WEBVTT - No Comment From the Bug House: When Ezra Pound Was Charged With Treason 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:06.040 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda land audio in 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:16.200 partnership with I heart radiom. Ezra pound was an American 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.239 expat poet and intellectual who was a major figure of 0:00:20.280 --> 0:00:23.880 the modernist literary movement in the Early To mid twentieth century. 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:29.680 He was also a fascist collaborator and anti semi who 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.040 was arrested for treason against the United States where his 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:37.360 radio broadcasts during the Second World War. Welcome to Criminalia. 0:00:37.440 --> 0:00:42.800 I'm Maria Tremarqui and I'm holly FRY. Ezra Weston loomas 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:48.280 pound was born on October in the small town of Hailey, Idaho. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.040 He was the only child of homer loomas pound, of 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:56.720 Federal Land Office official, and Isabel Weston. When Ezra was 0:00:56.760 --> 0:00:59.279 only a few years old, the family moved east and 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:03.080 in June of eighteen eighty nine, following homer's appointment to 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:08.240 the United States Mint in Philadelphia, they settled in nearby Wincote, Pennsylvania. 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.720 It said that Ezra was eleven when he published his 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:15.800 first poem, Elmer. At the age of fifteen he told 0:01:15.800 --> 0:01:20.240 his parents he wanted to be a poet. Ezra attended 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:24.880 Cheltenham Military Academy just outside Philadelphia. He went on to 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:27.920 attend the University of Pennsylvania for two years, from nineteen 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.360 o one to nineteen o three, and it's there where 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.200 he met the now famous poet William Carlos Williams, who 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:36.720 became a lifelong friend. He graduated with a degree in 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:39.880 philosophy from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in nineteen 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:43.200 o five, the four returning to the University of Pennsylvania 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.120 for Graduate School. He immersed himself in English literature and 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:52.720 Grammar and studied Latin Greek, French, Italian, German Spanish. He 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:55.200 received his masters in June of nineteen O six, but 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:59.560 withdrew from the university while working towards his doctorate. At 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:02.000 the start of the academic year of nineteen o seven, 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.600 pound began work as a professor of Romance Languages at 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:11.320 Wabash Presbyterian College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. It's widely described that 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.359 Ezra had begun to affect a quote, Bohemian manner by 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.919 this time. The details of what exactly that meant are 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:23.240 not clear, but it is clear that his career in 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.240 academia didn't fit with his art and his lifestyle and 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.560 his work as a professor came to an end not 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:33.600 long after it began. Another version of this story suggests 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.959 that he lost his position after six months, after having 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.520 been accused of hosting a woman in his room overnight. 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.280 Other versions of this story suggests he just wasn't what 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:47.720 they were looking for. But in February of Nineteen O eight, 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:50.600 with eighty dollars in his pocket and the manuscript of 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:52.800 a book of poems that had been rejected by at 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:57.720 least one American publisher, he set off for Europe. When 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:01.840 pound arrived in London, he taught, lectured and published reviews. 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.200 That same year he self published his first book, a 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:09.079 collection of poems and titled a Loom Spento, translated by pound. 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.760 As with tapers quenched, he would go on to have 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.720 more than seventy books published in his lifetime. In nineteen 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:19.040 o nine, pound found the success as a writer that 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:23.120 he had been hoping for. He published three books. Personni 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:27.160 in nineteen o nine, exultations, also in nineteen o nine, 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:31.160 and in the spirit of romance, this last one a 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:33.720 book of critical essays based on lectures he had given 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:37.760 during his early days in London. wrote one reviewer. Quote 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:42.040 pound is that rare thing among modern poets, a scholar. