A DRAFT OF XXX CANTOS

 

  

I	II	III	IV	V
VI	VII	VIII	IX	X
XI	XII	XIII	XIV	XV
XVI	XVII	XVIII	XIX	XX
XXI	XXII	XXIII	XXIV	XXV
XXVI	XXVII	XXVIII	XXIX	XXX

 

Note on colours: violet for active links to the companion page of a canto; green for active links to full-text canto with glosses. 

  

 

A DRAFT OF XXX CANTOS

 

CALENDAR OF PUBLICATION

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Correspondence by Ezra Pound: (c) Mary de Rachewiltz and the Estate of Omar S. Pound. Reproduced by permission.

 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AC	Ten Eyck, David. Ezra Pound’s Adams Cantos. London: Bloomsbury, 2012.
L/LZ	Pound/Zukofsky: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky. Ed. Barry Ahearn. New York: New Directions, 1987.
YCAL	Beinecke Library, New Haven: Ezra Pound Papers YCAL 43, Series I; Olga Rudge Papers: YCAL 54, Series I. Box no./Folder no.

 

 

 

First edition: Paris: Hours Press, August 1930.

Pocket edition with capitals designed by Dorothy Shakespear Pound.
Publisher: Nancy Cunard.
Printer: François Bernouard, La Belle Edition, Paris. 

 

 

 

1929

From Horace Liveright, 23 September 1929
YCAL 43, 30/1266

Dear Ezra:

No, I don’t think the time has come yet to bring out the Cantos. Let us take it up again next year.

 

From Nancy Cunard, 12 December 1929 
YCAL 43, 10/493; Gallup 451.

Ezra Darlint

For reasons that are none or everything I have decided to print again, and that immediately, and with vigour. Only the “modern”. AND in Paris you’ll be glad to hear. With help. Lots of things. 

Now, DO I GET THE CANTO? I can’t remember if the end of the summer said yes or no to that/ If I do I’d much like to start with it in the NEW Year, maybe before, no, New Year will do. Answer me on this I take it I can do something of yours, not the poor Beowulf I suppose?

Note. Pound and Nancy initially aimed at printing one canto and a prose work, “The Probable Music of Beowulf.” See Gallup 450-2. 

 

To Olga Rudge, 25 December 1929
YCAL 54, 8/207

Ziao, cara.

[…]

Note from Nancy that she cant print the cantos on hand press as there is more of em than she cd. get thru. but (with various ambiguities) seems disposed to publish them in pocket edtn. which wd. be puffikly sa’sfakory and probably quicker IF … etc. she gits on with it.

 

To Olga Rudge, 30 December 1929
YCAL 54, 8/207

Ziao, cara.

[…]

Nancy was very ambiguous I dunno whether pocket edtn. is in state of polite wish or definite intention.

 

1930

To Olga Rudge, 11 January 1930
YCAL 54, 9/211

Ziao

[…]

Nancy writes that she is definitely going to do the cantos in one vol.

 

To Olga Rudge, 23 January 1930
YCAL 54, 9/214

Ziao, cara, amure

He has he thinks cleared up that line in Viith. Canto that she said was oscuro. Has she any more suggestions while he is getting ready for a noo edtn;?

[…]

anyhow he has got over point he wuz stuck AT. in his poema.

 

From Nancy Cunard, 16 March [1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Dear Ezra

back from London. How about this size (see over)? it is a format of paper – Proposed size of type: 11-point. (same as Bill Bird’s series of [1]6) D’s capitals size of HOURS PRESS (that printed other side or larger?) Which justification do you prefer, 25 or 22?

Advance sales in London going well. Work in Paris under usual (and some unusual) difficulties. I note the special announcement of Cantos to be sent aforehand will be: A Draft of 30 Cantos. Will try and have them started (done on) April-May. 

If you don’t like size suggest one in drawing – i.e. long and narrow in q-point?

Terms: 50% once all costs paid.

Had better send little contract. Will.

Love to Dorothy

 

From Nancy Cunard, 23 March [1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Dear Ezra.

Very well. Agreed as to size and shape paper. Will go to my out-printer as soon as you send on sufficient matter for him to make up a complete sample page – as you say, Caps should be designed on sample page. So send on a little.

