ELEVEN NEW CANTOS

XXXI - XLI

 

 

 

XXXI	XXXII	XXXIII	XXXIV
XXXV	XXXVI	XXXVII	XXXVIII
XXXIX	XL	XLI

 

The heritage of Jefferson, Quincy Adams, old John Adams, Jackson, van Buren is HERE, NOW in the Italian peninsula at the beginning of fascist second decennio, not in Massachusetts or Delaware. 

To understand this we must have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the first fifty years of United States history AND some first hand knowledge of Italy 1922-33 or 1915-33, or still better some knowledge of 160 years of American democracy and of Italy for as long as you like. 

Ezra Pound. Jefferson and/or Mussolini. Fascism as I have Seen It. [1933] London: Nott, 1935. 12.

 

Periods of American national life:

1. American civilisation, 1760-1830.

2. The period of thinning, of mental impoverishment, scission between life of the mind and life of the nation, say 1830-1860.

3. The period of despair, civil war as hiatus, 1870 to 1930. The division between the temper, thickness, richness of the mental life of Henry Adams, and Henry James, and that of say U. S. Grant, McKinley, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.

4. The possibilities of revival, starting perhaps with a valorisation of our cultural heritage. 

Ezra Pound. “The Jefferson-Adams Letters as a Shrine and Monument”  [1937] in Selected Prose, 117.

 

Pound’s principle of historical explanation is neither Spenglerian nor Marxist; it is Douglasite. On Douglasite grounds the process of history can only be understood when the place and function of money and credit in society is understood. However, Douglas’s economic theories were not devised to explain the past; his interest was in the present and the immediate future. The notion that great historical events can be explained by the touchstone of sound monetary principles is excessively simplistic. Commitment to such a view obliges one to account for wars and economics or political collapse by ascribing incredible stupidity or boundless malice to the leaders of nations. Pound does not shrink from this necessity. 

Leon Surette. A Light from Eleusis. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979. 166.

 

Note on the colour used in the table above: violet: companion to the canto.

 

 

ELEVEN NEW CANTOS

Calendar of Publication

 

 

 

American edition: 

Eleven New Cantos XXXI–XLI. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 8 October 1934.

British edition: 

A Draft of Cantos XXXI-XLI. London: Faber & Faber, 14 March 1935.

  

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

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

 

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EPEC	Pound, Ezra. Ezra Pound’s Economic Correspondence 1933-1940. Ed. Roxana Preda. Gainesville: U of Florida P, 2007.
L/FMF	Pound/Ford: The Story of a Literary Friendship. Ed. Brita Lindberg-Seyersted. New York: New Directions, 1982.
L/JL	Ezra Pound and James Laughlin: Selected Letters. Ed. David M. Gordon. New York: Norton, 1994.
L/LZ	Pound/Zukofsky: Selected Letters of Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky. Ed. Barry Ahearn. New York: New Directions, 1987.
L/TSE	The Letters of T. S. Eliot. Volume 7: 1934-1935. Eds. Valerie Eliot and John Haffenden. London: Faber, 2017.
YCAL	Beinecke Library, Ezra Pound Papers, YCAL Mss 43; Olga Rudge Papers, YCAL Mss 54. Box no/ Folder no.

 

 

 

ELEVEN NEW CANTOS

NEW YORK: FARRAR & RINEHART, 8 OCTOBER 1934

 

 

 

1933

From Virginia Rice, 6 October 1933

YCAL 43, 44/1891

Dear Ezra Pound:

John Farrar is most anxious to see the new Cantos, so do let me have them at your very earliest convenience.

 

From Virginia Rice, 13 October 1933

YCAL 43, 44/1891

Dear E.P.:

[…]

I’ll be anxious to see the new Cantos.

 

To Olga Rudge, 26 October [1933]

YCAL 54, 14/361

He haz got off his XXXI to XLI

 

From A. R. Orage, 30 October 1933

YCAL 43, 38/1617

I should publish your Cantos XXXI–XLI right away, if I were you. Not one bloody word about your Canto 37, but I have the feeling that it was impressive. That’s mainly why I think you should publish the others: I feel you are being read again with a new kind of interest. Don’t be surprised your No. 37 evoked no commotion. Each week N.E.W is greeted with deafening silence. We must be at the hub of things, the quietest but busiest spot in the wheel.

 

From Virginia Rice, 3 November 1933

YCAL 43, 44/1891

Dear Ezra Pound:

I’m still waiting to show Farrar & Rinehart the new cantos. Incidentally, they phoned me the other day to find out particulars re your date of birth, etc. Perhaps Mr. Farrar wrote you that he is trying to interest the Pulitzer Prize Committee in XXX Cantos!