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.160 He was an American poet and critic, but pound had 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:51.200 no trouble finding work overseas. He became a foreign editor 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:55.240 of a handful of American literary magazines. In London. He 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.600 became friends with other influential writers and critics of the time, 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:03.600 including w Yates Ford, madox Ford, Percy Wyndham, Lewis and 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:08.440 James Joyce. He promoted and also occasionally edited the works 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.640 of many now famous poets and novelists, including Yates, Joyce 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:16.880 and Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost and D H Lawrence. It's 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:20.880 pounds revisions, guidance and heavy handed editing that shaped t 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.239 s Eliot's famous poem the waste land, which is regarded 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.200 today as one of the most important poems of the 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:30.760 twentieth century. Pound basically became involved in a whole lot 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:35.480 of literary activities. He was also co editor of blast, 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.080 the short lived literary magazine of a London based modernist 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:43.120 art movement known as Vorticism. Only two issues were published 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:47.159 before that magazine folded, though. He was the London editor 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.400 of the American Literary magazine Little Review and a Paris 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:55.560 correspondent for transcendentalist magazine the dial. He wrote numerous reviews 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.760 for a variety of publications, including new age magazine inspired 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:04.200 by British Socialist Organization called the Fabian Society, the EGOIST, 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.839 which was a London literary magazine that claimed to quote 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:13.839 recognize no taboos, and Poetry magazine. His friend and fellow poet, 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.479 T s Eliot would later note, of pound quote. During 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.400 a crucial decade in the history of modern literature, approximately 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:25.280 nineteen twelve to nineteen two, pound was the most influential 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:29.440 and in some ways the best critic in England or America. 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.440 Ezra also continued to publish collections of his own poetry, 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.719 including Lustra, which came out in nineteen sixteen, and homage 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:43.039 to sextus Propertius in nineteen nineteen. In nineteen twenty he 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:46.640 published the poem Hugh Selwyn Mobberly, which is considered a 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.839 turning point in his writing career. But it was in 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.440 nineteen fourteen when Ezra moved to Rapolo, Italy, where he 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:57.640 began writing the now famous poem the Kantos. For nearly 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:02.359 fifty years he focused on this encyclopedic narrative poem. It 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.599 is comprised of a hundred and sixteen sections, each of 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:09.760 which is a canto. In addition to the famous Kantos, 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.479 pound is best known for advancing a modernist movement in 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.040 English and American literature, a movement that he and others 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:21.600 called Imagism, which signaled a new literary direction in poetry. 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:25.800 The core idea of this movement was to stress clarity, 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.719 precision and economy of language in writing and to shed 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:34.520 the sentiment and narrative that had shaped Victorian and romantic poetry. 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.000 Writers were encouraged to forego traditional rhyme and meter in 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:41.960 order to in pounds words, quote, compose in the sequence 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.520 of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of the metronome. 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.599 His challenge to other artists was to quote, make it new. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:53.720 Part of his direction consisted of maxims, including quote. Do 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.719 Not Retell in mediocre verse what has already been done 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:01.560 in good prose and quote. Use No superfluous word, no 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:07.520 adjective which does not reveal something. Imagesn't reflected similar changes 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.600 happening in other art forms at the time, most notably 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:14.360 with painting and the cubist movement. Pound may have been 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.200 the leader of a literary movement, but it's reported he 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.040 became quite frustrated he couldn't have total control over it. 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.320 We are going to take a break for a word 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.320 from our sponsor, and when we're back we will see 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:44.920 another side of Ezra pound to talk about. Welcome back 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:51.000 to Criminalia. Brace yourselves. The side of Ezra pound we're 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.080 going to talk about now is a side of hate 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:58.080 and ignorance, and it's what got him charged with treason. 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:02.600 You already have guessed as much, but heads up, we're 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.160 talking about some pretty volatile hate speech in this segment. 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:11.160 There is no denying Ezra pound's influence on American poetry, 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.480 but there is also no denying that Ezra pound was 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.960 a fascist and an anti semi and by the time 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.040 the Second World War began, he had grown to blame 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.400 the practice of usury, which he believed to be propagated 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:27.240 by a secret network of Jewish bankers, for all of 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:32.360 the evils afflicting the world. He strongly supported Benito Mussolini, 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.720 who he believed shared his economic views, and held private 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.960 audiences with the dictator during the war. He delivered pro 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:45.680 axis and Anti Jewish broadcasts four times a week between 