I’ll have your letter by me at out-printer’s and we’ll typometer the print-area, and I’ll post immediately. 

But, as aforesaid, book can’t be done (out) till June – as it must be singly, specially advertized “to subscribers” – How the deffil can the traveler pilot the “condom full of black beetles” etc.?

Note. “condom of black beetles” – Nancy is quoting from canto XIV: l.87.

 

From Nancy Cunard, Tues 25 [March 1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Ezra Darlin.

I handed over the subject of your letter à qui de droit – but also your letter – and I wanted Aragon to answer it himself for clarity as it was all not very clear to me – but I suppose you have heard nothing. You shall, though.

Do you approve of Cantos and yourself thus placed (on circular)? Circular making make the man (me) mad. We also have a fair poster. Bill (d’Oiseau) thinks £2 too dear for 200 unsigned. You no doubt persist in the stamp comparison, a damn good one! We’ll do some “grand papiers”; all this for summer. Tascabile. 

Notes.

Bill (d’Oiseau) - Bill Bird had published A Draft of XVI Cantos in 1925 and sold his press to Nancy.

tascabile – It."pocket-size."

 

To Olga Rudge, 26 March 1930
YCAL 54, 9/218

Ziao

Recd. Bill’s new nuvvle and a vol. on Sordello to be swallowed before mss. of Cantos goes orf. Etbloodycetera. and no time.

 

From Nancy Cunard, Sun 8th [April 1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Ezra Darlint

I’ve had a very pleasant day with the Cantos – and am posting proofs and originals tomorrow (if Mon be Mon and not only Whitsuntide, god rot it, rot both). Very little to do to proofs – maybe I’ve done the spaces and wrong at that – you’ll erase pencil where fit. Bernouard seems to have put initials alright – but wants to know where the 3- Chinese goes. Also he owes the greek words – suppose he can be let do these on his own? It looks well, doesn’t it? Please send back to him direct. (71 Rue St. Ps.) Paper being ordered this week. Still no answer re Vellums; he thinks about 500-600 fcs. Wot ells?

Ha – the printer has just “gone off” for length of time indeterminate – we have another Tuesday – this re the circulars and postals of Cantos – of which you shall receive provision – also Dad – where, Dad? Rapallo, 12 Marsala I suppose.

* Don’t you think “Initials by D.S.” might have a better, (i.e. no) bedfellow than Maitre-Imp B? Put this legend then where you will. I like these initials better even than at first, and size is perfect. Publicity via the traveler with circulars, cards. And it all out by end of month?

Note. Maitre-Imp B – Fr. “Maitre-Imprimeur Bernouard”

 

From Nancy Cunard, 10 April [1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Ezra Dear

Sample page in yr’ ole Didot (as you see copied down too, is that!) And looks very well – but surely not quite as much on page as is here? Well, probably there’s a break in most, of one line’s width? You see they’ve got the type into square of your letter, though the paper is bigger – and let it remain size of the proof – pocketable, and befitting to type – area – Not?

Dorothy now drawing the capitals on one or both of these? And the making of the caps where? If you come about the 20^th let me know in advance because easter itself (that is Fri – to Mon) I have to go to the Touquet to Her L. We’ll decide on cover perhaps (for Cantos) and certainly on paper, papers. Make a date fixe if you can.

Note. Her L. - Her Ladyship, Nancy Cunard’s mother, Maud.

 

From Nancy Cunard, Tues [17 June 1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Ezra Darlin.

Getting at Bernouard today (if he is in) will make him do a full set of Proofs on the real paper with greek in – he wrote he had not the greek and was ordering the composition of it from the foundery – will have the capitals straightened on pages and the 3 chinese put at Kung. I hope you wrote or will write to Bernouard at once and explicitly on typewriter – there are 3 of us at this production which is a little more complicated than 2 – I mean you have to pass through me – but we shall get it in the end. More when I’ve seen Bernouard.