 

From Virginia Rice, 10 November 1933

YCAL 43, 44/1891

Dear Ezra Pound:

The new cantos arrived intact and I’m hustling them down to John Farrar who, as you know, is most anxious to get them. You will hear from me again soon.

 

From Archibald MacLeish, 28 November 1933 

YCAL 43, 32/1328

Dear Ezra:

This is a hurried interim report to say that Farrar’s school book man is due back in town shortly, that Farrar is waiting upon his report, that Farrar has been filled as full of the proper emotions as I can fill him and that I really think there is an extremely good chance of getting some action very quickly. He also has I discover the new cantos and I think you should hear from him on many subjects almost immediately. It goes without saying of course that I shall keep after the whole thing.

 

From Archibald MacLeish, 22 December 1933

YCAL 43, 32/1328

Dear Ezra:

Interim report. Farrar will not publish How to Read. God knows why. Probably scared. Farrar is however delighted and panting to bring out the additional cantos and will write you about them as soon as his “Christmas rush” is unrushed. 

 

To Hans Cohrssen, 24 December 1933

EPEC 84

Dear Prof. Cohrssen

[...]

very tiring to be continuously suppressed. My Cantos XXXI to XLI are pratically pure econ/ propaganda. reduced to putting it into poesy in hope of getting it across.

(or aere perennius, as you choose to regard it.)

 

1934

To Archibald MacLeish, 7 January 1934

YCAL 43, 32/1328

Why the HELL don’t he know if he wants it// he’z had a bleating month to say so…

In mean time Routledge (Kegan Paul) in London have signed on and I’ll be paid by the end/ of next week, I suppose. For a book that will have been written while Farrar is turning round and round andaround. and Routledge is no damn charity institution either…

And it is in LONDON… back of beyond….

Have we got to watch the U.S. going back to pre/war relative status?

Did I write you that that fahrt Canby said he only permitted decent review of Cantos in his arse rag/ because you and Eliot had vouched for the volume??

That I understand/ having see the little pin/head 20 years ago.. but j.HEEZ is that the manimum [sic] murkn mind??

In 1912/19, I know I had to fight SIX months to get Frost and Eliot into Poetry// but again JEE/HEEZ, are we still there, have you in 1933/4 got to waste the SAME amt/ of energy getting ME into print… as submit to the same time lag//

Don’t the cunts ever learn ANYthing….

This note part result of 25 years (TWENTY FIVE) of accumulated irritation at being sabotaged

 

From Archibald MacLeish, [January 1934]

YCAL 43, 32/1328

Dear Ezra:

Farrar: Says what is holding him up is working out terms of contract because book being smaller book for which he can only get smaller sum of money he can’t make same terms as before. Believe it or not. Anyway he is still alive and still intent on doing the cantos and I am the horse fly to sit on his arse until he does.

 

To J. Laughlin, 8 January 1934

L/JL 15

Note from MacLeish sez Farrar izza going on with the CANTOS/. [...] Therefore no intellexshul need of sep/ edtn/ of a “38” Unless already done. If its in press/ thass O.K. If not DONT waste anymore time on it/ or NRG [energy]. [...]

MacL/ sez Farrar “delighted and panting” re 31/ 41// lezope it aint mere illusion via telephone.

 

To Olga Rudge, 8 January [1934]

YCAL 54, 14/370

Ziao cara amure

[…]

Delayed letter from MacLeish started 22 Dec.sez Farrar iz “deelighted and panting” fer to bung out Cantos 31/41.

so that gordam plug is disobstructed.

 

From Virginia Rice, 10 January 1934

YCAL 43, 44/1892

Dear Ezra Pound:

I have your card of December 28^th. As a matter of fact, Farrar & Rinehart are still mulling over the cantos so I have no final decision to report to you yet.

 

From Virginia Rice, 12 January 1934

YCAL 43, 44/1892

Dear E.P.–

I just talked to John Farrar and he wants to publish the new cantos. Of course there are only ten of them this time, so I’m sure it won’t be possible to charge $2.00 a copy – $1.00 is the more likely price – and that means we will get less of an advance. I hope they’ll want to give us something. Otherwise the new contract will follow the lines of the other one. 

 

To Olga Rudge, 23 January [1934]

YCAL 54, 14/373

Ziao cara amure

His a/gent iz at last in contractual reelashuntz with Farrar/ and XXXI/XLI is purrzoomably on the way fer tew be printed.

 

To J. Laughlin, 22 January 1934

L/JL 16

ALL right/ copies of 35/36 discovered. 

That dry twig, [Harriet Monroe] in Chicago is rooting on 37. 