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:50.840 nineteen and nine on shortwave radio aimed at America to 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:58.160 improve American sympathy for Italian fascism. In January nine. At 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:00.360 that time Italy had joined the war were but the 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.800 United States wouldn't. Until December that year, his calling card 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.600 quote Europe, calling pound, speaking as a pound speaking came 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:13.800 over the airwaves. Pound recorded more than one hundred shortwave 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:19.520 broadcasts from Rome, each criticizing United States President Franklin, D Roosevelt, 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:24.679 Roosevelt's family and the Jewish community. Pound warned the white 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:29.440 race was, quote, going towards total extinction. In one show, 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.480 he suggested hanging President Roosevelt, adding, quote, if you can 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.800 do it by do legal process. He praised Hitler's mind 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.760 COMP and urged his listeners to familiarize themselves with the 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:47.240 Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a widely distributed fabricated 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:51.800 anti Semitic text describing a Jewish plan for global domination. 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:57.240 He collaborated with Mussolini's fascist regime and he often parroted 0:09:57.240 --> 0:10:02.600 fascist propaganda talking points on his show. Pound was paid 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:05.600 for his services urging America to stay out of the war. 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.200 Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, which is when 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:12.080 the United States did enter the war. He stated on 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.640 his show quote, America could have stayed out of the war. 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.400 If America had stayed neutral, the war would now be over. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.440 For the United States to be making war on Italy 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.240 and on Europe is just plain damn nonsense, and for 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:30.160 this state of things, Franklin Roosevelt is, more than any other, 0:10:30.240 --> 0:10:36.160 one man responsible. The broadcasts were transcribed by a United 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:42.280 States Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service listening station. Those transcriptions directly 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:46.000 led to his post war arrest in nine for treason. 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.160 It was in nineteen forty three when United States Attorney 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:54.280 General Francis Fiddle indicted pound and absentia for treason against 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:58.360 the United States. Treason is the only crime to find 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:01.600 in the United States Constitution, as we've talked about earlier 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:05.120 this season more than once, and it reads us. So 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.959 I'm going to remind us all. Treason against the United 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:13.120 States shall consist only in levying war against them or 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.080 in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.880 No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:24.439 testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.200 on confession in open court. So there it is, and 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:33.360 we can move along. Pound answered the charge by writing 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:35.920 a letter to biddle, and we quote. I do not 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.880 believe that the simple fact of speaking over the radio 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:43.400 can in itself constitute treason. I think that must depend 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:47.160 on what is said. I obtained the concession to speak 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:51.520 over Rome radio with the following proviso, namely that nothing 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.560 should be asked to me contrary to my conscience or 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.360 contrary to my duties as an American citizen. I have 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.359 not spoken with regard to the SWAR, but in protest 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.680 against a system which creates one more after another. I 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:08.960 have not spoken to the troops and have not suggested 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.400 that the troops should mutiny or revolt. Pound was arrested 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.920 in Genoa, Italy, by the United States Army. The FBI 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:19.640 searched the residents where pound had been living when he 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:23.679 was arrested and removed more than seven thousand articles, letters 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:26.800 and other documents that were classified and then used as 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:31.760 evidence against him. Some versions of his arrest story suggest 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:36.760 he turned himself into American military officials, or maybe it 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.200 was that he went to Italian authorities to tell them 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.680 he had heard they were looking for him. Either way, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:46.480 pound was arrested and two weeks after Nazi Germany surrendered 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.080 to the Allies. He was brought to the United States 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:53.480 Army Disciplinary Training Center north of Pisa, Italy. He would 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.920 be returned to the United States to sand trial, but 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:59.440 that would come later. We are going to take a 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:01.640 break here for a word from our sponsor, and when 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.200 we return we're going to talk about treason and the 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:24.920 insanity defense. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about pounds trial, 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:30.640 and it may not be what you're expecting. In Pisa, 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.280 pound was placed in what we're known as the quote, 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.400 death cells, which were a series of six by six 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:41.640 FT outdoor steal cages lit by floodlights. It's reported that 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:46.440 engineers reinforced pounds cage with heavier steal than usual just 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.160 to keep out anyone trying to rescue him. During his 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.640 time there, he spent three weeks in isolation, sleeping on 0:13:53.679 --> 0:13:58.720 the concrete. He was denied exercise and communication, except for 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.040 talks with a chaplain. After two and a half weeks, 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.160 it's reported that he began to break down under the stress. 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.680 Pound later said, quote, Ha, I was a dangerous criminal. 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.400 He continued, quote. They thought I was a dangerous wild 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:16.280 man and were scared of me. I had a guard 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.680 night and day, and when they built a cage out 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.880 of iron mats from airplane runways and put me in 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:25.000 the cage for the merriment of all, they posted a 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.720 guard outside. Soldiers used to come up to the cage 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:31.400 and look at me. Some of them brought me food. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.000 Old As was a prize exhibit. It is in this 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:39.200 place where he actually produced one of his most famous works, 0:14:39.480 --> 0:14:44.760 the Pison. Kantos pound was returned to the United States 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:51.160 and indicted for treason on November of the accusation he 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:54.480 betrayed his country. He stated it was a quote damn 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:58.640 fool idea and that he was, he insisted, trying to 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.440 save it. His insistence he was saving his country and 0:15:02.520 --> 0:15:07.239 its constitution became part of the nine sentence report compiled 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.800 by a board of psychiatrists appointed by the court, three 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.600 for the government and one retained by pounds defense lawyer, 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:18.760 Julian Cornell. It was a statement that helped determine his fate, 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:23.440 but really not how he'd hoped. Included in their report, 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:27.640 they remarked on his quote uncertain living, his being quote 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:31.800 eccentric and his quote advancing years. They called him quote 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:36.680 abnormally grandiose, which actually we found many reports that backed 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.480 this description of pound as a larger than life character. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:44.480 Outside the courtroom, one of the psychiatrists, Dr Wendell Munsey, 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:47.960 testified that, on the evidence of excerpts from the CONTOS 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.760 and pounds other writings, he judged that quote, there has 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.800 been for a number of years a deterioration of the 0:15:54.840 --> 0:15:59.680 mental processes. The board's unanimous opinion was that the defendant 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:03.760 was quote, mentally unfit to advise properly with counsel or 0:16:03.800 --> 0:16:09.800 to participate intelligibly in his own defense. Archibald McLeish, a 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:13.800 three time Pulitzer Prize winning writer and contemporary of pound, 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:16.520 said of the case. Quote, it is pretty clear that 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:20.800 poor old Ezra is quite quite Balmy. On the basis 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.360 of the testimony from the board, he was ruled unfit 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.680 to stand trial. In December of n sixty year old 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:31.840 pound was committed to St Elizabeth's Psychiatric Hospital in Washington 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.840 D C, where, it was ordered he would receive treatment 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.800 until he might become mentally competent to stand trial. If 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:41.280 he had been fit to stand trial and was convicted, 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.600 pound would have likely faced the death penalty for the 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.600 first thirteen months of his confinement, pound was held at 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:53.200 Howard Hall, the hospital's maximum security ward, an area enclosed 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:56.160 by a twenty two FT concrete perimeter wall used to 0:16:56.200 --> 0:17:01.200 house the quote, violent and criminally insane of his situation. 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:05.000 Pound later said quote. I met a very pleasant chat. 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:09.439 We had many interesting conversations. He seemed no crazier than I. 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.639 When I found out that he had been committed for 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:18.679 killing his wife, I reconsidered my position. In early ninety seven, 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:21.520 pound was moved to what was known as center building. 