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302 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
Nevertheless, I continued to bring my camera out, slung concealed
under my jacket like a pistol in a shoulder holster. Seeing
that the attendants would not notice the camera, Pound decided
one afternoon that I could take a few quick snapshots. He judged
the resulting portrait (reproduced on the dust jacket of this book)
to be the best photograph ever taken of him—high praise indeed,
for he had been shot by the best. He informed me that he had not
had to pay for having his photograph taken during the past fifty
years.
I made a number of copies of this portrait and gave them away
to friends, with the result that I have only one left. The picture
was reprinted in the Italian press in 1955, and did much to convince
the Italians that he was being wrongly held as a madman.
The person depicted is a man in possession of all his dignity and
power, with none of the visible attributes of the mentally ill. This
photograph turned out so well that he never let me take any more
until he sat for me after his release in May, 1958; that series
proved most satisfactory to both of us.
Ezra was often ebullient during the afternoons on the lawn, and
with reason. Not only did he have a circle of faithful friends and
young men who hung on his every word—the sincerest flattery—
but almost every day's mail brought some announcement of new
recognition abroad. There would be an exquisite volume of his
poems in Swedish, Japanese, Hindustani, Arabic or German. His
daughter Mary was translating his Cantos into Italian. And there
were many feature stories about him in the European press, reciting
those triumphs with which his countrymen were largely unfamiliar,
since newspapermen in America were not encouraged to
interview him lest sentiment be aroused in his favour. Despite the
fact that his publisher continued to bring out his books during his
years of confinement, Ezra himself was never considered "news",
and such recognition as he attained appeared almost exclusively in
the Continental press.
On one occasion, the Flemings brought out a lute. They frequently
appeared in Greek plays around Washington, and the lute
served as a prop for one of those affairs. Ezra seized the instrument,
stood up and began strumming upon it with great passion,
singing a lyric from Sappho. It was a splendid and moving sight,