notes, the first a simplified statement, “Lincoln shot for / understanding Chap II,” the second, “History profs who do not understand bearing of [this] are nearly as low as psychiatrists.” A wonderful rare piece of ephemera and given the whim of the type, possibly unique (possibly even Pound’s type?). Three light horizontal folds, otherwise quite fine.

An advertisement for the six books of the Square $ Series, Pound’s requirement on anybody “allowed into Congress [or] to vote” (Interview with D. G. Bridson, 1959). Reproduces a blurb for the series, “America writers who can hold their own…” anonymously written by Pound, which first appeared on the back flap of the sixth and final book of the series, del Mar’s Roman and Moslem Moneys. No mention of this leaf in Gallup or much anywhere else. Post-dating at least the publication of Roman and Moslem Moneys, with a Washington address possibly concurrent with the Washington P. O. Box given on the rear cover of Roman. The absence of Kasper, i.e. the contact given as T. D. Horton, Publisher, may be of some use dating this. Very near fine, a faint, dark stain top left; paper cut at slight skew to the text-block.

Catalogue to an exhibition of Poundian Editions held at the Azienda Autonoma di Soggiorno, Merano, 30 October - 16 November 1958. A very well supplied exhibition with texts ranging from A Lume Spento (A. Antonini, 1908) to two copies of John Rodker’s Draft of Cantos 17-27 (one of four on vellum, and one of five on Imperial Japan, 1928), an undated and unplaced Ninth Canto, and later ephemeral publications and foreign translations. With further artwork from Gaudier-Brzeska, Lewis, Martinelli, a photocopy of a declaration by the people and Mayor of Rapallo that EP has never carried out fascist or antisemitic activities (1948) and a death mask of EP made in 1921 by Nancy Cox MacCormack. A fine copy.

A Christmas card printed by Paideuma for C. F. Terrell, addressed in hand from Carroll F. Terrell to A. David Moody, with two fragments of Canto 76 printed. With an illustration of a Guanyin (or Bodhisattva) to the front cover, undated but probably contemporary with Paideuma Vol. 5 No. 1, Spring 1975 whose front cover, printed in a duller green, reproduces a stone Sakyamuni flanked by four disciples and two Bodhisattvas, reproduced courtesy of the Exhibition of Archeological finds of the Peoples Republic of China at National Gallery of Arts, Washington, D.C.; thus 1974-5. Fine.

An announcement from The Ezra Pound Association requesting for donations for the purchase the place of Ezra Pound’s birth, 314 Second Avenue South (or 314 Second and Pine Street), Hailey, Idaho, where the Pound family resided till 1887. In Indiscretions (1923) Pound wrote that the Hailey experience “enriched his parents’ table talk for life” and through them Idaho left its mark on him (see this Idaho Heritage Trust article). 314 Second and Pine is registered as The Homer Pound House on the National Register of Historic Places. It was gifted to the Sun Valley Museum of Art in 2005 and is used today by them for local cultural events (see here). With an article on the possible use of the house as an arts center to rear, from The Times-News, August 18, 1997. Together with the original envelope with The Ezra Pound Association’s header printed, addressed in hand to A. David Moody, opened cleanly along the top edge. Fine.

Namely a maple in the garden of Via Cavallotti 83/B, Venezia Mestre, on which on the 25 April 1989 a number of Venetian and local poets hung poems; after which the address received thousands of works to be hung, often just addressed to L’Albero della Poesia. The Tree assumed a number of locations, a number of trees over the next twenty years, in 1997 shortly before the 17th EPIC, held at Brunnenburg, becoming the maple standing tall in the courtyard of Brunneburg, from which Pound used to tap syrup. The artists featured here were all members of the Hyperspatialist Movement (Iperspazialismo), who signed their Hyperspatialist Manifesto in the previous year (1996). Both Iperspazialismo and L’Albero della Poesia were (or became) Mail-Art movements (whose International Union still exists today). An apt, then, postcard from the 1997 residency of The Tree at Brunnenburg, in fine condition with one corner so lightly bumped.

An invite to a Pound conference held on a Saturday, 12 July 1986 in the Palazzo Ancaiani, Spoleto, organised by three bodies, the Comitato per Ezra Pound, the Comitato per il Centenario di Ezra Pound, and the Comitato Umbro per il Centenario di Ezra Pound. The conference featured an afternoon of talks, as well as concerts and the exhibition of Poundian material, and a seminary with Olga Rudge as guest. Near fine; a little age mainly exhibiting light foxing to the outer pages.

