Product Description

Customer Reviews (12)

A Great, Great Book
This is simply one of the greatest, if not the greatest, works of intellectual history ever written anywhere at anytime by anyone. The breadth of his knowledge is breathtaking. This is erudition without pretense or snobbery. You don't just come to know Pound, you become Pound and live in his world. By no means easy, but in every way worth the effort. Truly a masterpiece. Get it. Read it. Enjoy it.

A letter tomy grandchildren about The Pound Era
You are about to take American Literature, prescribed US high school class, and I doubt if you will come across Pound, but he is important. However what you need to know now is that if, like me, a 19 in 1954, thinking you can read and understand just about anything you set your mind to, taking a volume of Pound's poems to the beach for several afternoons will no do it. It is this kind of book, actually by a man who was a student of his subject, knew him for 20 years, who then wrote to place him in context (with some useful and surprising photographs interspersed) may help you get started. So far I have just sampled THIS book and find it tough sledding. Will I really be able to read Pound's own verse later, or will I want to do so ?

Stay tuned.

A must have for any Pound enthusiast...
There are many Pound scholars today and many of them are very good, however, in my opinion Hugh Kenner is one of the most creative thinkers of his time.This volume is a very well put together, accessible and reference point for all of Pound's wonderful, but difficult referenced work.

Indispensable
Intimidated by Pound's Cantos, I picked up Kenner's book in hopes of a pony. In fact, there are more text specific companions (see my other reviews) but this work provides a fascinating, invaluable overview of the modernists and their work. From the opening encounter with Henry James to Pound's last days in New Jersey and Italy, Kenner walks by the poet's side through the Cantos and his career. The sections on Wyndham Lewis, Buckminster Fuller, Clifford Douglas, and T. S. Eliot are illuminating, but so are the explorations of more obscure writers like Ernest Fenellosa, Guido Cavalcanti, and Henri Gaudier. The author's knowledge of the world, like Pound's, seems almost limitless. Readers looking for nods to contemporary literary theory may be disappointed since there's little queer, feminist, Marxist, or Lacanian critique, but as a conventional and weighty glimpse at influences and allusions in the Cantos, it's excellent. Reading Kenner is probably a lot like being in a lecture class with him. However dull it may be on the cutting edge, the sheer glare of brilliance and erudition leaves you dazzled and eager to go the original source for more light.

Becoming Pound
For years I didn't get Pound, and I once asked a friend if the Emperor had no clothes. "No, but to get Pound you have to become Pound," she said. That remains one of the truest things I've heard about Pound, and about the modern poetic he inspired. From the brave spirits who hope to apprehend his writing, Pound demands a total commitment to his manner of thinking, his myriad languages, his vast reading, his eccentric economic/social theories, his storehouse of memories, and the evolution of his ideas over nearly a century. What he brought to poetry was the idea that poems aren't ornamented expressions of deep feeling, but precise instruments for exploring politics, religion, history, economics, science and just about everything human.