 

From Nancy Cunard, Friday [27 June 1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Ezra Darlint

Last, thanks for grand list! (just come) & will send circulars to all at once putting date of publication at July 20 – the binder can’t finish the lot till then – we’ve worked it out – as he has to do me 3 previously – but the orders will be filled between then and end of month – or Aug 2-5 at latest. To date 88 copies sold (dont l’un a £5.5/.)

straddle-wise, your letters re Cantos all gone through with B and proofs en main (I mean, what concerns him, not other observations!) glad the greek is alright. Once more I impressed urgency of Chinese and K’s to their urgent places; he understood the pages à soigner. I keep that last important list of errors of yours to go through the page proofs next week and have told him to send you 16 pages on page proof on its paper and the same to me – after which I will read through the entire page proofs (if I can get them all together, if not, 16 by 16) before the bon à tirer. 

Title page I think he has now understood – we’ll both get proofs of that. As you say, looks more of a muddle that t’is, but……! I hope the initials will now be definitely straight.

Notes. 

en main – Fr. “in hand.”

K’s – Bernouard had considerable difficulty with Dorothy’s more elaborate Chinese heading to canto XIII.

à soigner – Fr. “to be taken care of.”

bon à tirer – Fr. “good to print.”

 

From Nancy Cunard, Friday 4th [July 1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Ezra Darlin

Here’s page-proofs of 16 on the paper – Still find “A Draft of” too big so am asking for italics also same for “By”. Also just noted no numbers to pages! We’ll have these in left and right hand corners selon les pages.

They came today only. Can we trust him to pull the lot once the “bon à tirer” given? I mean as I’m going to London the 15^th– I will however try and see all of it at his printer at Vincennes; shall go there unless he absolutely refuses; I have your last list of “attention aux pages…” by me permanently now – will see to Kung’s 3 Chinese letters (probably in order now) and check up all the rest. 

I propose pulling slightly towards centre the “Paris” and “1930” of the title page unless he says you designed them so I also find the text starts a bit too high on pages 2, 6, 8, 12 and no doubt on all pages whereto the Canto ends – Have ordered the pages for you to sign, after which please return to him. Still no answer re price of vellums, I enquire twice a week. Binder will finish both edns by Aug 1, he goes away for 2 weeks mid July, so… orders will be filled Aug 1 and 2.

 

From Nancy Cunard, Sun. July 13 [1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Binding will be done by Aug 1-

Ezra Darling,

Have told B to send you the 12 or 15 pages to sign – after which please register these to the binder:

Regereau
                    37 Rue Damesme
                              Paris-

Will be getting maquettes of both cloth and leather binding sent over to London within 10 days or so. What of the two Vellums re binding? Both in the cuir vermeil or what? Am telling binder to “hold” till you advise me.

Here is B’s vellum bill – will you send him the 550 fcs owing – shall I deduct the 600 advanced from our general account? B said printing it all this week. 

 

From Lincoln Kirstein, 9 August 1930
YCAL 54, 9/227

Dear Mr. Pound,

[…]

Are you doing any new cantos? Are you suggesting anyone to review the 30 – of the Hours Press – for us.

Note. Lincoln Kirstein was the editor of Hound and Horn, a New York literary magazine. He had published cantos 28-30 in April 1930.

 

To Olga Rudge, 10 August 1930 
YCAL 54, 9/224; AC17

At last, sheets of XXX to sign. It has at any rate got to the binder. He is plugging along with Adams letters.

 

To Olga Rudge, 11 August 1930
YCAL 54, 9/224

Ziao,

[…]

Sheets of XXX look very well despite W still cockeyed. A good deal of it very nicely printed.

 

To Olga Rudge, 19 August 1930
YCAL 54, 9/226

Ziao.

Copies of the ornary edtn. XXX. arrived. looks vurry well. 

[…]

Is there anyone who ought to receive FREE copy of XXX? Am sending one to Carnevali, and Zuk gets free opt.

 

To Olga Rudge, 22 August, 1930
YCAL 54 9/227

Ziao cara:

[…]

To BUY XXX merely means giving one quid to Nancy minus attritions and overhead. Much better retain £2 as N. needs it less than we do. She gets a copy when she gets here. Only he is not sending her a ordinary one and the other havent come yet. Capish?