38 you have. 

39 can’t be released save in vol/ 40 and 41... waal we’ll see how the club furnishing holds out [...] If you havent already printed 38/ the three ought to make a group/ you can add feetnote/ that 37 deals with Van Buren and has already been announced by the Chicago AshCan [...] If 35/ 36/ 38 dont show main design at any rate they indicate the variety of the opus. reflection on rereading carbon of 35 a few hours after pea/ roozal of Btch/ roozul of Btch/ and Bgl/ [Hound & Horn]: As 35 was done some time ago its main prupose was NOT to annoy Mr Blackmur// but that incidental effect seems now almost unavoidable.

 

To J. Laughlin, 23 January 1934

L/JL 18

(Two cantos sent you yester/ and 38th you have. That for [Harvard] Advoc[ate] [XXXVIII] The enc/ intended for [Harkness] Hoot [XXXVI]. [...] 

Mail just in FARRAR [& Rinehart] reported about to pub. the cantos. XXXI/ XLI 

Thass thaat. BUT as no news had reached me/ and contract not here, you can damn well go ahead with the three you’ve got. only make eee haste

 

From Virginia Rice, 25 January 1934

YCAL 43, 44/1892

Dear E.P.–

I fixed up the contract for the new cantos yesterday with John Farrar and you’ll have it in a few days. It will be along the lines of the other one, i.e. $150.00 advance immediately on signature of contract, a 15% royalty, etc., etc. John says he will get out the book next fall. Of course he’s most enthusiastic but hopes that next time you will have more cantos to be published at one time. It will be impossible to charge more than $1.50 for this book. 

 

From Virginia Rice, 31 January 1934

YCAL 43, 44/1892

Dear E.P.–

Enclosed the Farrar contract for CANTOS [X]XXI-XLI. I’ll have the advance any day. Do sign these and let me have one back as soon as possible.

 

To Olga Rudge, 12 February [1934]

YCAL 54, 15/378

Ziao

[…]

Signed contrak fer 31/ 41 with Farrar [& Rinehart] sta mat’// [this morning] to be pubd “not later than autumn” whenever t’ell dat iz.

 

From Virginia Rice, 14 February 1934

YCAL 43, 44/1892

Dear Ezra Pound:

Enclosed your share of the $150.00 advance that just came from Farrar.

 

To Marianne Moore, [undated; her reply on 25 June 1934]

YCAL 43, 35/1472

Dear Marianne,

Proofs of XXXI/XLI came yester/// perhaps block will induce you to reconsider the Dantescan tradition, as not inferior to that of Barbey d’Aurevilly.

Not only were we brought up econ/ illiterates/ but we were fooled by there being “Schools of Econ” teaching a cardboard sham which was and IS of no bdy/ interest/ and has only been invented to prevent perception of life and convince the “victims (section intelligentsia) that the subject was A. of no interest

B. extremely complicated.

 

To Dorothy Pound, 29 June [1934]

Lilly Library, Pound Mss. III

letter from Faber [& Faber] that gk/ proofs hadn’t com/ and telegram to wipe off letter, saying they had.

 

To Dorothy Pound, 12 July [1934]

Lilly Library, Pound Mss. III

Proofs of cantos 31-34: from N.Y. [Eleven New] self respect vastly raised/ the eleven seem to hang together O.K. and to go without hitch/ carry thru from start to finish I spose that means no one ELSE will like ‘em. Have got the next three shaped [XLII-XLIV]/ you needn’t mention it till I see whether Criterion is getting ON with the Rhooze feldt article/

 

To Dorothy Pound, 25 August [1934]

Lilly Library, Pound Mss. III

Final proofs 31/41 [Eleven New] sent back to N. Y.

 

Eleven New Cantos XXXI-XLI are published by Farrar & Rinehart on 8 October 1934

 

To Olga Rudge, 9 October [1934]

YCAL 54, 15/389

Ziao/

[…]

Hopes to have 31/41 before going up to Rez// due back here sunday/

 

To Olga Rudge, [13-14 October 1934]

YCAL 54, 15/389

Ziao/ cara amure

[…]

DOMENIKAA AAA

31/41 arruv/ and will start to you domani [I. tomorrow] when I can register’um

[...] 

31/41 badly bound/ but almost well printed. tenny rate, can be tackled as readin’ matter.

and one in the MOOG for the buzzards. (bank and powder)

Dunno when there’ll be any MORE copies. Cheap book/ I. dollar 50 or only abaht 17 lire.

 

To James Laughlin, 2 December 1934

L/JL 36

[...]

