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114 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL "My net value to the concern appears to be about $2350; of which over $2000 does not 'accrue' to the protagonist. It may be argued with some subtlety that I make the limited public an annual present of that sum for the privilege of giving them what they do not much want, and for, let us say, forcing upon them a certain amount of literature, and a certain amount of enlightened criticism. This donation I have willingly made, and as willingly repeat, but I can not be expected to keep it up for an indefinite period. . . . It is bad economy for me to spend a morning tying up stray copies of the Little Review for posting, or in answering queries as to why last month's number had not arrived. This function could be carried out by a deputy, almost by an infant. It is not that I desire to 'get' such a lot as that I decline to have my own work (such as it is) smothered by executive functions. And unless said functions can relieve me of the necessity of writing ephemeral stuff for other papers I shall be compelled to relinquish them. Or, still more baldly, I cannot write six sorts of journalism four days a week, edit the Little Review three days a week, and continue my career as an author. . . . So that, roughly speaking, either the Little Review will have to provide me with the necessities of life and a reasonable amount of leisure by May 1, 1919, or I shall have to apply my energies elsewhere." Margaret Anderson published this letter in the hopes that some subscriber would see fit to underwrite a salary for Ezra, but none was forthcoming. In giving her almost a year to meet this ultimatum, Ezra showed that he was not so desperate for the money as he was annoyed by the clerical tasks and the difficulty in keeping the Review up to his standards. The Egoist ceased publication in 1919; Ezra had finally severed relations with all three of his female-dominated outlets. As he mentioned above, he was busy with a few regular writing chores. Since 1912, he had been writing on economics for The New Age, a very advanced socialist newspaper, which printed some good things. This paper, published by A. E. Orage, was distinct from Fabian socialism or the other garden varieties, in that it proposed genuine reforms. Orage later became an enthusiastic follower of Gurdjieff, and sat in on his classes in Greenwich Village, as did Henry Wallace.
EZRA POUND 115 This information reached Westbrook Pegler in somewhat garbled form, and he supposed that Ezra too had had something to do with Wallace's "guru" period, and that he had been locked up to keep from telling what he knew about the lunatic government officials in Washington. But Ezra had no connection with the "guru", nor with Orage during his Gurdjieff days. He did lunch with Wallace in 1939, when he came over to try to prevent the Second World War, but the "peace luncheon" failed in its purpose. From 1917-20, Pound contributed a column, "Art Notes", under the pseudonym "B. H. Dias", to The New Age; from 1917-21, as "William Atheling", he wrote "Music", a review of events in the musical world. Those who sneer at his knowledge of music do not know that he was a respected music critic in England for four years. Orage had come a cropper by printing a strong editorial on the Friday before England went into the war, in which he said that there positively would be no war. The threat of hostilities was simply a capitalist romp to play with the stock market. He later realized that a genuine war provides the speculators with even more opportunities to play with the stock market than the threat of one. Pound also published an article in The New Masses, June 28, 1915. He has been called a Fascist because some of his writings appeared in pro-Fascist journals. Perhaps we should now call him a Communist because of The New Masses effort. This article, entitled "The damn fool bureaukrats", was the first public expression of his discovery that government officials are every whit as dangerous villains as are other stock types, such as bankers and munitions-makers. As Wyndham Lewis had foreseen, Pound's luck was running out with the English. He had begun to look across the channel to Paris, where world attention had focused. The Great War was over, and the manipulators had gathered to commit a worse crime, which Ezra defines as "ending one war so as to make another one inevitable." 26 Sisley Huddleston, later a member of Pound's Paris coterie, and Paris correspondent for the Times, soon dismissed Versailles as "panem et circenses." The victors paraded down the Champs
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114 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL<br />
"My net value to the concern appears to be about $2350; of<br />
which over $2000 does not 'accrue' to the protagonist. It may<br />
be argued with some subtlety that I make the limited public an<br />
annual present of that sum for the privilege of giving them what<br />
they do not much want, and for, let us say, forcing upon them a<br />
certain amount of literature, and a certain amount of enlightened<br />
criticism. This donation I have willingly made, and as willingly<br />
repeat, but I can not be expected to keep it up for an indefinite<br />
period. . . . It is bad economy for me to spend a morning tying<br />
up stray copies of the Little Review for posting, or in answering<br />
queries as to why last month's number had not arrived. This<br />
function could be carried out by a deputy, almost by an infant.<br />
It is not that I desire to 'get' such a lot as that I decline to have<br />
my own work (such as it is) smothered by executive functions.<br />
And unless said functions can relieve me of the necessity of<br />
writing ephemeral stuff for other papers I shall be compelled to<br />
relinquish them. Or, still more baldly, I cannot write six sorts<br />
of journalism four days a week, edit the Little Review three days<br />
a week, and continue my career as an author. . . . So that,<br />
roughly speaking, either the Little Review will have to provide<br />
me with the necessities of life and a reasonable amount of leisure<br />
by May 1, 1919, or I shall have to apply my energies elsewhere."<br />
Margaret Anderson published this letter in the hopes that<br />
some subscriber would see fit to underwrite a salary for Ezra,<br />
but none was forthcoming. In giving her almost a year to meet<br />
this ultimatum, Ezra showed that he was not so desperate for<br />
the money as he was annoyed by the clerical tasks and the difficulty<br />
in keeping the Review up to his standards.<br />
The Egoist ceased publication in 1919; Ezra had finally severed<br />
relations with all three of his female-dominated outlets. As he<br />
mentioned above, he was busy with a few regular writing chores.<br />
Since 1912, he had been writing on economics for The New Age,<br />
a very advanced socialist newspaper, which printed some good<br />
things. This paper, published by A. E. Orage, was distinct from<br />
Fabian socialism or the other garden varieties, in that it proposed<br />
genuine reforms.<br />
Orage later became an enthusiastic follower of Gurdjieff, and<br />
sat in on his classes in Greenwich Village, as did Henry Wallace.
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