Hugh Kenner came closer to being Pound than anyone (though Peter Makin gives him a good run for his money), and "The Pound Era" isn't so much a work of literary criticism as it is an intricate daybook, or maybe a modern novel, on coming to terms with the demands Pound makes on a reader. It's a one-of-a-kind study that should be read and re-read by anyone even half-interested in Pound's achievement. But it also (to my mind at least) shares some of the Master's flaws as Kenner makes great, sometimes showy, occasionally mannered paratactic leaps between seemingly unrelated details to convey a picture of Pound's age. It's well worth looking past the stylistic excesses though for Kenner's unparalleled explication of one of the best known and least understood 20th-century poets.
... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1919 by Ezra Pound, Ernest Fenollosa's essay on the Chinese written language has become one of the most often quoted statements in the history of American poetics. As edited by Pound, it presents a powerful conception of language that continues to shape our poetic and stylistic preferences: the idea that poems consist primarily of images; the idea that the sentence form with active verb mirrors relations of natural force. But previous editions of the essay represent Pound's understanding--it is fair to say, his appropriation--of the text. Fenollosa's manuscripts, in the Beinecke Library of Yale University, allow us to see this essay in a different light, as a document of early, sustained cultural interchange between North Americaand East Asia.Pound's editing of the essay obscured two important features, here restored to view: Fenollosa's encounter with Tendai Buddhism and Buddhist ontology, and his concern with the dimension of sound in Chinese poetry.This book is the definitive critical edition of Fenollosa's important work. After a substantial Introduction, the text as edited by Pound is presented, together with his notes and plates. At the heart of the edition is the first full publication of the essay as Fenollosa wrote it, accompanied by the many diagrams, characters, and notes Fenollosa (and Pound) scrawled on the verso pages. Pound's deletions, insertions, and alterations to Fenollosa's sometimes ornate prose are meticulously captured, enabling readers to follow the quasi-dialogue between Fenollosa and his posthumous editor. Earlier drafts and related talks reveal the developmentof Fenollosa's ideas about culture, poetry, and translation. Copious multilingual annotation is an important feature of the edition.This masterfully edited book will be an essential resource for scholars and poets and a starting point for a renewed discussion of the multiple sources of American modernist poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Presents Pound's own edited version of Fenollosa's essay including notes and plates
Influences on the foundation American poetics have long quoted Ernest Fenollosa's essay on the Chinese written language which was first published in 1919 by the legendary Ezra Pound. "The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry" newly re-edited by the team of Haun Saussy, Jonathan Stalling and Lucas Klein presents Pound's own edited version of Fenollosa's essay including notes and plates. This edition showcases two obscured but important views: Fenollosa's encounter with Tendai Buddhism and Buddhist ontology, and his concern with the dimension of sound in Chinese poetry. This technical style book, enhanced with the inclusion of photos, explanations, notes and discussion, includes the first full publication of Fenollosa's essay as he wrote it. A scholarly review of Fenollosa's essay as edited and originally presented is a especially recommended to the attention of scholars and poets. Also highly recommended for academic and private reference library collections on the multiple sources of American Modernist poetry, "The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry" is an impressive work of scholarship and an informative work commended to non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject of Chinese writings and poetry.
... Read more

Product Description
New compilation of 70 early poems from the founder of the Imagist movement and one of America’s most influential and controversial poets. Among them are poems from Personae (1909), Exultations (1909) and Ripostes (1912), including a number not found in other anthologies; "Cathay" from Lustra (1916); and selections from the major poem, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920).
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A good, small book.
I recommend this edition of Pound's early poetry.It is very cheap and has a number of gems, including Pound's rendering from the Old English of The Seafarer, as well as a few Italian songs and Sestina: Altaforte, one of my favorites.Pound was acquainted with the musical heights of Greek and Italian lyric and did the best he could to transmit that into English, with varying success.Also see his ABC of Reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Uncovering or rediscovering the unsainted.
Inarguably America's most prolific poet and essayist, Pound is probably the most influential of all American poets and possibly the best.This collection of essays gives a more representative view of the complete thinker in all fields of knowledge than does the collection assembled by T. S. Eliot.Pound comes out of the line of Donne and Browning--more musician than painter, more an inhabitant of time than of space, an awesome organic discourse machine (before word-processing, even!), whose syntactical energies, whether in verse or prose, are always fascinating if not compelling (the "content" is another matter).

Having survived Browning's Sordello (which I'm unconvinced Pound did, or he wouldn't be making ridiculous statements about moving on to a more "modern" form of poetic discourse), I thought I'd give its offspring some of my time. Too many discussions of Pound simply apologize quickly and awkwardly for his anti-semiticism, and move on.Given all the "suspected" and covert anti-Semites in the arts, give Pound credit, at least, for the courage of his convictions (like a suicide bomber), regardless of how wrong-headed they were.Also, it may be necessary to give more attention to his writings in this area (admittedly often ramblings) to come to a better understanding of the most notoriously difficult poem by an American poet, "The Cantos."Pound obsesses on the subject of "usury" for a hundred or more pages in this prose collection, enough to allow the reader to see in greater clarity the connection between the American and Italian authors of literature's two most famous "Cantos," since Dante provides a place for usurers in the eighth, penultimate circle of The Infernal.

Pound's view of modern economics, of course, is wildly reactionary and hopelessly fantastical in addition to the unfortunate (especially for him) scapegoating and personified demons that it gave rise to--whether metaphorical, literal, or a mixture of both often hard to say, though the effect remains the same: Pound's ranting against usury and its practitioners led to his being viewed not merely as anti-semitic, anti-free enterprise, unpatriotic, but criminally insane; similarly, D. H. Lawrence's incessant (and insistent) preaching about the glories of sex and his denunciation of all things WASPish led to his being branded little more than a pervert if not a dirty old man.

In both cases, it's not sufficient to ignore or "excuse" the distasteful parts.Without such dispositions, excesses, obsessions, etc., neither writer would have been the artist he was.In fact, perhaps with the exception of the few inferior creators who pass Tolstoy's morality test, bid the artist and his art goodbye.Commerce will always manage to fill the void.

Much great prose
I love a lot of the writing in this book:Pound's obit for Eliot, the opening note, the essays on Confucius and Mencius, the essay on Adams and Jefferson, etc.Robert Anton Wilson also highly recommends this book.

Diamonds mixed with mud dumped in Iceland
..The book does contain vaulable insights, and information, but mostly in reference to other books and or people. The section devoted to Confucius could be summed up as saying "Ezra Pound really liked Confucius for reasons he never seemed to get around to mentioning." Because of this book I am even more curious about the economics of Silvio Gesell and I plan to read the Adams-Jefferson letters. I also want to find out more about the economic history of the United States. But this book has only pointed me in these directions, but it provides frusteratingly little information on these subjects. In the early part of the book Pound uses the metaphor "diamonds mixed with mud and then dumped in Iceland" to describe, well I completely forget, but it's an apt metaphor for this book. There are gems there but you have to dig and dig and dig.
So it gets one star. So what is five stars? Those are books that in the humble opinion of the reviewer should be read by every man, woman, child, Irishperson, and dog on the planet. For example S.I. Hiyakawa's Language in Thought and Action or Robert Anton Wilson's Quantum Psychology... Thanks for your attention. ... Read more

Product Description
A small masterpiece, Pea's lyrical autobiographical novel reveals a grandfather through his grandson's eyes. The old man and his brothers' madness, passion, and quirks are interwoven in intimate, mythical sketches and fiery portraits of family dynamics. The first installment of a four-part novel, Moscardinois linguistically adventurous and visual, vivid and anarchic. Pea's personal account of his first meeting with Pound accompanies the text.

Novelist, poet and playwright, Enrico Pea (1881-1958) spent his youth traveling. Pea lived for a long time in Alexandria, where he struck up a friendship with Ungaretti. He published Moscardino in 1922. Ezra Pound (1885-1972) is considered the poet most responsible for defining a modernist aesthetic in poetry. His interest in "regionalism" attracted him to the work of Pea. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents the life and discusses the works of the controversial and influential American poet and critic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

helpful
Let's face it, few of us are likely to hack our way through the thickets (some of them rendered in Chinese) of Ezra Pound's Cantos.Even in college, in a course on
modern literature, we didn't actually read the Cantos, instead we read Hugh Kenner's book, The Pound Era.Still, one would like to understand what made
Pound such an important figure in the history of literature and Peter Ackroyd's slender and copiously illustrated biography accomplishes the task quite painlessly.

Besides helping us to understand what Pound was trying to achieve in his own poetry--which seems to have been an attempt to capture all of reality within the
confines of the poetic form--Mr. Ackroyd shows how profoundly Pound influenced other Modernists, in particular T. S. Eliot and James Joyce.I'd not
previously been aware of the degree to which Pound helped sculpt The Waste Land, to the point that Mr. Ackroyd gives him credit as its virtual co-author :

The transformation of The Waste Land effected by Pound is, although not total, nevertheless remarkable.What had been a longer,
more sustained and more elaborately lyrical work was changed into something less personal, tighter and more abrupt.It was precisely
these qualities which were to lend the poem its air of modernity--since, in large part, our notion of what is "modern" is derived from
Pound's work and criticism.

Where Joyce was concerned, Pound appears to have been one of his earliest proselytizers, publishing Portrait of the Artist in serial form in his magazine, The
Egoist, and Ulysses in the magazine, The Little Review.He also reviewed Joyce's work in every publication he could, extolling his virtues to anyone who would
listen.Yet, Pound also had the brutal honesty to assess Finnegan's Wake with the dismissal that it so richly deserved :

Nothing short of divine vision or a new cure for the clapp can possibly be worth all the circumambient peripherization.

Unfortunately for Pound, the harshness of that critique reveals a willingness to speak his mind and a forcefulness of opinion which were to get him in
considerable trouble when they combined with other personality traits to turn him into a Fascist propagandist.

Mr. Ackroyd convincingly locates the appeal of fascism to Pound in the poet's passion for organization and order, his belief in a cultural elite, and his adherence
to the odd economic theory of Social Credit, expounded by a Major C. H. Douglas :

Its doctrine states, quite simply, that once money has lost its natural basis in people's needs and aspirations--when, in other words,
it has been turned into a commodity merely to be bought and sold--then the nation and its culture sour.Money is a complex
measure of man's time and the worth of his labour; when it becomes an anonymous entity to be hoarded and manipulated, all other
human and social values shift downward.But there was also a blindingly simple economic point to be made in this connection:
the bankers control money at the expense of everyone else in the community.

His belief in a social hierarchy is a classic enough conservative position, likewise his fear of cultural decline.And the rest of Pound's ideas were probably
harmless in themselves, even if some were bizarre; but it is this last notion, that the problems one perceives in the world are necessarily a product of some kind of
conspiracy, that represents the dangerous spark that all too often ignites hatreds like anti-Semitism.True conservatism requires the recognition that disorder
and decline are natural phenomena, resulting from the debased desires of the masses.Those who are unable to accept this reality and instead try to blame
shadowy conspirators are dangerously deluded.

Sadly, Pound fell prey to just such delusions and ended up making radio broadcasts for Mussolini during WWII.The result of these pro-fascist, anti-American,
anti-Semitic soliloquies was a 1943 indictment for treason and eventual arrest and, following a finding of insanity, confinement to St. Elizabeth's mental
hospital in Washington, DC.He was kept there until the charge of treason was dismissed on April 18, 1958.Upon his release, Pound moved back to Italy where
he lapsed into a depressive silence and spent his final years in and out of clinics, futilely trying to find some way to recapture his creative powers.

If in the end it is not possible for us to feel too much sympathy for a man who betrayed his wife--with a mistress named Olga Rudge by whom he had a daughter
and who eventually became his constant companion--and his country, and who spewed venomous hatred of Jews, perhaps it is still possible to acknowledge his
achievements, or at least his aspirations, as an artist.Here's how Mr. Ackroyd summarizes Pound's own literary legacy :

Pound attempted to recreate the whole world in the image of himself and his poetry--despite the divisive tendencies of the age,
and the obsessive weaknesses of his own character.

Maybe in this sense we can see writ small in him the larger tragedy of the 20th Century, of men trying to prove themselves equal to the Creator, but failing
horribly, and finding it necessary to lash out against others to explain the failure.

GRADE : B+ ... Read more

Product Description
Two works by Ezra Pound with an active table of contents.

Works include:
Certain Noble Plays of Japan
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley ... Read more

Product Description
Ezra Pound is one of the most visible and influential poets of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most complex, his poetry containing historical and mythical allusions, experiments of form and style and often controversial political views. Yet Pound's life and work continue to fascinate. This Introduction is designed to help students reading Pound for the first time. Pound scholar Ira B. Nadel provides a guide to the rich webs of allusion and stylistic borrowings and innovations in Pound's writing. He offers a clear overview of Pound's life, works, contexts and reception history and his multidimensional career as a poet, translator, critic, editor, anthologist and impresario, a career that placed him at the heart of literary modernism. This invaluable and accessible introduction explains the huge contribution Pound made to the development of modernism in the early twentieth century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A great introduction...
If you like Ezra Pound and want to learn a bit more about him and his work, I would recommend this book for it's clarity, organization and readability. ... Read more