Re/ the Cantos. I dunno whether farrar is printing the next 10 AT ONCE. or NOT at all. As god damn bastards have wasted a year and half NOT printing ABC////. 10 months NOT printing Jeff/Muss Three years NOT getting an Americ/ edtn/ How to read [...] The XXXI/XLI are shot out to instruct the pore god damn bloody pubk/ in history and economics... only loophole...

 

1935

From Louis Zukofsky, 15 March 1935

L/LZ 164

Dear E

[…]

you can’t I think afford to depend entirely on an audience composed of the good will of Mr. Cummings & old Doc Bill [W.C. Williams] & the quiet, honourable faithfulness of L.Z., who may out of concern tell a coupla’ things to you he won’t reveal to the pig public – be it Mr. [M]ike Gold or Gore ham Munson. That is you’re not very clear, in fact very vague as to what is happening “even in the U.S.A.” And you’re not being read in the U.S.A. for reasons you ought to be able to find out for yrself. (And) I’m not going to tell the U.S.A. (even) if my word doesn’t spread further than the leetle maggiezeens, that in Mr. Pound’s last “Cantos” I have found nothing to move the cockles of my heart or the network of my brain, outside of 5 lines (perfect lines) given over to Hathor & her box and some musical metaphysics of the dark Cavalcanti. It is alright to condense the virtues of Thos. Jeff. & J.Q. [Adams], but one can’t stop there economically. No one in the U.S.A. is interested in the Boss’s reclamation of the marshes – & quite a number here are aware of the fact that Rome when it was caving in did something like it – some time before 1935 A.D. No one in the U.S.A. will be interested in the after-dinner wish fulfilment & table talk of an Irish senator. There must be something that’s bogged yr. erstwhile intelligence that makes L.Z. worry over the future of the – whatever Cantos in process – when he considers the achievements (not the shortcomings) of the last “XI.”

 

 

 

A DRAFT OF CANTOS XXXI–XLI

LONDON: FABER & FABER, 14 MARCH 1935

 

 

 

1934

To T. S. Eliot, 12 January 1934

L/TSE  7: 19

I spose the Cantos XXXI/XLI of the most interest to youze guys ?? wot HO?!

 

To Olga Rudge, 11 January [1934]

YCAL 54, 14/371

Ziao cara amure

[…]

The Possum haz writ/ Fab/Fab/ want collected Essays/ and new cantos fer autumn/ and Collected POMES fer nex sprung.

 

To J. Laughlin, 17 January 1934

L/JL 15

At any rate [T.S. Eliot’s] letter proposes that Faber continue, and get out collected essays/ Cantos to XLI, and collected poems inserting what he fer Victoria’s sake forebore, and ommittin’ his shoehorn.

 

To Olga Rudge, 2 February [1934]

YCAL 54, 15/375

Zia/tsiao

[…]

Possum up in the nek ov th bottle/ ready to reprint Propertius at once/ gettin Essays inter shape/ and sez sooner the be’r fer XXXI/ XLI. 

 

To Olga Rudge, 3 February [1934]

YCAL 54, 15/375

Ziao/

[…]

Possum gettin on with details of ESSAYS/ and wantin 31/ 41 as soon as/// etc.

 

From T. S. Eliot, 9 February 1934

L/TSE 7: 65

Please give approximate date of delivery of CANTOTOES MSS.

 

To T. S. Eliot, 9 February 1934

L/TSE 7: 71

Farrar is said to be paying an advance (damn it) but not getting into print till autumn/ … I spose I’ll have to make you a new typescript…

 

To T. S. Eliot, 11 February 1934

L/TSE 7: 71

Re/ Cantos/ I can deliver ’em in 48 hours/ Virginia [Rice] reported that contract with Farrar [& Rinehart] wuzza bein made, and that they thought they wd/ be unable to bring ’em out till autimn, [sic] and proposed to do so then. 

I don’t propose to keep you wating. My hurry to print was for the American edtn/ and I spose for copyright reasons/ the Brit/ edtn/ shd/ not precede. 

If Farrar had any guts he wd/ have the stuff in print by now/ and I cd/ [give] the Eng/ edtn/ one canto more... possibly … 

I suppose eleven cantos make about 56 pages. if you are thinking of printers costs…

anyhow/ the Essays in early hautumn/ ought to git their reviewes/ and then have the 31/41 [Cantos], late autumn in time for noEL, no hell!! Wot o the XXXXmas cheeUr!!

 

T. S. Eliot to Lawrence Pollinger, 13 February 1934

L/TSE 7: 66

Dear Pollinger

[…]

Furthermore, we are expecting from Pound another ten or more Cantos, to be published by themselves in the autumn. Not yet knowing how many Cantos there will be, nor how long they are, we cannot fix the price of the volume. 

