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EZRA POUND 37
to his namesake for a job as bus driver. But he was able to make
his own way, and he never met Sir John.
He devoted his energies to crashing the literary world of London,
where Sir John was no better known than Ezra. Despite his dwindling
funds and his lack of acquaintances in this enormous, sprawling,
smoky city, Ezra had the confidence of youth and his copies
of A Lume Spento.
The little book was duly sent to the literary critics, who received
it favorably. The Evening Standard reviewer wrote, ". . . wild
and haunting stuff . . . coming after the trite and decorous stuff
of most of our decorous poets, this poet seems like a minstrel of
Provence at a suburban musical evening."
From the outset, Pound was viewed by Londoners as an American
novelty, and he did not shirk the role. He grew a bushy
beard, and this, combined with his thick, wavy hair and piercing
eyes, and his Byronic costume, caused him to stand out jarringly
in a milieu where, says Wyndham Lewis, a sophisticated post-1890s
society was dreaming wistfully of the eighteenth century.
There was a strong Georgian movement among the younger London
poets when Pound arrived. These writers were enchanted by
visions of secluded country estates, where swallows darted about
through the low-hanging branches of willow trees. Pound launched
a number of furious attacks against the members of this group,
using suffragette papers, the columns of the daily press, and his
own adequate talent for stirring up conversation in the literary
clubs. He went so far as to challenge the leader of the Georgians,
Lascelles Abercrombie, to a duel, with indifferent results.
One of Pound's first successful campaigns in London resulted
in his capture of the leading publisher of the old Yellow Book
crowd, Elkin Mathews. 13 He soon learned that Mathews, far from
being a daring publisher of avant-garde work, was one of the most
cautious men in London. He had made his reputation during the
1890s, while he was a partner of John Lane, a clerk who had gone
into publishing and had been very successful. Lane had severed
the partnership, and he was then publishing under the Bodley Head
imprint. He was financed by a wealthy partner with the appropriate
name of Money-Coutts (later Lord Latymer), who also wrote a
slender volume of verse. 14