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Ezra Pound's Letters to Congressman Tinkham of Massachusetts

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Ezra Pound's Letters to Congressman Tinkham of Massachusetts University of Rhode Island DigitalCommons@URI Open Access Dissertations 1988 "Dear Uncle George" Ezra Pound's Letters to Congressman Tinkham of Massachusetts Philip J. Burns Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss nDEARUNCLE GEORGEn EZRAPOUND'S LETTERS TO CONGRESSMANTINKHAM OF MASSACHUSETTS BY PHILIP J. BURNS A DISSERTATIONSUBMITTED IN PARTIALFULFILLMENT :OF THE REQUIREMENTSFOR THE DEGREEOF DOCTOROF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH UNIVERSITYOF RHODEISLAND 1988 COPYRIGHTNOTICE For the Ezra Pound letters, Copyright@ 1988 by the Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust. ABSTRACT Ezra Pound's correspondence with Congressman George H. Tinkham of Massachusetts, who served from 1915 to 1943, is a substantial body of Pound letters that can be classified as "political correspondence." Extending from February 1933 through the 1940 national elections, these 100 letters provide an extended discussion of many of Pound's economic and political ideas, especially as they relate to his twin efforts to unseat President Roosevelt and head off the impending war. As the introductory essay shows by placing the correspondence in its historical, biographical, and rhetorical contexts, the Pound/Tinkham letters shed a sustained light on the poet as he was during the turbulent decade that culminated in his incarceration at Pisa and the treason indictment. What stands out clearly is that Pound, in his efforts to convert thought into action, was not only committed to his vision of a new .administration in Washington, not to mention a new world order, but also convinced that he himself could be instrumental in making it happen. As a result of this commitment and belief, Pound doggedly persevered in his self-appointed role of advisor, exhorter, and political strategist, despite the absence of any sign that his advice, exhortations, and strategies would be acted upon. The final impression the letters create is perhaps a quixotic Pound, and certainly one who retains the familiar antisemitism and meanness of spirit, but one whose patriotism is beyond question. In addition to the annotated text of the letters and the critical introduction, an index and a cross-reference list to the Cantos are provided. ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am grateful to Dr. Daniel Pearlman, my committee chair, for his encouragement, sound advice, close reading of my manuscript, perceptive comments, and characteristic good humor. I am especially grateful to him for having suggested the Pound/Tinkham project in the first place. I extend my appreciation to the other members of my committee, Dr. Celest Martin and Dr. Frank Costigliola, and to my additional readers, Dr. Nancy Potter and Dr. Sharon Strom, for their comments and encouragement, and to Dr. Wilfred Dvorak, Director of Graduate Studies, for putting up with my repeated procedural inquiries. For permission to include the complete correspondence of Ezra Pound and George Holden Tinkham and to quote from Bronson Cutting's letter to Pound (24 May 1934), and Pound's letters to F. D. Roosevelt (27 April 1934 and 2 May 1933), W. E. Borah (8 May 1934), and Henry Morgenthau, Sr. (October 1934), I wish to acknowledge the Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Grateful acknowledgment is also given to New Directions Publishing Corp. for permission to quote from the following copyrighted works by Ezra Pound: THE CANTOS(Copyright 1934, 1937, 1940, 1948; Copyright~ 1956, 1959, 1962, 1963, 1966, 1968 by Ezra Pound); "EZRA POUND SPEAKING": Radio Speeches of World War II (Copyright@ 1978 by The Trustees of the Ezra Pound Literary Property Trust); GUIDE TO KULCHUR (Copyright@ 1970 by Ezra Pound); POUND/JOYCE(Copyright© 1967 by Ezra Pound); SELECTEDLETTERS (Copyright 1950 by Ezra Pound); SELECTEDPROSE (Copyright@ 1973 by the Estate of Ezra Pound). Quotes from JEFFERSON AND/ORMUSSOLINI (Copyright 1935, 1936 by Ezra Pound; renewed 1963 by Ezra Pound) are used by permission of Liveright Publishing Company. iii PREFACE This dissertation is an edition of the correspondence between Ezra Pound and George Holden Tinkham, the United States Representative from the 11th (later the 10th) Massachusetts District from 1915 to 1943. It contains all of the extant Pound/Tinkham correspondence, as well as a few letters written to Pound on behalf of the congressman by Tinkham's secretaries, Grace Hamelin and Gertrude Ryan. There are one hundred letters in all, dating from 6 February 1933 until 26 December 1940. The original letters from Tinkham (and his secretaries) to Pound and the carbon copies of the letters from Pound to Tinkham, are kept at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. The whereabouts