Ezra Pound was a significant figure in the modernist movement, befriending poets like Hilda Doolittle and William Carlos Williams, and initiating the Imagism movement. He married artist Dorothy Shakespear and settled in Italy, but during World War II, he sided with Mussolini’s regime and was arrested for treason. Confined to St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital for 12 years, he later returned to Italy and died in Venice in 1972. His best-known works include I Cantos, Omaggio a Sesto Properzio, and Cavalcanti.
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was born on October 30, 1885 in Hailey, Idaho, United States. Best known for being one of the driving forces behind several groups in the modernist movement, Ezra Pound had a significant influence on the arts from early in his life. While still in college, he befriended poets Hilda Doolittle and William Carlos Williams, and shortly after graduation he became principal of the prestigious Wabash College in Indiana.
Ezra Pound sailed to Europe in 1908, stopping briefly in Venice before settling in London, where he was well received by the local literary movement. He soon befriended WB Yeats, his literary hero, and even worked for him as an interval typist. Together, they translated Japanese plays and worked on rough versions of ancient Chinese poetry.
Influenced by other figures of the time, Ezra Pound initiated the Imagism movement, which rejected the popular forms of Romantic poetry and favored simple, clear language. Many well-known writers of the time, including Williams, Robert Frost and James Joyce, quickly joined the movement.
Ezra Pound married the artist Dorothy Shakespear in 1914 and they both moved throughout Europe together for the next decade, finally settling in Italy in the mid-1920s to care for his elderly parents, who had moved there in search of a peaceful retirement. Pound later confessed that another reason for his stay in Italy was the fact that his longtime mistress, Olga Rudge, had given birth to his only daughter.
During World War II, Ezra Pound sided with Mussolini’s regime and openly criticized the United States for getting involved in the fight. Ezra Pound was also responsible for much of the propaganda to help Mussolini establish a new independent republic in northern Italy.
Arrested for treason by US forces, Ezra Pound was confined to St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital for 12 years. Soon after his release, he returned to Italy, where he spent the next 11 years sharing a house with Olga Rudge. Ezra Pound died in Venice on November 1, 1972. Among his best-known works are I Cantos (1915), Omaggio a Sesto Properzio (1919) and Cavalcanti, opera in three acts (1933).
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