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.120 It was a less fortified area and those there were 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:28.959 granted more leeway in receiving visitors, and a lot of 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.359 people wanted to see him, from his longtime friends to 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:36.440 young poets who just wanted to meet him. Then something 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.119 a bit out of the ordinary happened that drew a 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:44.600 lot of attention to Ezra during his confinement. In Ninety nine, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:49.080 pound was awarded the Bull Engine Prize. The jury, interested 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:54.080 in recognizing his enormous poetic achievements and influence, overlooked his 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:58.119 political agenda and treason trial and bestowed the literary honor 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.480 upon him for the poison Kanto's work that the prestigious 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:05.440 prize was given to a fascist who was being held 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:10.440 for treason against America, triggered a pretty major controversy, not 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.240 just among the literary crowd but also in Congress. The 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:16.919 bull engine prize at the time was awarded by the 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:21.919 Library of Congress. Congressman Jacob K Javits of New York wrote, quote, 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:26.320 after having read the editorial treason's strange fruit, I am 0:18:26.359 --> 0:18:29.840 particularly concerned about the awarding of the Bull Engin Library 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.320 of Congress award of one thousand dollars to Ezra pound. 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:37.120 I would very much appreciate learning how the fellows who 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:40.320 make this award were chosen, who they are and the 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:45.760 basis of their selection. Another congressman, James T Patterson of Connecticut, 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:50.000 addressed the House regarding the award recipient, stating, quote. Should 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:55.359 we encourage the activities in literature of moral lepers? Javits 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.800 called for an investigation, saying, quote. Must we not be 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:04.000 equally diligent to investigate the infiltration of fascist ideas, especially 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.760 in so August and institution as the Library of Congress? 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.439 The matter went before the Congressional Joint Committee on the 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:15.240 Library of Congress, whose chairman was Senator Theodore F Green 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:19.520 of Rhode Island. The committee did not convene to investigate anything, 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:23.000 not really. What they wanted was a resolution to the problem, 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:27.280 and quickly it was decided that the library of Congress 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:31.960 would abstain from giving prizes or awards. Senator Green told 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.520 the press, quote, I think it is a bad policy 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:37.840 for the government to give prizes and awards, especially in 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:41.399 matters of taste. For those curious, because you may know 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.119 that this prize still exists, the bull engine prizes now 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:49.880 awarded through the Yale University Library. No one questioned whether 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:53.920 or not the work was suitable for the award. It 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.880 was generally agreed yes, yes, it was. It was about pound, 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:02.879 his politics and his acts against the United States. Ernest 0:20:02.920 --> 0:20:07.080 Hemingway wrote of the poem quote. The best of pounds writing, 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.280 and it is in the contents, will last as long 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.760 as there is any literature. But, as Luther H Evans 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.000 of the Library of Congress later observed, quote, the award 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:21.920 possessed that bizarre quality that makes news. Along with excited 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:26.560 reports and dignant editorials appeared in the press. Teasing out 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.040 the artist from the fascist and anti semi proved difficult 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.360 for some who had come to love his poetry and 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:36.320 followed his literary movement. The New York Times reacted to 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:40.359 pound receiving the award with this headline, quote. Pound in 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.800 Mental Clinic Wins Prize for poetry penned and treason cell. 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:48.320 An editorial in The New York Herald Tribune stated, quote. 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:52.440 This emphasis on an objective criterion of beauty and excellence, 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.240 akin to belief in an objective truth, is fundamental to 0:20:56.320 --> 0:20:59.960 a free and rational society. In maintaining it, the judges 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.560 acted in the only way that is open to men 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:07.399 who are sensitive to a later verdict of history. In 0:21:07.440 --> 0:21:09.960 that same edition of the Tribune, though, poet and critic 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.879 Lewis under Meyer called the Pison Kantos quote a rag 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.720 bag and tail end of pound at his worst. It 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:21.600 shows a very disordered mind, one affected by the seeds 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:25.919 of Fascism pullets. Her prizewinning poet, Robert Hillier, thought the 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:31.240 award quote regrettable. For aesthetic rather than political reasons, he 0:21:31.440 --> 0:21:34.680 continued quote. I never saw anything to admire, not one 0:21:34.760 --> 0:21:39.240 line in pound. Poet Robert Frost called pound quote possibly 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:44.440 crazy but more likely criminal. Pound, upon being told he 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:46.920 had won this prize, prepared a statement for the press. 