An pamphlet to accompany the Celebrazioni Poundiane held at Vercelli, 18-26 November 2005, under the title, “Ezra Pound, l’artista sociale,” organised by the Associazione culturale “Il Testimone” in collaboration with the Città di Vercelli, the Provincia di Vercelli and the Università degli studi di Vercelli on the occasion of Pound’s 120th birthday. Pound’s links with the city mainly resting upon his friendship with Vercellese painter Edgardo Rossaro, who alongside Pound signed the manifesto, “Scrittori del Tigullio” in 1944 (see Gallup C1668), reprinted by Pesce d’Oro in La repubblica italiana delle cosche: la decapitazione dello stato (1984), and Pound’s contribution of two economic articles to “la Provincia Lavoratrice,” a paper of the Federazione repubblicana di Vercelli (Gallup C1663 and C1667). The celebration commenced on the evening of Friday 18, hosted talks from a number of scholars held on one day, Saturday 19 November, being concluded by Mary de Rachewiltz, there followed by a “Rappresentazione Teatrale di Vertex Teatro” in the Teatro Civio, while the exhibiton of Poundian material, bibliographic and artistic, continued till 26 November. In fine condition.

Guide leaflet to accompany the exhibition, Prince Meinhard II.’s Dream - That Will Be Tyrol’s, printed in both Italian and German, held at Schloss Tirol (the castle above Brunnenburg) 13 May - 31 October 1995. Meinhard II received the County of Tirol in 1271 when dividing possession of lands with his brother Albert (whose line was lost by 1500), and successfully ruled and promoted Tyrol, together with his wife Elisabeth von Bayern, till his death. With lay-in, reminding visitors to not forget the adventure area! Near fine, a very little wear at folds and edges.

An invitation to the third British Ezra Pound Conference, to be held 9-12 September 1977 at University College, London. The weekend programme saw a “minute study of Cantos 90 & 91 and Cantos 106 & 107,” together with sessions on Pound’s Propertius and Pound’s economics, an exhibition entitiled “Motz el son” and a tour of Pound’s London. Lightly aged, but mostly fine.

An ephemeral reprint of Pound’s “Religio, or The Child’s Guide to Knowledge,” originally appearing in the New Freewoman I. 9, 15 Oct. 1913 (Gallup C106a) and later in Pavannes and Divisions (1918, Gallup A15). Here preceded by an extract from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790) by William Blake, signed W. B. A rare item with only three recorded institutional holdings. Abides by Gallup E2zf, if Gallup hadn’t seen the envelope. Fine, the envelope with countable spots to the back.

Opening with a poem by Cima (in Italian, on Pound and Venice), then with Pound’s essay I livelli di Venezia (dug up by Mary de Rachewiltz), and 10 photographs by Walter Mori of Pound in Venice, some across double-page spreads, one of Pound reading The Scrolls and Christian Origins. A fine copy save a small, light crease to the front cover. One of 3000, and No. 13 in occhio magico (Serie fotografica). Too late for Gallup.

“Against the granite acridity of Catullus’ passion, against Ovid’s magic, and Ovid’s sense of mystery, Horace has but the clubman’s poise and no stronger emotion than might move one toward a particularly luscious oyster. His jibes at old women are like petty personal fusses lacking the charm of Palladas’ impartial pessimism or the artistic aloofness, the Epicurean and really godlike impersonality of Catullus’ poem containing the phrase, ‘habet dentes’, which is the first Wyndham Lewis drawing, perhaps the only Wyndham Lewis drawing, in literature.”

An Italian translation of Pound’s “Horace,” originally published in The Criterion, January 1930, printed vis-à-vis the original English. The English was also reprinted in Arion, Summer/Autumn 1970 (see Gallup C756), and was translated into French by Michel Beaujour for Les Cahiers de L’Herne (1966, Gallup D23r) and into Japanese by Ryozo Iwasaki (Gallup D173a). First Italian edition thus. A fine copy, save for light creasing at the gutters as the covers open, as expected. With a frontispiece portrait of Pound (also included in reflection to rear), possibly by Arnold Genthe.

