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EZRA POUND 357
likes Pound—never did—and I think he was most reluctant to
acknowledge—even in his own mind—that he was under obligation
to Mr. Pound. All of us know about that.
"When Frost did go to Washington, I believe Mr. MacLeish
was with him, and there is little doubt that as the Great White
Father, he carried a good deal of weight. I believe he saw both
the Attorney General and the President. Unless I am much mistaken,
Mr. Pound mentioned casually that his release was decided
at a Cabinet meeting.
"A couple of days after Mr. Pound's release, I went out to
lunch with him at a nearby chop suey joint. He'd just seen some
editorial in which it was pointed out that, in urging Pound's release,
Frost had repaid a debt of some 40-odd years' standing. Mr.
Pound smiled and said that Frost repaid that debt when he
published the North of Boston series.
"I thought that magnificent, and I thought, also, that it was
perhaps a clue to his character and his genius. He felt no one
should be obligated to him for anything he had done, and he, in
turn, has never been beholden to anyone. The only acknowledgement
he ever made of my efforts (I wanted none and would have
been embarrassed had he mentioned them) was indirect. He spent
a weekend at my home in Richmond shortly after his release and
autographed one of my books (I found this later) inscribed, 'With
thanks for his subterranean activities.'"
The "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column, which Mr. Meacham
refers to, was written by Drew Pearson's assistant, Jack
Anderson. In faithful imitation of the great smear artist's style,
Anderson began, "The backstage wire-pulling that freed the mad
poet Ezra Pound has now been uncovered, ending a seven-monthold
mystery. The hidden wires were manipulated by no less than
former assistant president Sherman Adams, Under Secretary of
State Christian Herter and United Nations Secretary General Dag
Hammarskjold."
Just who had been mystified, outside of Pearson's office, has
not yet been revealed. The story which appeared in many newspapers
on December 28, 1958, was part of the campaign against
Sherman Adams. No doubt the strategists felt that to link him with