4pQonT

EZRA POUND 267
be shot and I would be the first to join the firing squad for that
purpose."
Robert Hillyer wrote, "I said there was no question that Pound
should be omitted from the anthology. Of course, I never considered
Pound a poet of any consequence. . . . For years he had
been a foolish mountebank."
One of the last letters written by the heavily-ulcerated Harry
Hopkins praised Cerf for omitting Pound's poems. He ordered a
copy of the anthology to be sent to the hospital, but he died three
days later without reading it.
Clyde Brion Davis wrote, "Years before he officially turned
Fascist the work of this articulate lunatic impressed me as valuable
chiefly as a clinical case record."
Gordon Young wrote, "Ezra Pound is not only a traitor but—
like all who are stuffed with megalomania—a thorough faker."
After continuing in this vein of invective for several paragraphs,
Mr. Young suddenly weakened his statement by concluding, "I am
merely a writer of pulp stories, and what can a pulper know of
poetry?"
Roberta James wrote, "A traitor such as Pound, far from
having his name perpetuated, should be shot, buried and forgotten
as quickly as possible."
Gail Russell (is this the movie star?) wrote, "Having heard
the vile mouthings of this traitor I am whole-heartedly in agreement
with your position."
Captain Paul H. Elmen wrote, "I lost my leg outside the town
of Gleiderkirck—You say that he (Pound) is crazy . . . You
say that he was a Nazi. Obviously he was."
Cerf's most impressive testimonial for his book-burning escapade
was a letter that stated, "We heartily agree with you, in the exclusion
of Ezra Pound's poetry from 'An Anthology of Famous
English and American Poetry.'" It was signed "The Senior Class
of Houston High School". Is it possible that someone played a
joke on Mr. Cerf?
Cerf, fighting to the last, said that he would include Pound's
poems in future editions of the anthology, but that he would
prefix this note, "Here he is, Pound the man we consider a contemptible
betrayer of his country."