CANTO XLVI
CALENDAR OF COMPOSITION
The last line of canto 46 indicates that Pound drafted it by 27 November 1935. On 31 January 1936, he sent it to James Laughlin to be published in New Democracy, a Social Credit newspaper published in New York. Laughlin was taking care of the literary side of the paper, which he called “New Directions.” The canto was published in New Democracy in March and in the first number of the new annual Laughlin started, New Directions in Prose and Poetry in November 1936. This second printing carries the dateline 30 Jan XIV (1936).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Correspondence by Ezra Pound: ©Mary de Rachewiltz and the Estate of Omar S. Pound. Reproduced by permission.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
|
L/JL |
Pound/Laughlin. Selected Letters. Ed. David M. Gordon. New York: Norton, 1994. |
|
L/TSE |
Eliot, T.S.E. The Letters of T. S. Eliot. Volume 8: 1936-38. London: Faber, 2019. |
|
SL |
Pound, Ezra. Selected Letters of Ezra Pound 1907-1941. Ed. D. D. Paige. New York: New Directions, 1971. |
|
Var |
Taylor, Richard. “Editing the Variorum Cantos: Process and Policy.” Paideuma: A Journal Devoted to Ezra Pound Scholarship 31.1-3 (2002): 311-34. [References in square brackets by Taylor in text.] |
| YCAL | Beinecke Library, Ezra Pound Papers YCAL 43; Olga Rudge Papers YCAL 54, Box no/Folder no/ |
1932
To Alfred Richard Orage, 29 January 1932
YCAL 43, 38/1615
My dear Augustus,
[...]
Naow ter git dahn to economics//
As far as I remember the first man to say in yr/ late lamented pyper the Noo Age.
Any govt. that wasn’t god damned (or words to that effect) bloody inefficient could pay dividends and NOT need to collect any taxes.
was not the noble Maj. but yours (can verify or correct that by ref/ to yr/ N.A. files for the year before Noah’s flood 1919 or 20. or mebbe it was 17 or 18.
To Olga Rudge, 25 December 1932, Rome
YCAL 54, 13/342
Xposit decennio rather impressive if one have the senso storico.
1935
To Clifford Hugh Douglas, 25 February anno XIII [1935]
YCAL 43, 13/608
Venerabl Doug/
[...]
The Geneva Bahai centre, says it is ordering yr/ books for the “stand” which I believe is plumb in the centre of the Leg/ of Nations building/ right in the bloody shit pile. And exhortation has been forwarded to the head and chief Jesus or Whoosis, to get onto brass tacks. Two litres of camels milk to each donket noy [sic], in the oily deserts of Persia...
To W. H. D. Rouse, 6 June 1935
SL 275
Dear Dr. Rouse
[...]
Pickthall, who knows his Near East, said veracity is only valued where people are in a hurry and set value on quickness.
To Olga Rudge, [15 December 1935]
YCAL 54, 16/421
Ziao/
[…]
Nawthin but the poEMA now needin attenshun. and seven or eight campaigns for uman HUPPliff.
To J. Laughlin, 20 December 1935
L/JL 51; Var 314
THAT particular Canto/ [XLV] I thought might go in Chicago, rather than in an econ/ mag/ where it aint needed. It is intended to REACH the unteck/ knuckl mind. [you had J.P. Angold’s old address […] BUT I am proceedin with the opus.
To Olga Rudge, [21 December 1935]
YCAL 54, 16/422
Ziao/ amure
[…]
Has done a few more lines of poesia/
To Olga Rudge, [28 December 1935]
YCAL 54, 16/423
Ziao/ amure
[…]
Smorning, wich iz now 9.15 he get nrg/ to shift one page of typescript off’n the front of the USURA, and to start another canto/
se’z he now get a start on 47/
but he thinks nowt she aint seen; except two sort of pages, that is most cursive or run on and not BLOCKS.
1936
From T. S. Eliot to James Laughlin, 3 January 1936
L/TSE 8: 20
Dear Laughlin,
[...]
How Ezra has been able all hese years to reconcile his enthusiasm for fascism with Social Credit principles has been a mystery to his friends.
To J. Laughlin，31 January [1936]
L/JL 54-5
Canto XLVI, sent this a/m, not to be confused with the USURA canto, mentioned before. XLVI (46) is destined for New Dem[ocracy]/
The USURA is more suited to some non/ econ publication. Harriet ought to PAY for it.
James Laughlin to T. S. Eliot, 25 February 1936
L/TSE 8: 104-5
Ezra has sent me Canto XLVI for the next number. Have you seen it? It opens with an amusing reference to your reverence… Most of it is solidly epic & economic but there is a charming intrusion of Lawrence the Arabian… The poetry is too good to impress a jury.
T. S. Eliot to James Laughlin, 9 March 1936
L/TSE 8: 104
Dear Laughlin
Thank you for your letter of February 25. […]
I haven’t seen any Cantos subsequent to 41, but I am glad to hear your report, and to know that Ezra is not altogether abandoning poetry to devote himself to economics and boosting Mussolini.
Canto 46 is published in New Democracy IV.1, March 1936