 

From T.S. Eliot, 22 February 1934

L/TSE 7: 71-2

Podesta

[…]

WHAT is your Real Idea about Cantotoes? I mean, if (as seems Prudent in view of the Existing State of Legislation) you bring out Farrar [72] & Max first, WHEN can you get those Boys to Name the Day? Should Morley now in N.Y. try to Rustle them a Bit? If so, answer promptlY for it means sending him a Night Letter. Or wd. you rather we kept them till after Xmas? As for us, we take things as they Come but we could keep ourselves busy selling Select Essats & Proppertius up till then If you Say the Word Brother Say the Word Essays are being Cast Off and results with number of pages, price and contact should reach you before Long

PS […] You never tell me what I want to Know but will write to Harriette nonetheless.

Note: On 9 February 1934, in desperation at Harriet Monroe’s delay in publishing canto 37 in Poetry, Pound, amid an unprecedented effervescence of invectives, suggested to TSE to intervene with her on his behalf and assure her that his esteem of the cantos extended to new ones, so that she would cease blocking and publish the canto. See the affair in more detail in the Calendar to canto 37.

 

T. S. Eliot to Harriet Monroe, 2 March 1934

L/TSE 7: 82

Dear Miss Monroe,

I have had some mysterious correspondence from Pound, from which very little emerges in the form apprehensible to my intelligence: but I gather that you have either declined or held in suspense one of his Cantos, on the ground that I had either not seen it or failed in some way to express my approval.

Whatever the facts may be, let me make clear my own position with regard to future Cantos. Pound has never been enthusiastic about releasing Cantos one or two at a time for the Criterion, and in consequence I have never pressed the matter. Several years ago he gave me the Malatesta Cantos, since included in the volume of Cantos which Farrar and Rinehart published in New York and which we published here. He made an exception in offering these because he considered that they formed a kind of unity within the whole. 

I have not, in consequence, seen any of the Cantos which he has written since the first thirty. I believe that one or two have appeared in the New English Weekly, which I seldom see. But Pound knows perfectly well that I should be glad to publish any canto that he cared to have appear in the Criterion. My firm expects to publish in book form all subsequent Cantos in such sections as he wishes, and we expect to bring out a volume containing the next ten or twelve in the autumn. 

The fact of my not having seen etc. a particular Canto in question is, accordingly irrelevant to the whole matter.

 

To Ford Maddox Ford, 11 March [1934]

L/FMF 135

Cantos 31/41 con[t]racted for N.Y. and London (Farrar and Faber)

 

From T. S. Eliot, 30 July 1934

L/TSE 7: 289

Yassur Podesta I gass your bour right, I kno I am Erritatin podesta I cant elp it its something in my natur that just Erritates people exceptin those what is Pure in eart and they are not Erritated only mildly amused but what I have to say is to Ell with Francklin what about a canto for December sein that there is no plausibility of the book before that given date we might have a canto canto canto three cheers for the Headmaster three cheers for the governors three cheers for the Dean hip hip canto cantoo cantooo yrs. etc.

Notes:

“Erritatin” – Frank Morley had given Pound a copy of F. D. Roosevelt’s book On Our Way. Pound wrote a review for the Criterion, but Morley told him it was too long and he should have checked with TSE first. In an undated letter, Pound retorted: “Yerr a niritatin little kuss/ why don’t you say what about that rev/ of Frankie […] if you had said 900 words for Frankie/ you wd/ prob have got 900.” (L/TSE 7: 289n)

“no plausibility of the book” – The Eleven New Cantos were going to be published at Faber, but Eliot had not yet received the typescript, so he still had time to print a canto in the Criterion in advance of the volume. Pound sent Morley a set of spare proofs from Farrar the next day. After reading them, Eliot chose canto XXXVI for the Criterion. 

 

To Dorothy Pound, 31 July [1934]

Lilly Library, Pound Mss. III

spare set of proofs 31/41 been sent to Morley.

Note. Frank Morley, editor at Faber & Faber.

 

From Frank Morley, 2 August 1934

YCAL 43, 35/1482

Dear Ezro,

Hurrah. Eleven new cantos arrived as promised on post card series No. 4,000,000. Brer Terrapin has kotcht holt of the root and branch and hev some outer sight wiv um. But he peromises on his faith to be writing to you perompt.

 

From Dorothy Pound, 5 August [1934]

Lilly Library, Pound Mss. III

They (T.S. [Eliot] & [Frank] M[orley]) had just recd 31-41 cantos proofs [Farrar & Rinehart] from you.

