What do you think?
Rate this book
Pound / Cummings: The Correspondence of Ezra Pound and E. E. Cummings
Ezra Pound and E. E. Cummings carried on a long and varied correspondence from the 1920s until Cummings's death in 1962. This volume collects all of the important letters from this important friendship in the history of modern poetry.
Throughout the correspondence both poets reveal themselves and their beliefs to a remarkable degree. Pound entrusted to Cummings details of his political outlook in the 1930s and 1940s, including his opinions about Mussolini's Italy. The letters to Cummings also shed new light on the question of Pound's sanity after World War II. Although he was diagnosed as mentally unfit, the letters generally show no evidence of paranoia, only of his characteristic eccentricity.
Similarly, these letters should provoke a reevaluation of Cummings. Critics have treated Cummings's political views as either strictly private matters or merely incidental to his art. The letters, however, show that Cummings's radically conservative political opinions are wholly consistent with his poetics, and raise the question of the relation between Cummings's political principles and his enthusiasm for particular forms (and particular stars) of mass entertainment.
In addition to their political revelations, the letters are steeped in the literary climate--and literary gossip--of the times. Pound comments often and candidly on Cummings's poetry and prose; both Pound and Cummings send light verse to each other. And the poets exchange anecdotes about such figures as Henry James, Wyndham Lewis, T. S. Eliot, Edmund Grosse, Max Eastman, and Aldous Huxley, among other writers.
There is much here to interest and delight both fans and foes of Pound and Cummings. The book will be of primary importance to students and scholars of modern poetry, especially those who emphasize the intersection of literary works and political history.
Barry Ahearn is Associate Professor of English, Tulane University.
Throughout the correspondence both poets reveal themselves and their beliefs to a remarkable degree. Pound entrusted to Cummings details of his political outlook in the 1930s and 1940s, including his opinions about Mussolini's Italy. The letters to Cummings also shed new light on the question of Pound's sanity after World War II. Although he was diagnosed as mentally unfit, the letters generally show no evidence of paranoia, only of his characteristic eccentricity.
Similarly, these letters should provoke a reevaluation of Cummings. Critics have treated Cummings's political views as either strictly private matters or merely incidental to his art. The letters, however, show that Cummings's radically conservative political opinions are wholly consistent with his poetics, and raise the question of the relation between Cummings's political principles and his enthusiasm for particular forms (and particular stars) of mass entertainment.
In addition to their political revelations, the letters are steeped in the literary climate--and literary gossip--of the times. Pound comments often and candidly on Cummings's poetry and prose; both Pound and Cummings send light verse to each other. And the poets exchange anecdotes about such figures as Henry James, Wyndham Lewis, T. S. Eliot, Edmund Grosse, Max Eastman, and Aldous Huxley, among other writers.
There is much here to interest and delight both fans and foes of Pound and Cummings. The book will be of primary importance to students and scholars of modern poetry, especially those who emphasize the intersection of literary works and political history.
Barry Ahearn is Associate Professor of English, Tulane University.
- GenresPoetry
442 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
2 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 7, 2021
I always thought Pound's letters were hard to decipher. Who would have thought that e e cummings' letters would be EVEN harder to follow?
That is the only real gripe I have with this book.
It's an excellent read really. Even when you can't quite follow what Pound is saying for example, using his highly stylised and unique orthography that you start to get a grasp of just towards the end, you still enjoy the ride anyway. Cummings' letters fluctuated between being extremely clear and enlightening to completely baffling. Even Pound himself seemed confused.
What you have in this volume is a very exuberant, but at the same time, light exchange of ideas on poetry, poetics, philosophy, the publishing world, editors, of course politics and economics (it's Pound after all) and of course their own private lives. You get the feeling that Cummings and Pound were very close, even though they often disagreed politically. Cummings never loses his temper even when Pound is spitting the dummy at him so I take my hat off to him.
I'm about to teach a course on Cummings (next semester) so this was a short introduction to the man before I dive into his poems. I heard that Cummings was the second most read poet of American letters in the 20th Century, the most read being Robert Frost. That is a pretty good record to have. Pound himself, just like jj before him (and around the same time) has left behind a more controversial legacy - people will either praise him to the skies or want to hang him (for treason etc.).
I poisonally (as Pound would write) love his poetry despite the fact that it is vurry vurry difficult - you see what happens when you read about 400 + letters by or to Pound?
If you are interested in Pound, Cummings or modernism in general, I recommend this book.
Finally, hats off to Barry Ahearn who edited these letters - the copious notes after each of the letters are EXTREMELY helpful. Without them, I would have been completely lost.
That is the only real gripe I have with this book.
It's an excellent read really. Even when you can't quite follow what Pound is saying for example, using his highly stylised and unique orthography that you start to get a grasp of just towards the end, you still enjoy the ride anyway. Cummings' letters fluctuated between being extremely clear and enlightening to completely baffling. Even Pound himself seemed confused.
What you have in this volume is a very exuberant, but at the same time, light exchange of ideas on poetry, poetics, philosophy, the publishing world, editors, of course politics and economics (it's Pound after all) and of course their own private lives. You get the feeling that Cummings and Pound were very close, even though they often disagreed politically. Cummings never loses his temper even when Pound is spitting the dummy at him so I take my hat off to him.
I'm about to teach a course on Cummings (next semester) so this was a short introduction to the man before I dive into his poems. I heard that Cummings was the second most read poet of American letters in the 20th Century, the most read being Robert Frost. That is a pretty good record to have. Pound himself, just like jj before him (and around the same time) has left behind a more controversial legacy - people will either praise him to the skies or want to hang him (for treason etc.).
I poisonally (as Pound would write) love his poetry despite the fact that it is vurry vurry difficult - you see what happens when you read about 400 + letters by or to Pound?
If you are interested in Pound, Cummings or modernism in general, I recommend this book.
Finally, hats off to Barry Ahearn who edited these letters - the copious notes after each of the letters are EXTREMELY helpful. Without them, I would have been completely lost.
Want to read
August 3, 2013pdf The Correspondence of Ezra Pound and E. E. Cummings BookFi.org
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews