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126 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
ing, and which finally appeared under the title of Finnegan's Wake.
Pound replied on November 15, 1926,
"Dear Jim;
Ms. arrived this A.M. All I can do is to wish every possible
success, I would have another go at it, but up to present I make
nothing of it whatever. Nothing so far as I can make out, nothing
short of divine vision or a new cure for the clapp can possibly be
worth all the circumnambient peripherization." 13
So much for Pound's views on obscurantism.
Joyce wrote to Miss Harriet Weaver, apropos of this opinion, on
February 1, 1927, "It is possible Pound is right but I can't go back.
I never listened to his objections to Ulysses as it was being sent
him once I had made up my mind but dodged them as tactfully as I
could. He understood certain aspects of that book very quickly and
that was more than enough then. He makes brilliant discoveries of
howling blunders." 14
On December 2, 1928, he wrote to Miss Harriet Weaver, ". . .
the more I hear of the political, philosophical ethical zealot members
of Pound's big brass band the more I wonder why I was ever
let into it with my 'magic flute'." 15
Nevertheless, Joyce had earlier acknowledged Pound's role as
sponsor. The first number of a new Paris expatriate review, This
Quarter, dated Spring, 1925, which was dedicated to Ezra Pound,
featured the following letter:
"8 avenue Charles Picquet
March 13, 1925
Dear Mr. Walsh
I am glad to hear that the first number of your review will
shortly appear. It was a very good thought of yours in dedicating
this number to Mr. Ezra Pound and I am very happy indeed that
you allow me to add my acknowledgment of thanks to him to the
others you are publishing. I owe a great deal to his friendly help,
encouragement and generous interest in everything that I have
written, as you know there are many others who are under a similar