"Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree."

American poet and critic, often called "the poet's poet" because his profound influnce on 20th century writing in English.

Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho. He was brought up in Wyncote, Philadelphia, where his father was assistant assayer for the US Mint. He studied the University of Pennsylvania, where he befriended the young William Carlos Williams. From 1903 to 1906 Pound studied Anglo-Saxon and Romance languages at Hamilton College. In 1907 he teaching career was cut short at Wabash College in India when he had entertained an actress in his room.

In 1908 he travelled widely in Europe, working as a journalist and writing his first book of poems, A LUME SPENTO, which appeared. After its publication Pound settled in London, where he became part of the literary movements (Imagism and Vorticism), publishing PERSONAE (1909) and HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTICUS (1919). He helped Wyndham Lewis, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce to publish their works in the maganines Egoist and Poetry. In 1914 he married the artist Dorothy Shakespear and in 1922 he started his lifelong relationship with the violinist Olga Rudge.

In the early 1920s Pund met in Paris Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, e.e. cummings and undertook the editorial work which gave form to Eliot's .

From 1924 Pound lived in Italy over 20 years and absorbed fascist views. He was arrested by the U.S. forces in 1945 and pronounced insane in a trial. Pound spent 12 years in a hospital for the criminally insane in Washington, D.C. After he was released, he returned to Italy, where he spent his remaining years. Pound died on November 1, 1972 in Venice.

Pound published over 70 books and also translated Japanese plays and Chinese poetry. THE CANTOS, a series of poems which he wrote from 1920s throughout his life, are considered among his best works. Its final volume, LATE CANTOS AND FRAGMENTS, appeared in 1969.

As an essayist Pound wrote mostly about poetry and from the mid-1920s he examined in several writings the ways economic systems promote or debase culture. Pound hoped, that fascism could establish the sort of society in which the arts could florish, he argued that poetry is not 'entertainment', he was an elitist with no use for the common reader, and he believed that poetry is the highest of arts. Pound saw American culture isolated from the traditions that make the arts possible, and decpicted Walt Whitman as 'exceedingly nauseating pill'. Among his most influental works are ABC OF READING (1934) which is said to have established the modernist poetic technique and THE CHINESE WRITTEN CHARACTER AS A MEDIUM FOR POETRY (publ. 1936), compiled from the notes of Ernest Fenollosa.

SEE ALSO: Fernando Pessoa, R. Tagore, T.S. Eliot, whom Pound met in 1914 and started to reform poetic diction with him.

For further reading: Ezra Pound by Charles Norman (1960, rev. 1969); Ezra Pound: the Last Rower by C. David Heyman (1976); Ezra Pound: the Solitary Volcano by John Tytell (1987); Ezra Pound as Literary Critic by K.K. Ruthven (1991)

Imagism: members included Hilda Doolittle, Richard Aldington, F.S. Flint, T.E. Hulme, John Gould Fletcher, Harriet Monroa, Amy Lowell. Influenced also Conrad Aiken, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot

Selected works:

• A LUME SPENTO, 1908
• A QUINZAINE FOR THIS YULE
• EXULTATIONS, 1909
• PERSONAE, 1909
• PROVENCA, 1910
• THE SPIRIT OF ROMANCE
• CANZONI, 1911
• RIPOSTES, 1912
• LUSTRA, 1916
• GAUDIER-BRZESKA, 1916
• PAVANNES AND DIVISIONS, 1918
• HOMMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTICUS, 1919
• QUIA PAUPER AMAVI, 1919
• THE FOURTH CANTO, 1919
• UMBRA, 1920
• INSTIGATIONS, 1920
• HUGH SELWYN MAUBERLEY, 1920
• POEMS 1918-1921, 1921
• INDISCRETIONS, 1923
• ANTHEIL AND THE TREATISE OF HARMONY, 1924
• A DRAFT OF XVI CANTOS, 1925
• PERSONAE - THE COLLECTE DPOEMS OF EZRA POUND, 1926
• A DRAFT OF THE CANTOS 17-27, 1928
• SELECTED POEMS, 1928
• TA HIO, 1928
• IMAGINARY LETTERS, 1930
• A DRAFT OF XXX CANTOS, 1930
• HOW TO READ, 1931
• ABC FOR ECONOMICS, 1933
• ABC OF READING, 1934
• MAKE IT NEW, 1934
• ELEVEN NEW CANTOS XXXI-XLI, 1934
• HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS, 1934
• JEFFERSON AND/OR MUSSOLINI, 1935
• ALFRED VENISON'S POEMS, 1935
• SOCIAL CREDIT, 1935
• POLITE ESSAYS, 1937
• THE FIFTH DECADE OF CANTOS, 1938
• GUIDE TO KULCHUR, 1938
• WHAT IS MONEY FOR?, 1939
• CANTOS LII, LXXI, 1940
• A SELECTION OF POEMS, 1940
• CARTA DA VISTA, 1942
• L'AMERICA, ROOSEVELT E LE CAUSE DELLA GUERRA PRESENTE, 1944
• ORO E LAVORO, 1944
• INTRODUZIONE ALLA NATURA ECONOMICA DEGLI S.U.A., 1944
• ORIENTAMENTI, 1944
• 'IF THIS BE TREASON...', 1948
• THE PISAN CANTOS, 1948
• SEVENTY CANTOS, 1950
• PATRIA MIA, 1950
• CONFUCIAN ANALECTS, 1951
• THE LETTERS OF EZRA POUND, 1950
• THE CANTOS OF EZRA POUND, 1954
• LITERARY ESSAYS, 1954
• SELECTION: ROCK DRILL, 1955
• DIPTYCH ROME-LONDON, 1958
• PAVANNES AND DIVAGATIONS, 1958
• THRONES, 1959
• VERSI PROSAICI, 1959
• IMPACTS, 1960
• NUOVA ECONIMIA EDITORIALE, 1962
• EP TO LU, 1963
• POUND/JOYCE, 1967
• LATE CANTOS AND FRAGMENTS, 1969
• SELECTED POEMS, 1975
• 'EZRA POUND SPEAKING', 1978
• LETTERS TO IBBOTSON, 1979
• EZRA POUND AND THE VISUAL ARTS, 1980
• EZRA POUND AND DOROTHY SHAKESPER, 1984
• POUND/LEWIS, 1985
• THE CANTOS, 1986
• POUND/ZUKOFSKY, 1987
• EZRA POUND AND JAPAN, 1987
• POUND: THE LITTLE REVIEW, 1988
• EZRA POUND'S POETRY AND PROSE, 1991

Translations:

• THE SPIRIT OF ROMANCE, 1910
• CATHAY, 1915
• CERTAIN NOBLE PLAYS OF JAPAN, 1916
• 'NOH' OR ACCOMPLISHMENT, 1916
• FONTENELLE. DIALOGUES, 1917
• REMY DE GOURMONT THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE, 1922
• ÈDOUARD ESTAUNIÉ: THE CALL OF THE ROAD, 1923
• CONFUCIUS: DIGEST OF THE ANALACTS, 1937
• ODON POR: ITALY'S POLICY OF SOCIAL ECONOMICS, 1941
• TESTAMENTO DI CONFUCIO, 1944
• CIUNG LUNG L'ASSE CHE NON VACILLA, 1945
• THE CLASSIC ANTHOLOGY DEFINED BY CONFUCIUS, 1954
• MOSCADINO: ENRICO PEA, 1956
• SOPHOCHLES: WOMEN OF TRACHIS, 1956
• LOVE POEMS OF ANCIENT EGYPT, 1962