 

From Nancy Cunard, Sept 1 [1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Ezra Darlin

Lovely – I will with joy take the extra vellum parts and as you say have bound up other sheets to make the whole. Thanks. Have written binder to register you immediately the 2 vellums and 2 extra leathers. Can’t think why he hasnt done so days ago. You see, even for that small expeditiousness one would have to be on the spot. I say 2 leathers because cant remember how many extras there are – may be more. 101 ‘regular’ sold now. The I being to Dr Slominski!!! Warmly (i.e. lengthily) pleased you are content with book. Hope the vermeils will be beautiful – the maquette was excellent; had to leave before binder could get these done. 

Thank you for sending to Zuk and to Steve. Sorry not to have had Zuk’s address in time. I sent Eliot a free for himself. Re Ford, by chance I saw him in a doorway and he said he was going to USA mid Sept (I think); but will now write him Rue Vaugirard and say there’s a copy on ice. Richard has a review copy.

Have been out of touch with everything since Aug 16 – now sending out this address. FOR, alas, the aftermath of production is long. Payment, too slow. Four more books have to be done before I really can close the Press (close its publicity that is – will always keep premises for you and me). […] Thank god the Cantos are out. Am sending circulars of cantos to yo dad’s addresses.

[…]

Will send some royalties as soon as I can get some payments – a campaign of bills goes out from here! 

Her L. wrote “Ezra’s mind terrifies me – it is full of explosions”.! (re Cantos)

 

From Nancy Cunard, [undated 1930]
YCAL 43, 11/494

Well, well, Smell now it is! The vellums were carried in like a royal baby and held high above my head at which moment the binder distracted my attention and they were spirited back to mature so that I hardly saw them and got no inkle of smell – next time in Rapallo I will acquaint myself with it as it “sounds most interesting”

[…]

Deep in calculation of what Zwemmer calls your Collected Canter – there appears some 4,000 fcs coming to you.

 

Searching for a publisher for the Cantos.

Interlude, 1930-1932

 

1931 

To Louis Zukofsky, 28 October [1931]

L/LZ 103

Whoever seriously does the prose with decent assurances and on decent basis of FINISHING the job; wd. as a plum get the first cheap edtn. of the Cantos. I.E. 2.50 (two bucks et demi or something like that) [George] Oppen [To Publications] can take position that IF he satisfies me as to prose (his; Oppen’s security to finish it) he wd. get the Cantos; which (judging from sales of Personae (Liveright’s edtn.) I suppose <is or> are a sure payer. It is also or ought to be obvious that I can NOT give the Cantos to a ramshackle house likely to cascade at any moment/

 

To Olga Rudge, 23 November 1931 

YCAL 54, 11/281

Ziao/

The enc/ is privik and confidenshul. Anyhow an inkum fer Zuk/

Note. “The enc” is an autograph letter from Louis Zukofsky proposing that Pound publish his cantos with George Oppen’s “TO” publishing venture at 50 cents the copy. See letter below.

 

From Louis Zukofsky, 12 November 1931 [enclosure in letter to Olga above]

YCAL 54, 11/281

“Coming”

Father:

[…]

The only reason why I didn’t think of you first as a business bet was that I thought Rexroth R. M. R. wuz goin’ to publish you – and I didn’t want to take any business out of his hands. That wd. be bad bizness, in any case, and seein’ especially that I like him a great deal etc etc – Anyway, from a letter to me he sent the other day he seems to say one of the reasons holding him back is your not writing him.

[…]

Your idea of ultimiate folio sounds good – will transmit it to Geo. Oppen – however, his intention is to impress the public with the price – 50¢ (maybe 35¢!)  – and not to publish de luxe. Anyway, that’s something to think of later.

[…]

Which brings us to Oppen’s mechanic. He don’t deal in ships, nor in wool either. He has(unless the State or Revolution appropriates it) an income of $500 a month. He says he doesn’t need all of it in Le Beausset, Var. His intentions are to publish six brochures a year –one every two months – if the first (if the scheme of publg. you & Bill at once goes thru the first two) brochure breaks even

2. He doesn’t expect any gains.

3. He will pay me $100 a month (my Madison bread returned) for racking my brain with publicity, distribution in ‘murka (i.e. printing will be done in France).

4. He will pay the author $100 immediately on publication $100 for his book – and I don’t think he’d have any objection – if I know him – against paying 10% royalties as a whole exclusive orinclusive of the hundred – I cant figger out which I shd use ex or in but you know wat I mean – you would get your hundred, and the one or two dollars addtnl. royalties if they came around – I’d see to it since I will run or help run the books of the firm – and in spite of the brankrupp seat of me pants have generally speaking found it convenient not to deal in adolescent Hooverian practices. 

Further – if you want lineage etc. Geo. is of the Oppenheimers (the Jew Swiss family) – owns a caf-boat now & then, cd. if he wants to, I suppose, unless, the family is recently very hard up, get credit from them, but I don’t think he wants more ’n his allowance & wants not to bother about bizness if it isn’t goin to make me & the authors he publishes happy, & if it’s going to involve him [in] debt. So it’ll be up to me – largely to see that he sells 2000 copies of the first book (he wuz figgerin at 35¢, maybe necessary to sell only 1500 at 50¢) to see that he breaks even. Oppen get 23, married for 3 years now. Suggest if you’re in his neighborhood Le Beausset, Var., to drop in and be entertained by a very lovely pair.

Of course, he’s my friend, and has proved reliable – which doesn’t count – even if he proved unreliable would Kung be anxious to see him punished?? Mm say yourself!

Add the explanations: Costs of his first book about as follows:

200 printers

100 L. Z.

100 author

100 cover, shipping, tariff (I suppose we couldn’t escape that, damn, even if we incorporated in Murka) – distribution etc.

He says he is ready to give the first book to the printer on Dec. 1

Suggest therefore that you yourself to save time – it wd. take 8 weeks otherwise from you to me to him to you to him – write him at Le Beausset, Var. France, George A. Oppen, Jr. & explain your intentions. In the meantime, I can write explaining why he shd. hold over till he has $1000 bucks to put 2 books thru – In any case, if all’s agreed between you – you’ll have to withdraw the How to Read from other hands (but for God’s sake don’t make it seem as if we’re competing with Rexroth!)

As for yr. offer of the Cantos in case all the prose is, or is promised to be published, alright – Doubt however, if Geo. will want to change his price of 50¢. Of course, he might begin another series, later on, while he’s publishing yr. prose in volumes at 50¢. Personally, not ever having made any money in poesy – I don’t see why The Cantos shdn’t sell at 50¢ in a volume the format of The Exile. They might sell more. And then again they may not?

Finally: Please write Oppen.

yrs Z

O yes – obvious from this letter that Oppen isn’t making any appeal but putting it as pizznizz proposition, conservative estimate etc.

 

 

From Louis Zukofsky, 7 December 1931

L/LZ 107

No use worryin’ about a commercial edtn. of Cantos now. Of course, if you can get reg’lar publisher – Boni etc – to do it within a year – the next year – alright. If not you should keep TO firmly in mind, if in the background. The point is Oppen if I know him - wd. be delighted to give you every bit of profit on an edition of Cantos, and that shd. amount to – if you’re at all a commercial fit – something.

 

 

From Virginia Rice, 31 December 1931

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear Mr. Pound: –

I have your letter of December 17^th, also the Cantos. The latter are very exciting and I’ll see what I can do about them. […]

This is merely an acknowledgment of your letter and Cantos, but later on I’ll attend to your work in more minute detail. 

 

 

1932

From George Oppen, 21 January 1932

YCAL 54, 12/297

Dear Pound:

[…]

Do you wish to give us the agency for XXX Cantos, Hours Press Ed.? Or any other titles? We could distribute books only in the USA as I will not have time to do so here. [France]

We will have to raise the price of our books to 75¢ in USA, 10 francs in Europe to cover the American duty.

 

 

American edition:

John Farrar, New York, 15 March 1933.

 

 

 

1932

From Milton Abernethy, 20 April 1932

YCAL 43, 9/438

Dear E P: 

I’ve just heard from Farrar and Rinehart the best young publisher here.... and John Farrar says if I will send him a copy of your XXX Cantos... that he will personally take the matter and let me know immediately. If you will send a copy of I will post it to him, etc.

