Footnotes

• INCARCERATED EZRA POUND TO A TROUBADOUR POET: this letter was written from St Elizabeth's Hospital where Pound had been confined on the grounds of insanity – to save him from worse charges – and after having been imprisoned in an open cage at Pisa, as a result of his notorious wartime broadcasts from Fascist Italy. The recipient, Denis Goacher, had taken part in the first broadcast performance by the BBC of Pound's Women of Trachis and on its publication in 1956 wrote a foreword in which he pleaded for Pound's release. Goacher saw himself, in the words of Nicholas Johnson, as a twentieth century 'troubadour' and 'strolling player' and was to play a significant part in Pound's life: 'Arthur C. Rank tried to persuade him to become a "matinee idol". He went not to Hollywood, but Washington in 1953, becoming Ezra Pound's secretary, visiting him at St Elizabeth's Hospital, typing his pronouncements, his poetry. His careful documentation of Pound's predicament at the time, and the campaign for his release, remains crucial' (Obituary, The Independent, 6 May 1998). Pound was finally discharged from St Elizabeth's on 7 May 1958, five weeks after writing to Goacher.

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Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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