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Frary collection of Ezra Pound

 Collection
Identifier: MS-0788

Content Description

This collection represents the manuscript portion of a larger holding of materials created by or relating to poet Ezra Pound, compiled by collector Richard Frary. This collection includes: letters handwritten or typed by Pound, original drafts and proofs of some of his writings, transcriptions of Pound's radio program based in Rome, letters and postcards about Pound written by friends and family, unpublished drafts as well as publications about Pound, small publications authored by the poet himself, ephemera related to Pound, and a black-and-white period photograph of Pound.

The collection also contains a black-and-white photograph of T.S. Eliot, friend of Ezra Pound, taken by the famed photographer Man Ray.

The holdings range in time from 1909 to 1986, with most of the materials dating from 1909 to 1960.

Dates

  • Creation: 1909-approximately 2010
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1909-1960

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is housed off-site and requires 48-hours' notice for retrieval. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Collection is open for use.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions. It is not necessary to seek our permission as the owner of the physical work to publish or otherwise use public domain materials that we have made available for use, unless Johns Hopkins University holds the copyright.

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (1885-1972), Ezra Pound, was an expatriate American poet, literary critic, a highly influential figure in the development of Imagism, as well as a major contributor to the early modernist poetry movement at the turn of the century.

He was born in 1885 in Hailey, Idaho Territory to Homer L. Pound and Isabel Weston. After college and a short career in teaching, he began his expatriate life in 1908, in Spain, Italy, and then London, settling in London until 1920. He had his first poetry collection, Lume Spento, printed in Italy in 1908. In 1914, he married wife Dorothy Shakespear and became editor of Little Review in 1917.

By 1924, he returned to Italy with Dorothy, where Pound became a fascist, his convictions polarizing his audiences during the shortwave broadcasts of his American-geared programming on Rome Radio during World War II. He was forced to return to the United States in 1945 because of the fascist propaganda he was extolling. Acquitted, but declared mentally insane in 1946, he was confined to Washington, D.C.’s St. Elizabeths Hospital. While at St. Elizabeths, he was awarded the Bolligen Prize for Poetry for his 1948 work, the Pisan Cantos. In 1958, a campaign for his release by his fellow writers resulted in his freedom from the asylum, and Pound returned to his adopted country of Italy, settling in Venice, where he passed away in 1972.

In relation to this collection, his circle of creatives included, but was not limited to: e e cummings, T.S. Eliot, Sheri Martinelli, Marion Morehouse, Basil Bunting, Louise Theis, and Babette Deustch.

Sources:

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/ezra-pound

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ezra-pound

Richard Frary

Richard Frary is a 1969 graduate of the Johns Hopkins University, and has given to the university's Sheridan Libraries an extensive collection of rare works by literary figures John Dos Passos and Rockwell Kent, as well as rare publications by poet Dylan Thomas and novelists William Faulkner and John Barth.

Extent

1.51 Cubic Feet (1 legal size document box, 2 half-legal size document boxes, 2 small flat boxes (17.5 x 3 x 11.75 and 14.5 x 1.5 x 11.5), 1 small custom box (7 x 3.5 x 5))

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was an expatriate American poet, literary critic, a highly influential figure in the development of Imagism, as well as a major contributor to the early modernist poetry movement at the turn of the century. This collection represents the manuscript portion of a larger holding of materials created by or relating to poet Ezra Pound, compiled by collector Richard Frary. The holdings range in time from 1909 to 1986, with most of the materials dating from 1909 to 1960.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Partially purchased from Richard Frary in August 2017. Frary has also gifted Special Collections with portions of this collection.

Separated Materials

This manuscript collection was acquired along with Richard Frary's book collection, which also centered on Ezra Pound as the collecting focus. Please contact Special Collections for more information.

Processing Information

Processed by Annie Tang in October 2017.

Item descriptions were derived from dealer or appraiser descriptions and edited for clarity. Some date ranges for pieces of correspondence refer to the postmarked date.

Additional processing by Kristen Diehl in June 2019.

Title
Guide to the Frary collection of Ezra Pound
Author
Annie Tang
Date
October 2017
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Repository

Contact:
The Sheridan Libraries
Special Collections
3400 N Charles St
Baltimore MD 21218 USA