 

From Archibald MacLeish, 20 May 1932

YCAL 43, 32/1328

Cantos sold farrar rinehart after conversation [milton] abernethy fall publication at straight fifteen percent royalty please cable confirmation care […] New York

 

From Archibald MacLeish, n.d. [3 June 1932]

YCAL 43, 32/1328

Farrar has just called up to say that your agent reached him and that the contract for the Cantos has gone through as per cable plus an advance. I can’t tell you how delighted I am about the whole thing. American publishers are such goddam fools in general. But Farrar and his man Nash saw the light at once and when I timidly said they ought at least to give you ten, twelve and a half an fifteen they replied they would give you fifteen and be proud to do it.

I was afraid you might think my wire officious as you had never authorized me to act for you. But when Abernethy came in and told me the situation I decided I’d take that risk. Its more important that the Cantos be published in a form we can afford to buy than that you think well of my intervention.

[…]

You can take some confort in the fact that you are making the reputation of a publishing house at the same time that you are making whatever small amt of dough a great poet gets while on this ball of whatever.

 

From Milton Abernethy, 2 June 1932

YCAL 43, 9/438

Dear Daddy Pound::::

I feel such a fool….. from your letter long ago I gathered that there was none to look after your book here, so I went to New York, much earlier in the year than I intended to, and bothered the hell out of Macleish and John Farrar, and bought a copy of the Cantos at bookstore price, and presented it to Farrar.

And now from your note to Macleish, you sound me out as a negligible upstart, who, from human kindness need not be mentioned. At least that’s the way Macleish will take it and I don’t want him to think I was poaching on your damn agents preserves, which I wasn’t in view of fact that I didn’t know you had a damnagent...being just a country boy.

 

From Virginia Rice, 3 June 1932

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear Mr. Pound: –

I’ve arranged everything with Farrar and Rinehart, and you need have no fears about that firm. They have money, have those lads! […] They’re mad about your Cantos and are taking them on your terms, bankruptcy clause and all. I ought to have the contract for you next week. I accepted for you, and I’m sure you’ll be pleased. They are paying a straight 15% royalty – and an advance of $150 on signature of contract, an almost unheard of thing with poetry – also accrued royalties on publication.

They may cable you to send the lead blocks – and they may follow Liveright’s edition of PERSONAE.

This is my first sale under my own name. Thank you! I’m sure you’ll find John Farrar a delightful person to deal with and I know the contract will be as you want it.

 

From Virginia Rice, 1 July 1932

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear Ezra Pound: –

I am waiting for the return of the contract, and when it comes back I can assure you I will have the check for $150 for you.

[…]

The contract just arrived. Thanks. I will send it to John Farrar at once.

 

From Virginia Rice, 5 August 1932

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear E.P. –

By this time you have my letter, with check enclosed.

[…]

I believe Farrar intends publishing the CANTOS about November. I’m sorry to say that a review of them (evidently there are copies of the Hours Edition around here) came out in The New Yorker. I hope it doesn’t steal any of the Farrar and Rinehart fire. And by the way, do you want to copyright the book, so that my English agent can try to sell a trade edition in England and on the continent? The copyright fee is $1.90, and I would have to send eight copies abroad which you would pay for, whosale price. Inasmuch as it has already been published abroad in the Hours Press edition, I thought you might not want to bother. But I’ll be delighted to attend to it, when the time comes if you just say the word.

 

From Virginia Rice, 18 August 1932

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear Ezra Pound: –

You’ll be hearing from Farrar & Rinehart. They would like to postpone the publication of XXX CANTOS until January, so that they can get in all the Ford Maddox Ford publicity. I told them that I thought you would be quite willing.

 

From Virginia Rice, 9 September 1932

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear E.P.: –

As soon as your letter arrived, I phoned Farrar to say that it would be all right to publish your Cantos in January.

 

To Olga Rudge, [9 November 1932]

YCAL 54 13/325

Ziao, cara’mure

[…]

Farrar gone an’ plated XXX without sending me proofs, but say’s he give it “certified” proof readin’ ... etc ...

 

From Virginia Rice, 16 February 1933

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear Ezra Pound:

Under separate cover I am sending you your six complimentary copies of CANTOS. Don’t you think Farrar & Rinehart have done a swell job? I like the book immensely.

 

From Virginia Rice, 24 February 1933

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear Ezra Pound: 

                        Yes, Farrar is getting on with the CANTOS. In fact they will be out on March 14^th.

