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EZRA POUND 81
the sake of filling up space, she had already grown so important
as to be able now to successfully dispute the leadership of the
group with Ezra Pound." 15
Indirectly, Ezra was responsible for the strength of Amy Lowell's
challenge. He had included her little poem "In a Garden" in his
anthology; if this was not done for the sake of filling up space,
as Fletcher declares, at least it was done out of kindness. When
Des Imagistes, was published by Albert and Charles Boni in New
York in April, 1914, it caused a sensation. Ezra had modestly
said nothing in the book about his role in putting it together, and
American reviewers got the impression that Amy Lowell was
solely responsible for it. After she returned to the United States,
her disclaimers, if any, of this honor were inaudible. Soon she was
convinced that she really was the leader of the Imagists.
Once more she sailed to London, this time on a voyage of
conquest. She tried to lure the young poets into her camp with
a bait to which they were peculiarly susceptible. She did not
offer them bribes, but she suggested that she get out another
Imagist anthology, at her own expense. The poets would see more
of their work in print, but Amy, and not Ezra, would be the editor.
Surprised by this approach, but not very upset by it, Ezra
countered with the proposal that she make better use of her
money by financing an international review. Amy decided that
this suggestion was a Fort Sumter. On September 15, 1914, she
wrote indignantly to Harriet Monroe, complaining that Ezra had
asked her to put up five thousand dollars a year for this enterprise.
"Like most people of no incomes," she raged to the independently
wealthy Miss Monroe, "Ezra does not know the difference
between thousands and millions, and thinks that anyone who knows
where to look for next week's dinner is a millionaire, and therefore
lost his temper with me completely, although he never told
me why; and he accused me of being unwilling to give any money
towards art." 16
In the course of this lengthy denunciation (reprinted in what
must be the longest biography of any modern poet, a life of Miss
Lowell consisting of 773 pages compiled by S. Foster Damon),
she mentions that Ezra had modified his demand for five thousand
dollars, suggesting instead that if she wished him to cooperate