Ezra Pound

During his lengthy confinement at St. Elizabeths, Pound received numerous visitors and continued to promote far-right political ideas. Academic research documents, in particular, his influence on young radical activists and efforts conducted through intermediaries to oppose American school integration.

State of the evidence

Documented

While Pound was confined and still facing a treason indictment, a jury associated with the Library of Congress awarded him the Bollingen Prize for The Pisan Cantos. The decision sparked a nationwide controversy over separating artistic merit from political responsibility. The Joint Congressional Committee subsequently adopted a policy preventing the Library of Congress from continuing to award such prizes.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Political responsibility

Following the collapse of the first Mussolini regime, Pound remained in northern Italy and continued preparing or supplying content for the radio structures of the Italian Social Republic, a fascist state supported by Nazi Germany. His support for the Axis therefore continued after his 1943 US indictment.

State of the evidence

Well documented

In Jefferson and/or Mussolini and numerous articles and letters, Pound presented Italian fascism as a model capable of realising his economic ideas. His rhetoric increasingly combined criticism of finance, conspiracy theories and antisemitic stereotypes, which became even more explicit during the war.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Living in Italy, Pound obtained an audience with Benito Mussolini at Palazzo Venezia and attempted to explain his economic ideas, also giving him a copy of his Cantos. The episode strengthened his conviction that Italian fascism could implement his economic and political ideas.

State of the evidence

Well documented

Attribution

Political responsibility