[…]

Did you receive the six copies of the Cantos that I sent you?

 

From Virginia Rice, 31 March 1933

YCAL 43 44/1889

Dear Ezra Pound: 

[…]

As you may remember, I wrote you that Farrar & Rinehart wanted us to hold off on your work for a while, until they could see how the CANTOS were going. 

[…]

Now that I have started with Farrar & Rinehart, I would like to go on with them. By the way, the CANTOS have had an excellent press, but the bank holidays interfered materially with the sales. I’m sure the sales will pick up after a while. 

[…]

What shall I do with the blocks that Farrar & Rinehart were unable to use? They take up an awful lot of room.

 

 

 

A DRAFT OF XXX CANTOS – GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

 

BOOKS

1. Davenport, Guy. Cities on Hills: Study 1-30 of Ezra Pound’s Cantos. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1984.
2. Zukofsky, Louis. Ezra Pound: His Cantos (1-27). New York: Kulchur Press, 1963.

 

DISSERTATIONS

1. Childs, John. “Modernist Form: Pound’s Style in A Draft of XXX Cantos.” Diss. U of Arkansas, 1983.
2. Davenport Guy. “A Reading of I-XXX of the Cantos of Ezra Pound.” Diss. Harvard U, 1961. 
3. Emerson, Kent. “Database Modernism: Literary Information Media.” Diss. U of Tulsa, 2016 [on James Joyce’s Ulysses, H.D.’s Palimpsest, and Ezra Pound’s A Draft of XXX Cantos].
4. Krishnan, Rajiv C. “Self and Form in the Early Cantos of Ezra Pound.” Diss. U of Cambridge, 1992.
5. Marsden, Stephen. “Barred lights, great flares, new form: A Study of A Draft of XXX Cantos of Ezra Pound.” Diss. U of Manchester, 1997. 
6. Menzies-Pike, Catriona Jane. “The Composition of the Modernist Book: Ulysses, A Draft of XXX Cantos and The Making of Americans.” Diss. U of Sydney, 2005. [Chapter Four: A Draft of XXX Cantos (1930)]. Free online.

 

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS AND COLLECTIONS

1. Ahearn, Barry. “An Early Schema for the Cantos.” Paideuma: A Journal Devoted to Ezra Pound Scholarship 16.1-2 (1987): 79-81.
2. Bornstein, George. “The Book as Artefact: Historicizing Ezra Pound's First Thirty Cantos.” The Book as Artefact: Text and Border. Eds. Anne Mette Hansen, et al. Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi, 2005. 151-164. Also in Variants: The Journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship 4 (2005): 151-164. 
3. Christensen, Philip H. “‘God’s Eye and the Poet’s’: Apotheosis from ‘The Return’ to Canto CXIII.” English Language Notes 41.3 (2004): 56-65.
4. Conover, Anne. “Her Name was Courage: Olga Rudge, Pound’s Muse and the ’Circe/Aphrodite’ of the Cantos.” Paideuma: A Journal Devoted to Ezra Pound Scholarship 24.1 (1995): 7-23.
5. Cowan, James C. “The Classical Figure as Archetype in Pound’s Cantos, I-XXX.” Twentieth Century Literature 6.1 (1960): 25–32.
6. Hatcher, Leslie. “‘Circe's this Craft’: The Active Female Principle in the Cantos.” Paideuma: A Journal Devoted to Ezra Pound Scholarship 24.1 (1995): 83-94.
7. Hesse, Eva. “Books Behind the Cantos (Part One: Cantos I-XXX).” Paideuma: A Journal Devoted to Ezra Pound Scholarship 1 (1972): 137-51.
8. Kenner, Hugh. “A Schema for XXX Cantos.” Paideuma: A Journal Devoted to Ezra Pound Scholarship 2.2 (1973): 201.
9. Lang, Séphanie. “Le jeu chez Pound: itinéraire ludique de lecture des trente premiers Cantos.” Revue française d'études américaines 67 (January 1996): 11-21. Free online.
10. Scappettone, Jennifer. “Utopia Interrupted: Archipelago as Sociolyric Structure in A Draft of XXX Cantos.” PMLA 122.1 (2007): 105–123. Free online.
11. Sieburth, Richard. “Dada Pound.” South Atlantic Quarterly 83.1 (1984): 44-68.
12. Sieburth, Richard. “The Design of the Cantos: an Introduction.” Iowa review 15.2 (1985): 12-33. Free online.
13. Williams, Carlos William. “A Draft of XXX Cantos by Ezra Pound.” In Selected Essays of William Carlos Williams. New York: Random House, 1954. 105-12.
14. Zukofsky, Louis. “The Cantos of Ezra Pound (One section of a long essay).” The Criterion 10.4 (April 1931): 424-440.