 

From A. R. Orage, 22 August 1934

YCAL 43, 38/1620; Surette, Purgatory 52

My dear E.P./

[…]

I’m not setting up to give you advice; but the continuation of your Cantos would give me stimulant satisfaction. Say what you like, I’m the better propagandist. 

[…]

With submission again, my dear E.P., your Cantos are your greatest contribution to the cause; & if only you could make them the vehicle of your total being, their effect would be that of artillery. Dont argue with me; still less don’t assume I think I’m right. Take it as my sincere opinion. 

 

From Frank Morley, 12 November 1934

YCAL 43, 35/1482

Dear Ezro,

[…]

Naow we had better get on wiv road-mending. I am telling pretty Pollinger to get up Cantos contract, and we must do some further thinkungs too. Fum present indications it will take britpub a little while to absawb MIN. But I have faith.

Note. MIN is Make It New, the book of Pound’s essays that Faber published in 1934.

 

To Olga Rudge, 15 December [1934]

YCAL 54, 15/397

O vow vow WOW/

Proofs 31/41 frum the Possum// thass a daye’s woik.

 

From Frank Morley, 20 December 1934

L/TSE 7: 430

Proofs of XI Cantos just received…

 

To T. S. Eliot, 20 December 1934

L/TSE 7: 430

CANTOS can’t simply be called XI/, got to be XXXI/XLI otherwise it looks like same old start I/XI all muddled again. 

 

From T. S. Eliot, 28 December 1934

L/TSE 7: 430

[…]

AGREED about title of Cantos yours right on that point too. 

Note: 

The letter did not settle the matter: the Faber version of the Eleven New Cantos had the title: A Draft of Cantos XXXI–XLI. 

 

1935

To Laurence Pollinger, 27 January XIII [1935]

YCAL 43, 41/1734

To the Rt/ Rev/ Ludoverius Epimimomannidass Polinger

Sorr:

I have never yet run over my correction allowance. So the point might be academic.

BUTT in the present case 31/41 I shd/ NOT in nanny case be penalized, even were the corrections likely to overswat/

FOR

I TOLD Faber I was preparing a CORRECT text. I told them to ask me for it when ready/

I spent time going thru a copy of Farrar’s edtn/ with mikkyscope, fixing it for printed.

AND then Faber goes and sends the Farrar galleys to press room. I sent him the galleys to compute the necessary amount of printing etc.

ALSO, I thought it was agreed AS SYSTEM, that my stuff shd/ be handled by Morely, as I can do NOTHING via De la Mare.

Also after a nasty experience with Farrar/ I shall look very carefully at any correction clause. As one has no controll over a pubr/ and has no way of examining his dealings with a printer.

There are I. alterations of text

2. corrections due to author’s errors in mss/

3. corrections due to print being an ape.

My contract with Farrar, reads “alterations”.

this dont concern YOU. I merely state that I shall from now on read all such clauses with great attention. Morely and Eliot I trust. Delamare is such a complete idiot, that I have been unable to ascertain from the most unprejudiced sources available whether he is honest or not. Probably dont KNOW his left buttock from his right ear.

Anyway, in future I dont want to hear from him or his sekkertary. 

They have taken five weeks between galleys and pages, which has I admit permitted me to express THREE corrections to Morley, this morning. corrections of one letter each/ entirely MY bloody fault.

//

BUT on the other hand/ SUGGESTIONS for ameliorating alignment etc/ or for example putting a decent pyramid instead of a sloppy one/ are OPTIONAL. IF the firm has a printer or a supervisor of production who is worth a brass farden, these details do not fall on the author.

is author penalized for interest.??

ONE MUST BE entirely clear on such points.

If they want me to desist from interest of this kind, I want WARNING first, and will then take it that sloppy production is part of the contract.

 

From T. S. Eliot, 8 February 1935

L/TSE 7: 507

Now look here, Podesta, to begin with I am just recoverin from a acute coryza & my secretary [is ill] and I aint got time to deal with much until next Week but […] the immediate point is this that me and also Faber who ought to know some more Greek than I do bein a 1^st in Greats have been tryin to emend your greek qootations Podesta why dont you ever read your proofs and verify your references and Podesta why dont you adopt some SYSTEM of transliteration if you got to transliterate at all But he as well as I is handichapped by not knowing the sources and perhaps less familiarity I might say indeed on your part Gross familiarity Podesta with the Yomeric Ymns dont know where ALL the dambed things come from, can you give exact refs. those two big quotes especial they are certainly Meaty when it comes to errors of one Kind or another Do you want the proof back or what damb your eyes liver lights etc. so will close.

