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EZRA POUND 353
is why newspapermen admire him so much. American journalists
still bemoan the passing of George Sterling.
One thing is certain—he writes simple poetry for simple people.
One of his admirers is Dwight D. Eisenhower, which may account
for Frost's involvement in the Pound situation, and for Frost's subsequent
appointment to the quasi-official post of Consultant in
Poetry at the Library of Congress. When the Eisenhower administration
finally decided to squirm out of the Pound imbroglio, Frost
was chosen as a go-between. He also was a friend of Sherman
Adams, who may have dictated his choice as emissary between
the White House and the bughouse.
It is difficult to believe that government officials could ignore
pleas from writers like Eliot and Hemingway for thirteen years, but
that Robert Frost had merely to make a telephone call for Pound
to be released. Yet this is Frost's own version, as recorded in an
interview with Carter Barber in the Los Angeles Times, May 22,
1958. Frost said,
"I don't particularly like Pound. Ezra was a self-boomer. He's
not so good a poet as Santayana. No, I don't mean that. No
comparisons. I leave that to my friend T. S. Eliot. He's the
critic. Magnanimity was the thing about getting Ezra out of jail.
So many well-meaning people worked at it for so many years.
They wrote all sorts of people. Lawyers, government officials.
They formed groups. Archibald MacLeish was trying for a long
time. No luck. Well, I happened to be in Washington and said I
would try. Archie had just about given it up. He was going away
for a while.
"Well, I got this letter from Hemingway. He felt well toward
Ezra too. And Eliot was Ezra's great friend as well. They all
said, 'You can speak for us.' Well, I called up a man named
Rogers at the Department of Justice. He's the head of it. I told
him I was representing Hemingway, Eliot and Archie and we
wanted to know about getting Ezra out of the hoosegow. Rogers
said there were no particular reasons for keeping Ezra any more.
'Go get Ezra a lawyer, and we'll see what happens,' he said.
'But it will have to be in court.' That part about going to court
scared me. I knew I had to hire a lawyer. I was out of my field.
Well, Rogers is a young man. Very nice. He's a plain Republican.