 

BOOK CHAPTERS AND SECTIONS

1. Altieri Charles. “Modernist Abstraction and Pound’s First Cantos: The Ethos for a New Renaissance.” Painterly Abstraction in Modernist American Poetry.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. 283-320. Print.
2. Baumann, Walter. “The Odysseus Theme in Ezra Pound’s Cantos.” Roses From the Steel Dust. Collected Essays on Ezra Pound. Orono: The National Poetry Foundation, 2000. 83-98. Print.
3. Carpenter, Humphrey. A Serious Character. The Life of Ezra Pound. New York: Delta, 1988. [Section: 474-479.]
4. Cookson, William. A Guide to The Cantos of Ezra Pound. London: Anvil, 2001. 3-46.
5. Dasenbrock, Reed Way. The Literary Vorticism of Ezra Pound & Wyndham Lewis. Towards the Condition of Painting. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins UP, 1985. 193-206. 
6. Davie, Donald. Ezra Pound. The Poet as Sculptor. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1964. 120-134.
7. Flory, Wendy. Ezra Pound and The Cantos: A Record of Struggle. New Haven: Yale UP, 1980. [Section: 106-138.]
8. Froula, Christine. A Guide to Ezra Pound's Selected Poems. New York: New Directions, 1983. 128-161.
9. Gallup, Donald. Ezra Pound. A Bibliography. Charlottesville, VA: Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1983.
10. Kearns, George. “A Draft of XXX Cantos (1930).” In Ezra Pound. The Cantos. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989. 34-8.
11. Kearns, George. Guide to Ezra Pound’s Selected Cantos. New Brunswick, NJ.: Rutgers UP, 1980. 10-77.
12. Kibler, Robert. E. “The Cantos. A Draft of XXX Cantos.” The Ezra Pound Encyclopedia. Eds. D. Tryphonopoulos and Stephen J. Adams. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 2005. 26-30.
13. Liebregts, Peter. “A Draft of XVI Cantos.”; “Cantos XVII-XXX.” Ezra Pound and Neoplatonism. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2004. 132-199.
14. Moody, David A. “A Sextant for ‘A Draft of XXX Cantos.’” Ezra Pound: Poet. A Portrait of the Man and His Work. II: The Epic Years 1921-1939. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 78-90.
15. Read, Forrest. ’76: One World and the Cantos of Ezra Pound. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981. 176-97.
16. Stock, Noel. “A Draft of XXX Cantos, 1917-1930.” Reading the Cantos. A Study of Meaning in Ezra Pound. New York: Pantheon Books, 1966. 10-21.
17. Surette, L. A Light from Eleusis. A Study of Ezra Pound’s Cantos. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1979. 15-26.
18. Terrell, Carroll F. A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993. 1-119.
19. Thurston, Michael. “Declaration of Interdependence: The Necromantic Confrontation with Tradition” and “Katabasis as Cultural Critique.” The Underworld in Twentieth Century Poetry. London: Palgrave, 2009. 23-61.
20. Wilhelm, J. J. Ezra Pound The Tragic Years. 1925-1972. University Park: The Pennsylvania State UP, 1994. 47-55.

 

DIGITAL RESOURCES

1. Ezra Pound: Poems Summary and Analysis of “The Cantos I-XXX” (1930). GradeSaver.
2. Guidi Paolo. The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Etchings suite. I-XXX: September-October 2012. Go to collection.
3. Sellar, Gordon. Blogging the Cantos. Gord Sellar.
4. Whitehead, Cintra. “Construing Ezra Pound’s Cantos.” Personal Construct Theory and Practice 13 (2016): 164-73. [Digital republication of article in Constructive Criticism  I (1991): 193-211.] Go to pdf.