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EZRA POUND 311
poet Dallam Flynn. Dallam bore a startling resemblance to the
Ezra Pound of some forty years ago. He had the identical piercing
eyes, red beard and mustache, as well as the flowing, wavy blond
hair. Ezra said that it was quite interesting to sit and contemplate
himself as he had looked in his youth, but he remarked that it was
sometimes disconcerting.
Dallam had published a magazine called Four Pages, which
had originated in Texas, as had Dallam himself. The similarity to
Blast caught Ezra's eye, and he sent for the young editor to come
to Washington. For several years, this modest literary journal (it
was only four pages long) was Ezra's principal outlet, other editors
having deserted the "mad traitor", as they preferred to speak of
him. His contributions were usually anonymous, and filled about
half of each issue. Occasionally, he signed them as "E.P." The
September, 1950 issue carried a note from "E.P.", announcing
one of his important discoveries, and still one of his great enthusiasms,
the work of Alexander Del Mar.
"If Del Mar was not, as some have claimed, the father of modern
historiography," Pound wrote, "it is nevertheless quite certain
that a new historiographic phase is present in his work that was not
present in Mommsen and that Del Mar's vast and exact erudition
enabled him to correct Mommsen on various points. Mommsen's
great merit as a teacher resided in his demonstration that the
stability of the Roman Empire, in contrast to the various Mesopotamian
despotisms, lay in Rome's planting its veterans in homesteads,
as distinct from mere raids of pillage." 1
In the summer of 1950, Ezra noticed an announcement of a
book by Del Mar in the yellowed back pages of an early work by
Louis Agassiz, who was also a current enthusiasm. The title, History
of Monetary Systems (1903), immediately attracted him, and his
wife was able to borrow the book from the local library (despite
his fame as a scholar, he had to get his books like any housemaid
seeking a novel for entertainment).
He found the book very informative, and asked me to find out
what I could about this unknown author. I discovered that Del Mar
had occupied almost half a page in Who's Who until his death in
1926, shortly before his ninetieth birthday. From 1865 to 1869, he