 

To T. S. Eliot, 10 February 1935

L/TSE 7: 507

Gordamm that greek/ I putt the line numbers on fht margint, thinking anybody that cd/ reed it at all cd/ tell wot buk it cum from, namely the Circe or Kirke book K. of the O/dishy. and I putt the numbers of the lines from which the small quotes are taken, on some set of proofs…

I don’t quote in full, I leave out woidz that don’t comport with wot I’ma driving at.

[…]

NO, I dont want to see any MORE proofs/ the bdy/ thing orter bin out befo/ noo yearz… only for Xtzache don’t send any MORE proofs.

Notes.

Fht margint – right margin. The numbers are there (ll.490-5) but indicate six lines where only five were printed.

Book K. – Book X of the Odyssey. Pound’s edition numbered the chapters using the Greek alphabet. See it in Sources. 

 

To T. S. Eliot, 16 February 1935

L/TSE 7: 513 n.2; Redman, Italian Fascism 156.

Waal naow, Possum my Wunkas, Dew yew XXXpekk me to be pracTical AWL th time? Aint it enuff thet I write a nice practical XI Cantos to inskrukk the reader in hist/ and econ/ even if I do leave out a greek hack/cent, which most of the readers wd/ learn to copulate WITHOUT, almost as soon/ unless impeded...Whereas as a kneelection doggymint, thet buk OUGHT to be gittin’ circulated.

 

A Draft of Cantos XXXI–XLI is published by Faber & Faber on 14 March 1935.

 

 To Frank Morley, 24 March [1935]

YCAL 43, 35/1483

Dilectus mihi inter cetibus/

XXXI-XLI recd/, looks better printed than XXX.

[…]

Only comment on the set up of 41/ iz that Mordecai’s pyramid is a bit acute/ my eider izza iSo Kaleez. But I admit I didn’t see the damn thing fer meself.

 

From Frank Morley, 24 March [1935]

YCAL 43, 35/1483

Dear Ezro,

Yus, glad to see you been noticing my artistic efforts to improve lingerie. Give us a chanct and we’ll improve the colour range. Geometrical figgers and coives is acknowledged my meat, but nobody is too proud to appreciate appreciation. Speaking of figgers, your Greek is wonkier than I suspected if you identify Isokaleez wiv equiangular as in your latest communication on Mordecai’s Pyramid. I noticed the acquity myself, but on the whole thought it hartistic. You got to let a publisher ruin something somewhere, otherwise the bastid is unhappy.

 

From T. S. Eliot to Homer Pound, 4 April 1935

L/TSE 7: 588

My dear Mr Pound

[…]

I hope you like the production of the cantos as well as Make It New. I feel a certain personal pride in the Cantos too, because it was my giving Ezra a set of the Complete Works of Thomas Jefferson that started him off studying American history. 

 

 

 

ELEVEN NEW CANTOS BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

 

 

BOOKS AND DISSERTATIONS 

1. Miyake, Akiko. A Thematic and Structural Unity in Ezra Pound’s Eleven New Cantos. American Literature Society of Japan, 1971.
2. Farahbakhsh, Alireza and Zeinab Heidary Moghaddam. Dominant Themes in Ezra Pound’s 1930s and 1940s Cantos (Cantos XXXI-LXXXIV). Lambert Academic Publishing, 2010. 
3. Lobo, Julius. “Documentary Poetry and American Modernism from the DePion to World War 2.”  Diss. The Pennsylvania State U, 2011 [2. Ezra Pound and Louis Zukofsky’s Documentary Histories of the United States in the Eleven New Cantos and “A”-8, 46-80].  Free online. 
4. Wilson, Stephen. “Writing and Reading History: A Study of Ezra Pound’s Malatesta, Jefferson and Adams Cantos.” Diss. U of Dublin, Trinity College, 2003. Free online.

 

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS AND COLLECTIONS

1. Barker, G. “Mr. Pound’s New Cantos.” Criterion 14 (July 1935) 649-651. In Ezra Pound. (The Critical Heritage). Ed. Eric Homberger. Abingdon: Routledge, 1972. 297-299.
2. Dasenbrock, Reed Way: “Jefferson and/or Adams: A Shifting Mirror for Mussolini in the Middle Cantos.” ELH 55.2 (1988): 505-526.
3. Eiselein, Gregory. “Jefferson in the Thirties: Pound’s Use of Historical Documents in Eleven New Cantos.” Clio. 19.1 (1989): 31-40. Print. 
4. Fender, Stephen. “Ezra Pound and the Words off the Page; Historical Allusions in Some American Long Poems.” The Yearbook of English Studies  8 (1978): 95–108. 
5. Lauber, John. “Pound’s Cantos: A Fascist Epic.” American Studies 12.1 (April 1978): 3-21.
6. Redman, Tim. “An Epic Is a Hypertext Containing Poetry. Eleven New Cantos 31-40.” A Poem Containing History. Textual Studies in The Cantos. Ed. Lawrence S. Rainey. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. 117-150.
7. Williams, Carlos William. “Pound’s Eleven New ‘Cantos.’” In Selected Essays of William Carlos Williams. New York: Random House, 1954. 167-9.