of Pound's original letters to Tinkham are unknown. In addition to the letters themselves, which I have annotated at some length, I have provided an introductory essay that describes the significance of the correspondence and defines its historical, biographical, and rhetorical contexts. Following the annotated text of the letters, I have included as a research tool an appendix that cross­ references names of persons who are mentioned in both the letters and the Cantos; an index of all persons mentioned in the letters; and a complete bibliography of works cited. In editing the letters I have used the following conventions: 1. Arrangement. The letters are arranged chronologically . In most cases the letters are dated. Where I have had to supply missing dates (usually the year) I have done so on the basis of internal evidence and references to previous letters within the collection. iv 2. Missing Passages. Missing passages are indicated by a series of three asterisks(***). 3. Crossouts. Crossouts have been edited according to category as follows: a. Crossouts that mark misspellings or typographical errors have been silently removed. b, Crossouts that reflect reconsiderations or simple errors in thinking are indicated by enclosing the item in braces({}). c. Crossouts that are indeterminate because the item is totally obscured are indicated by a series of upper case letters, the same ones Pound used to obscure the item (e.g., HHHHH). 4. False Starts. False starts (where Pound mistyped a word, then typed it correctly but neglected to cross out the error) have been silently eliminated, 5. Misspellings. Pound's playful or otherwise intentional misspellings have been retained, but those that are clearly unintended or that result from typographical errors have been silently corrected, Misspellings whose cause is indeterminate have been retained, but the Latin marker sic is inserted in square brackets immediatley following the word. 6. Upper/Lower Case Inconsistencies. Pound's inconsistent capitaliza­ tion of proper names relating to nationalities (e.g., ~ritish vs . .h.ritish) has been retained. However, with regard to Pound's habit of using lower case letters at the beginning of some sentences, case has been determined according to the following principle: if the sentence may be interpreted as an afterthought in relation to the previous sentence, thereby rendering the first period problematical, the lower V case letter has been retained; on the other hand, if the second sentence bears no such relationship to the first, the initial lower case letter has been silently changed to a capital. 7. Punctuation. Punctuation has not been altered except where Pound neglects to supply closing parentheses and, in one case, a closing quotation mark. In each circumstance, the righthand parenthesis or quotation mark has been silently inserted using editorial judgment. Pound's idiosyncratic use of the slanted line(/) in place of conven­ tional punctuation has been emulated because, in many cases, it would be too difficult, if not impossible, to determine which conventional mark would be appropriate. 8. Emphasis. Pound's use of capital letters for emphasis has been emulated. 9. Typography. Pound's use of the "equals" sign in place of the hyphen and his use of the upper case I in plac� of the Arabic numeral 1 have been emulated. While these substitutions may have been dictated by mechanical or keyboard limitations of Pound's typewriter, they nonetheiess contribute to the peculiar character of the letters and, for that reason, should be retained. 10. Editorial Insertions. My editorial comments, of which there are few, are indicated by square brackets([]). Also, in letters where I have had to insert part of the date(usually the year), I have enclosed my insertion in square brackets([]). 11. Annotations. To make the notes more accessible to the reader, they have been placed immediately following the particular letters with which they are associated. vi CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION. • . • • . • . • . • . • • . • . • . • • . • • • • . 1 THE POUND/TINKHAM LETTERS.• • • • • • • •• • • • • • •. • • • • . • •. • .• . • • •• • • 43 APPENDIX A: INDEX. • . • . • • . • . • • . • . 299 APPENDIX B: A CROSS-REFERENCE LIST OF PERSONS MENTIONED IN POUND'S LETTERS TO TINKHAM AND THE CANTOS.•••.••.• 310 BIBLIOGRAPHY. • • • . • . • • • . • • • • . • . • . • . • • . • . • • . 314 vii INTRODUCTION Ezra Pound's prolific letter-writing has been well documented in numerous Pound biographies, and many of his letters have been published in book form. The Selected Letters, published in 1950, is probably the most familiar volume, but there are additional volumes devoted to his correspondence with specific individuals as well. These individual volumes include Pound's correspondence with his wife-to-be, Dorothy Shakespear; his sometime mentor, Joseph
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