Product Description
The poet Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was the only child of Homer Loomis Pound (1885-1942) and Isabel Weston Pound (1860-1948). He grew up in Philadelphia, where his father was an assayer in the U.S. Mint; was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, and at Hamilton College in upstate New York; taught briefly at Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana; then left America for London, where he lived from 1908 to the end of 1920, after which he lived in Paris until 1924, and then in Rapallo, Italy. His letters home reveal not only the warm affection, openness, and playfulness of the young man to his devoted parents, from schooldays through college and on into his life as teacher, poet, and critic, but also the ways in which he shared with them the ideas, influences, and experiences that went into the development of his exceptional poetic genius. He kept them in touch with his progress in realising his ambition to become a good and powerful poet, with what he was writing and doing, who he was meeting, his dealings with publishers, editors, and magazines, and his bold plans for reforms and revolutions. The letters are a rich mine of information about Pound himself and about the literary and social worlds in which he moved and had his being. They also display his epistolary idiosyncrasies and his inventive and witty way with words. Altogether they are of great human as well as literary and historical interest, and give an intimate insight into this revolutionary and influential poet's life and work. This is an essential volume for anyone interested in Pound, and an irresistible book for the general reader with an interest in literary life in the twentieth century.

All the extant letters to his parents up to 1929, the year they moved to be near him in Rapallo, are included here in full. Ezra Pound's daughter Mary de Rachewiltz directed the edition, and contributes a memoir of Isabel and Homer Pound. There is a comprehensive Glossary of persons named in the letters, and the letters are accompanied by explanatory notes and commentary. ... Read more

Product Description
Song of the Bowmen of Shu HERE we are, picking the first fern-shoots and saying ; When shall we get back to our country? Here we are because we have the Ken-nin for our foemen, We have no comfort because of these Mongols. We grub the soft fern-shoots, when anyone says" Return," the others are full of sorrow. Sorrowful minds, sorrow is strong, we are hungry and thirsty. Our defence is not yet made sure, no one can let his friend return. We grub the old fern-stalks. We say: Will we be let to go back in October? There is no ease in royal affairs, we have no comfort. Our sorrow is bitter, but we would not return to our country. What flower has come into blossom? Whose chariot? The General's. Horses, his horses even, are tired. They were strong. S

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the difficult to read text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A serious character also proves to be most interesting.
Humphrey Carpenter manages the impossible, that is to bring to life a man who's very life seemingly defied description.Ezra Pound emerges from these pages as a Titan in the early years of the free verse struggle.From his birth in the Idaho Territory to his burial in Venice the struggles, triumphs and defeats of Pound are traced with a compassionate, fair and and devoted hand.It is certainly a "must read" for anyone interested in modern poetry and the man who established it as a respectable and engaging literary form.

What a movie this would be
No you could not make a movie on the life of Pound.This book is far more interesting.It does not go into his early life enough nor does it explain his relationships with his parents very much.It is interesting to read that Pound had an illegitimate son, and his wife had one as well.I would like to read more of the dirt about Pounds life as if Paul Johnson were writing it.This book is very entertaining and informative.Pound was a man of letters if there ever was one.Yes Carpenter does not go into Pounds interest in China with much detail perhaps he didn't value the ideogramic method.This makes me wonder how many people in China have "discovered" Pound.I have not heard anything about that.

A balanced, witty, and hugely enjoyable biography.
A SERIOUS CHARACTER : The Life of Ezra Pound. By Humphrey Carpenter. 1005 pages. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988. ISBN 0-395-41678-7.

No matter what one may think of Ezra Pound as a writer - whether he was a genius or a buffoon or a mixture of both - there can be no doubt that he was one of the most colorful and dynamic characters of the era, and that he led a rich and fascinating life well worthy of an intelligent biography. Pound's poetry, for obvious reasons (some of it being superb while much of it is just plain bad), has always had both admirers and detractors, with the former always taking great care to distance themselves from his 'anti-semitism' and economic theories while the latter seem to have seen little else, but Carpenter has amazingly succeeded in treading, with great diplomacy, the line between these two camps. While doing full justice to Pound's humanity and genius, he has at the same time made no attempt to slur over Pound's seriously flawed character, his disturbed sexuality, and the many occasions throughout his writings when his genius just failed to deliver the goods. He has in short given us, not a partisan's Pound, but an extremely fair-minded and balanced portrait of the whole man, though it's clear that Carpenter's patience with some of Pound's more outrageous eccentricities was sorely tested at times.

