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216 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
Interestingly enough, three of the most powerful talents in
Europe objected vociferously to the continued intervention of
England and the United States in political affairs on the Continent
during the Second World War—Céline in France, Knut Hamsun
in Norway, and Pound speaking to his homeland, America. All
three were indicted for treason. Céline was exiled to Denmark
from his native France for a period of years after the war. Hamsun
was placed in a mental hospital and his fortune confiscated, a
fortune which he had built up over a period of years as one of
the world's most important novelists.
Hamsun had bitterly criticized the destructive influence of
England in Norway, which resulted in the nation's occupation by
the German army. British influence on the Continent during the
twentieth century was nothing short of suicidal, and as much
detrimental to her own interests as to the nations whom she
sought to destroy. The difficulty was that the British, flushed with
their success in conquering and administering India, Malaya and
other outposts of the Empire, tried to treat the inhabitants of
other European nations as they did the wretches who lived in
their colonies. The result was that England not only lost her
influence on the Continent, but her "Empah" as well.
Nor could anyone say that she had not been warned. The gist
of Hitler's message to Chamberlain, as he recorded in his Table
Talks, was that if England insisted on going to war against Germany
again, she would lose her Empire. Despite Mr. Churchill's
assurances to the contrary, this is just what happened.
Although Knut Hamsun died in poverty and disgrace, the flags
were flown over government buildings in honor of the centenary
of his birth, in August, 1959, and a special thirty-three volume
edition of his works was issued in commemoration of the event.
Céline is the most important modern novelist in France, although
his impact has not yet been felt in America. And Pound
too is just beginning to break through to the attention of his
fellow countrymen, during an era when Edgar Guest, America's
richest poet, sold a million copies of "A Heap O' Livin' ", earned
one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year, and maintained
elaborate estates in Detroit and in Florida. Despite the efforts
of Robert Frost and Carl Sandburg to imitate Guest's profit-