05/22/2017
London-based academic and essayist Swift (Shakespeare’s Common Prayers) gives an intriguing, if overwrought, account of Ezra Pound’s 12-year stay in St. Elizabeths Hospital, a federal psychiatric hospital near Washington, D.C. In Swift’s estimation, Pound (1885–1972) had a starring role in 20th-century poetry and the birth of modernism. Swift begins his account in 1945 with Pound’s arrest and imprisonment in Italy, where the poet had made profascist radio broadcasts throughout WWII. Pound suffered a nervous breakdown after being kept for weeks in an outdoor cage and, willing to be declared insane instead of being tried for treason, went to what he called the “bughouse,” St. Elizabeths. Too many digressions and descriptions of Swift’s research experiences blunt this story’s impact, but Swift does vividly describe Pound’s confinement, which lasted until 1958. A stubborn patient who refused the mandated occupational therapy, Pound read and wrote constantly and received a parade of famous guests—Elizabeth Bishop, T.S. Eliot, and William Carlos Williams among them. Some leading psychiatrists and admirers (then and since) have thought Pound was faking insanity, but Swift thinks he may not have been. Swift’s unfocused narrative style gets in the way of probing study, but Pound’s ambiguous sanity and larger-than-life personality still make for fascinating subjects. Many readers will be drawn in, even if they find Pound himself detestable. (Nov.)
In 1945, the great American poet Ezra Pound was deemed insane. He was due to stand trial for treason for his fascist broadcasts in Italy during the war. Instead, he escaped a possible death sentence and was held at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the insane for more than a decade. While there, his visitors included the stars of modern poetry: T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Charles Olson, and William Carlos Williams, among others. They would sit with Pound on the hospital grounds, bring him news of the outside world, and discuss everything from literary gossip to past escapades.
This was perhaps the world's most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist and held in a lunatic asylum. Those who came often recorded what they saw. Pound was at his most infamous, most hated, and most followed. At St. Elizabeths he was a genius and a madman, a contrarian and a poet, and impossible to ignore.
In The Bughouse, Daniel Swift traces Pound and his legacy, walking the halls of St. Elizabeths and meeting modern-day neofascists in Rome. Unlike a traditional biography, The Bughouse sees Pound through the eyes of others at a critical moment both in Pound's own life and in twentieth-century art and politics.
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This was perhaps the world's most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist and held in a lunatic asylum. Those who came often recorded what they saw. Pound was at his most infamous, most hated, and most followed. At St. Elizabeths he was a genius and a madman, a contrarian and a poet, and impossible to ignore.
In The Bughouse, Daniel Swift traces Pound and his legacy, walking the halls of St. Elizabeths and meeting modern-day neofascists in Rome. Unlike a traditional biography, The Bughouse sees Pound through the eyes of others at a critical moment both in Pound's own life and in twentieth-century art and politics.
The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics, and Madness of Ezra Pound
In 1945, the great American poet Ezra Pound was deemed insane. He was due to stand trial for treason for his fascist broadcasts in Italy during the war. Instead, he escaped a possible death sentence and was held at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the insane for more than a decade. While there, his visitors included the stars of modern poetry: T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Charles Olson, and William Carlos Williams, among others. They would sit with Pound on the hospital grounds, bring him news of the outside world, and discuss everything from literary gossip to past escapades.
This was perhaps the world's most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist and held in a lunatic asylum. Those who came often recorded what they saw. Pound was at his most infamous, most hated, and most followed. At St. Elizabeths he was a genius and a madman, a contrarian and a poet, and impossible to ignore.
In The Bughouse, Daniel Swift traces Pound and his legacy, walking the halls of St. Elizabeths and meeting modern-day neofascists in Rome. Unlike a traditional biography, The Bughouse sees Pound through the eyes of others at a critical moment both in Pound's own life and in twentieth-century art and politics.
This was perhaps the world's most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist and held in a lunatic asylum. Those who came often recorded what they saw. Pound was at his most infamous, most hated, and most followed. At St. Elizabeths he was a genius and a madman, a contrarian and a poet, and impossible to ignore.
In The Bughouse, Daniel Swift traces Pound and his legacy, walking the halls of St. Elizabeths and meeting modern-day neofascists in Rome. Unlike a traditional biography, The Bughouse sees Pound through the eyes of others at a critical moment both in Pound's own life and in twentieth-century art and politics.
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Product Details
BN ID: | 2940170929115 |
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Publisher: | Tantor Audio |
Publication date: | 11/07/2017 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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