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:51.040 No comment from the Bug House, that was his nickname 0:21:51.040 --> 0:21:54.399 for St Elizabeth's, but then he decided not to release 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:59.520 that statement. Eventually, while at St Elizabeth's, pound was granted 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:02.480 permission to spend time out on the grounds, where he 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:05.160 would lecture two groups of eager young poets who called 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:10.080 themselves the asrologists. Author Daniel Swift describes this in his 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:13.440 book the Bug House, the poetry, politics and madness of 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:18.320 Ezra pound as, quote, the world's least Orthodox Literary Salon 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:23.320 convened by a Fascist held in a lunatic asylum. Fellow 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:26.639 poets and authors rallied around Ezra Pound and, please for 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.639 his freedom, kept a constant awareness of his situation. In 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:33.560 the new directions booklet of tributes to pound that was 0:22:33.600 --> 0:22:37.680 written for his birthday, Ernest Hemingway wrote, quote. Will Gladly 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:40.320 pay tribute to Ezra but what I would like to 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:42.640 do is get him the hell out of St Elizabeth's, 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:45.639 have him given a passport and allow him to return 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:48.119 to Italy, where he has justly valued as a poet. 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:50.960 I believe he made bad mistakes in the war and 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:54.440 continuing to broadcast for that Sad Mussolini. After we were 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.560 fighting him, but I also believe that he has paid 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.840 for them in full and has continued finement is a 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:06.959 cruel and unusual punishment. Playwright Arthur Miller took a different stance, writing, quote, 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:11.159 a greater calamity cannot befall the art than that Ezra pound, 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:15.080 the Mussolini mouthpiece, should be welcomed back as an arbiter 0:23:15.240 --> 0:23:19.159 of American letters. There are a few versions of the 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:23.240 story of his release. The popular version is that pounds 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:26.879 release happened because of a kind of unofficial pardon after 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:29.720 a long running campaign on behalf of his fellow writers 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:34.800 and artists, including prominent names like Franklin, right, Igor Stravinsky, 0:23:34.920 --> 0:23:39.840 William Carlos Williams and Hemingway. After he won the Nobel 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:43.159 Prize in literature in Nineteen fifty four, Hemingway referred to 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:46.320 pound in his speech, saying, quote, this would be a 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:50.879 good year to release poets. Pound was a leading figure 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:54.120 in a prominent and important literary movement and those who 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:59.199 followed him, it seems, did so despite his sins. On 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:04.840 April Eighteenth, United States Federal District Court Judge Belietha laws, 0:24:05.200 --> 0:24:11.199 who coincidentally, oversaw pounds treason trial as well dismissed the 0:24:11.240 --> 0:24:13.760 indictment for treason that had been lodged more than a 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:18.600 decade prior against Ezra. His immediate released from St Elizabeth 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:22.360 after thirteen years was ordered. He was released in May, 0:24:22.640 --> 0:24:26.040 and the United States Justice Department did not oppose the 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:30.040 motion permitting pound to promptly sail for Italy, the country 0:24:30.040 --> 0:24:33.600 that he considered his home. He lived in Venice until 0:24:33.640 --> 0:24:37.520 his death on November one nineteen seventy two. What I 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:40.639 can say about pound is what a ride with this 0:24:40.680 --> 0:24:50.440 guy right. He's a complicated dude for this perfecty poor 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:54.879 I wanted to do something extra delicious because there is 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:58.120 this thing where it is hard to read about people 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:02.040 who are often lauded as really great eats and discover 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:05.000 that they were in some ways train wrecks or that 0:25:05.080 --> 0:25:08.440 they just did they had a very stupid bad view 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:12.760 on something, when you otherwise consider them kind of a genius. 0:25:12.760 --> 0:25:15.600 It's problematic. So I wanted to make something that was 0:25:15.680 --> 0:25:18.399 very delicious to help take that edge off, and I 0:25:18.440 --> 0:25:23.240 also started thinking about literary cocktails. Have you ever had 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:26.399 a drink called the last word? Okay, no, but I 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:30.200 have a love where you're going here. Because years ago 0:25:30.920 --> 0:25:33.639 my father sent me a book. That's basically the title 0:25:33.680 --> 0:25:37.920 of the book. It's like dinners from famous literary works 0:25:38.119 --> 0:25:42.400 and cocktails. So the last word is a cocktail that's 0:25:42.480 --> 0:25:45.320 quite old. It predates prohibition, so it was around in 0:25:45.359 --> 0:25:48.560 the nineteen teens, and it is usually made in the 0:25:48.600 --> 0:25:52.680 following way. Three quarters of announce of dry GIN, three 0:25:52.760 --> 0:25:56.840 quarters of announce of Maraschino liqueur, the Italian pronunciation, since 0:25:56.880 --> 0:26:00.600 it's Ezra, is Mariskino, so we'll go with that. Three 0:26:00.680 --> 0:26:03.720 quarters of announce of green chartreuse and three quarters ann 0:26:03.720 --> 0:26:07.560 ounce of fresh lime juice. This is a delicious cocktown. 0:26:08.960 --> 0:26:12.240 We are not doing quite this one for today because 0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:15.400 we want to tweak it and make it as Ra's words. 0:26:15.440 --> 0:26:19.240 I wanted to make it even a little sweeter. I 0:26:19.320 --> 0:26:23.960 love Chartreuse to a dangerous degree. However, that's kind of 0:26:23.960 --> 0:26:27.200 an expensive spirit to keep on hand if you only 0:26:27.320 --> 0:26:30.960 use it from time to time. Absolutely yeah, and it's 0:26:30.960 --> 0:26:34.080 also one that not everybody can get locally super easily. Some, 0:26:34.280 --> 0:26:36.400 not all, liquor stores are going to carry chartreuse, so 0:26:36.880 --> 0:26:39.400 I wanted to do a twist on this that includes 0:26:39.480 --> 0:26:43.440 the basics but subs out that chartreuse for another delicious 0:26:43.520 --> 0:26:46.000 thing that we have had on the show enough times 0:26:46.040 --> 0:26:48.560 the people that follow along probably have it, and even 0:26:48.600 --> 0:26:51.040