 

BOOK CHAPTERS AND SECTIONS

1. Adams, Stephen J. “The Cantos: Eleven New Cantos XXXI-XLI.” The Ezra Pound Encyclopedia. Eds. D. Tryphonopoulos and Stephen J. Adams. Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 2005. 30-33.
2. Alexander, Michael. “Cantos 18-71.” The Poetic Achievement of Ezra Pound. London: Faber, 1979. 170-77.
3. Bacigalupo, Massimo. “‘Absolute Timeliness.’ The Case of the Middle Cantos.” In Forméd Trace. The Later Poetry of Ezra Pound. New York: Columbia UP, 1980. 52-100.
4. Cookson, William. “Cantos XXXI-XLI.” A Guide to The Cantos of Ezra Pound. London: Anvil, 2009. 47-59.
5. Coyle, Michael. “Epic Inclusiveness and the Innovations of Eleven New Cantos.” Ezra Pound, Popular Genres and the Discourse of Culture. University Park: The Pennsylvania State UP, 1995. 79-120.
6. Davie, Donald. Ezra Pound. The Poet as Sculptor. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1964. 135-153.
7. Davis, Earle. Vision Fugitive: Ezra Pound and Economics. Lawrence KS.: The UP of Kansas, 1968. 69-93.
8. Dekker, George. Sailing after Knowledge. The Cantos of Ezra Pound. London: Routledge, 1963. 171-2.
9. Flory, Wendy. Ezra Pound and The Cantos: A Record of Struggle. New Haven: Yale UP, 1980. [Section: 139-142.]
10. Furia, Philip. “Presidential Correspondence.” Pound's Cantos Declassified. University Park and London: The Pennsylvania State UP, 1984. 51-64. 
11. Kearns, George. “The Eleven New Cantos (1934).” In Ezra Pound. The Cantos. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989. 38-40.
12. Liebregts, Peter. “Cantos XXXI-XLVI.” Ezra Pound and Neoplatonism. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2004. 200-228.
13. Makin, Peter. “Commentary: Cantos XXXI-XLI (‘Jefferson: Nuevo Mundo’).” Pound's Cantos. London: Allen & Unwin, 173-95.
14. Marsh, Alec. Ezra Pound. London: Reaktion, 2011. [Section: 129-132.]
15. Moody, David A. “Making Music of History: ‘Cantos 31-41.’” Ezra Pound: Poet. A Portrait of the Man and His Work. II: The Epic Years 1921-1939. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 159-81. Print. 
16. Pearlman, Daniel. “Attention to the Times and Seasons.” In The Barb of Time: On the Unity of Ezra Pound’s Cantos. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1969. 135-71. 
17. Read, Forrest. ’76: One World and the Cantos of Ezra Pound. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981. 198-226.
18. Stock, Noel. “Nuevo Mundo 1934.” Reading the Cantos. A Study of Meaning in Ezra Pound. New York: Pantheon Books, 1966. 22-34.
19. Surette, Leon. A Light from Eleusis. A Study of Ezra Pound's Cantos. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979. 134-41.
20. Ten Eyck, David. “Pound’s Documentary Poetics in Eleven New Cantos and Fifth Decad of Cantos.” Ezra Pound’s Adams Cantos. London: Bloomsbury, 2012. 51-54.
21. Sicari, Stephen. “Eleven New Cantos.”  Pound’s Epic Ambition. Dante and the Modern World. New York: SUNY Press, 1991. 82-97. 
22. Trotter, David. “Form-Sense and Dictator Sense.” The Making of the Reader: Language and Subjectivity in Modern American English and Irish Poetry. London: Macmillan, 1984. 82-103.
23. Whittier-Ferguson, John. “Ezra Pound: Final Primers.” In Framing Pieces. Designs of the Gloss in Joyce, Woolf, and Pound. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1996. 115-150. 
24. Wilhelm, J. J. Ezra Pound The Tragic Years. 1925-1972. University Park: The Pennsylvania State UP, 1994. 97-102.

 

DIGITAL RESOURCES

1. Cocola, Jim. “Digital Maps: A Gazetteer to The Cantos of Ezra Pound.” Worcester Polytechnic Institute 2018. Users.wpi.edu. Cantos 31-41.