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20 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
1959), exposes the rigged insanity trial of President Lincoln's
widow to invalidate the possible influence of her son, Robert Todd
Lincoln, in the elections of 1876. As soon as they were over, and
only two hours after the results were known, Mrs. Lincoln was
given a new sanity hearing and released. As Rex Lampman said of
the inmates of St. Elizabeths, "Most of these people are here because
somebody wants them to be here."
While Ezra Pound labored under the disabilities of life in a
madhouse, I continued my studies at the Institute. I learned that a
very devoted and talented couple who taught there, Rudd and
Polly Fleming, were regular visitors to Ezra Pound. They often
went directly from our classrooms, driving past the Capitol building
on their way to the madhouse. One afternoon, they suggested
that I might like to meet Pound. Out of modesty, I demurred, but
when the invitation was repeated the following week, I accepted.
On a gray November afternoon in 1949, I rode with them to the
grim walled fortress of St. Elizabeths.
Before we went into the admitting office, Polly Fleming cautioned
me to say that I had already visited Pound. The procedure for
obtaining permission to see him was rather complicated and timeconsuming.
A letter of clearance had to be obtained from Dr.
Overholser, as well as a note from Pound, saying that he was
willing to meet me. This red tape could be avoided by replying to
the attendant on one's first visit, in answer to the query, "Have you
visited Pound before?", a cheerful "Yes."
I managed this answer without difficulty, but I was rather
nervous as we left the administration building. Although I had met a
good many celebrities, I realized that Pound might prove to be disconcerting.
He was a living legend who overshadowed every other
figure in modern letters, and I hardly felt prepared to meet him.
My hesitancy was not a personal weakness, for in later years I
often made appointments for well-known personalities to meet
Pound, only to have them back out at the last moment. One cosmopolitan
lady, a principal backer of the magazine Poetry, got cold
feet three days in succession before I gave up the effort to introduce
her to Pound. On another occasion, a famed literary critic fled Washington
on the day that I had agreed to take him to St. Elizabeths.
A previous administrator had attempted, with little success, to