“… but among the fields to be especially drained there is Latin literature that should be revived, and ploughed once again by a Latinist such as Pelo Pardi. (Writers from the little salons do not know Pelo Pardi? What a pity.) Also America went into putrefaction when the presidents were no more able to draw the plough as, on the contrary, J. Q. Adams knew how to do.”
  — Ezra Pound, “I classici dell’avvenire,” Meridiano di Roma, September 1940.

An English translation of Pound’s “Revisione dell’antica storia” by Flavia Sabina Molea, originally published in Il Meridiano di Roma, 4 October 1942, not included in Gallup (though would reside between C1640 and C1641) nor in the Contribution to Periodicals. Pelo Pardi, a contemporary of Leo Frobenius, was an agriculturalist and inventor (of a “universal plow” among other things) who in similar vein to Frobenius, “was driven to his inventions by his classical studies.” In the 1950’s Del Pelo Pardi and his son collaborated with Pound’s son-in-law, Boris de Rachewiltz on a archaeological survey of the ‘cunicoli’ of the Latium region (cf. Cantos 101 & 116). Further discussion throughout the O. R. Agresti letters. First edition. A fine save the light fold from the front cover from reading. With one jot pencil marginalia from A. David Moody. With numerous illustrations to rear.

Does I love you wid all my heart? -
I loves you wid my liver;
Ah’ if I had you in my mouf,
I’d spit you in de river.

  — Does I Love You?

War songs, hunting songs, ritual songs, and so on, of the American Indian. Entire text in Italian. Lightly foxed, a very little edge-wear, lacking the band.

Poems from the T’ang Dynasty (618-906), a poetic height in Chinese history and a period from which nearly 50,000 poems survive. In Italian throughout; poems printed in prose form. Light wear, lacking the band.

A very pretty collection of Japanese proverbs, presented under the light of a popular literary genre. In Italian throughout. A near fine copy in the original, lightly spotted band.

Ko-uta (little songs) and ha-uta (brief songs) from the Edo period, at the start of the 18th century, traditionally sung by the Geisha cast. In Italian throughout. Uncommon. Light wear to wraps, light foxing, lacking the original band.

One of under 100 copies printed. A 2 page quotation of Pound railing against Surrealists reprinted from Contemporary Poetry and Prose (Nov. 1936). Anonymously printed by Eric Stevens. Fine save a single spot to the last page. Gallup E2zi.

A pre-publication sampler from D. D. Paige’s The Letters of Ezra Pound 1907-1941, with a selection of letters from the various periods covered by the book, and with an “About the Book” not later reproduced. Very good condition, a vertical crease running throughout, a few other light bumps.

A lecture on these two poets’ escape of American provincialism and their turn toward Europe, Eliot becoming a naturalised British figure, Pound continuing into alientation. Sole edition, near fine; spine and top-edge sunned. Ink ownership inscription to title-page.

Catalogue to an exhibition held at Brunnenburg, using materials at Brunneburg largely composing of Pound’s own library, curated by Tim Redman with an introduction and a few timelines; for Redman, the exhibition also served as a study of Pound by comparative methods. A fine copy; a very light band of sun to the top and fore-edge, quasi impercetibile.

Announcement leaflet for a celebration of EP held 75 years after his graduating from Hamilton College in June 1905, at the age of nineteen, with a Bachelor’s of Philosophy. “The Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of His Graduation,” April 25-26, 1980. The celebration served as a chance for Hamilton to exhibit their extensive collection of Poundian material, which began under Walter Pilkington in the 1950’s, including a copy of A Lume Spento (A. Antonini, 1908), drawings of Pound by Wyndham Lewis, and a corrected typescript of Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (these latter two having been donated by Omar Pound, also a graduate of Hamilton). With a laid-in communication dated March 24, 1980. Some age and creasing.

A selected catalogue of the Pound collection at Hamilton, Pound’s alma mater. Manuscripts, correspondence, artworks, books owned by Pound, Poundian publications… many with illustrations. Showcase of an unbelievable collection; highlighting any single item would instantly require a slew of others. Many not in Gallup. “Selected” for convenience... e.g. 1200 items from Dorothy Pound unlisted. First edition, first printing, one of 500 copies. Front cover lifting, light fox on the fore-edge.