Besides being balanced, comprehensive, well-researched, well-documented, and extremely well-written, Carpenter's biography is also at times very funny. Pound's idiosyncracies could be quite amusing and they
are treated by Carpenter with great wit; one often finds oneself chuckling at the scrapes Pound seemed constantly to be getting into during the course of his hectic career. But there's more, for not only are we given a detailed and blow-by-blow account of the tragi-comedy that was Pound's life, and sympathetic portraits of the many literary and other figures who played a part in it, we are also treated to sensitive and fairly incisive analyses of many of Pound's works. In short, 'A Serious Character' is a fascinating study that both admirers and detractors of Pound will enjoy, though it isn't without certain predictable weaknesses. Carpenter has made no attempt to explain why a man as intelligent as Pound should have become and remainedanti-semitic for the greater part of his life. Carpenter seemsalso a little too ready to accept the standard view that Pound's economic theories were 'crackpot,' although he redeems himself to some extent towards the end of the book by quoting AllenGinsberg's remark when he met Pound that : "'... your economics are RIGHT. We see it more and more in Vietnam. You showed us who's making a profit out of war . . .'" (page 899, emphasis in original).

The third predictable weakness is Carpenter's seeming ignorance of and lack of interest in China. For Pound, Chinese language, thought, and history were important, and he has to be given credit as one of the very few who have realized how vital it is for the West to stop ignoring these. It's also true that he was certainly on to something when he developed the 'Ideogramic Method' which renders 'The Cantos' so obscure. Whether Pound himself realized it or not, their obscurity has the effect of pointing up a key weakness in Western thought, and anyone who is seriously grappling with 'The Cantos' might take a look at Chapter Three 'The Chinese Mind' (especially Part IV on 'Logic') in Lin Yutang's extremely informative 'My Country and My People.' It should help explain the reason for Pound's procedure in 'The Cantos,' a procedure for which he will find no adequate explanation in Carpenter. Lin Yutang states, and I don't think he was being facetious : 'I have great hope ... that the English language may one day become as clear and sensible as Chinese' ('My Country and My People,' pages 80-81). I think that Pound, although his knowledge of Chinese was limited, would have understood this. But it seems pretty clear that Carpenter would not.

Why was Pound anti-semitic? What evidence is there to support the validity of his economic theories? Why was he convinced of the overwhelming importance of Chinese language and thought? For answers to these the reader will have to look elsewhere. But apart from these omissions, Carpenter has given us a truly splendid study that no-one who is at all interested in Pound should miss. Strongly recommended.

A Seeerious Karacter
An excellently sculpted biography that provides great insight into the life of one of America's most influential writers.Carpenter does a superb job at using Pound's life to help illuminate his works.I would stronglyrecommend this book to anyone interested in becoming more aquainted withEzra Pound, his influence and his work.

Pound explained
The bad-boy of the Paris avant-garde gets his definitive treatment in this fat biography by Humphrey Carpenter.Carpenter provides a literate and extremely detailed account of everyperiod of Pound's long life, from hisIdaho beginnings to his POW cage in Pisa to his shadowy senility in Venice. It's too bad this book is out of print, because I think it provides one ofthe best and most well-written portraits of Pound and the numerous friendsand colleagues who derived benefit from his editing and patronage. Carpenter also provides balanced but critical discussion of Pound'sunfortunate political leanings and their relation to his art.With somevery good photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Searching and revealing
Writen by one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, this is a documented example of an artist determined to go against the odds of poverty and obscurity to create his passion in art. Henri Gaudier, killed in WWI, who had created such a large body of work at an age when most people were still trying to figure out what to do in life, probably would have fallen from existance completly if it was not for the tireless promotions done by Ezra Pound.Pound's quest in bringing to light the few of worthy talent who would otherwise be lost in the sludge of mediocracy is an example of the "rather than looking at the master's finger, look at what the finger points at" belief by following in example rather than observing what is shown.
Instead of fawning over the man brought to the attention of the artworld, you are persuaded to become aware of those who have yet to be recognized. With being more sensitive to that which defines the 'good' from the 'not-so-good,' we benefit by learning from those who are worthy to learn from.

Entertaining!
Another great expressive book of a almost unheard of artist. If like me you stumble across this book you must pick it up and read it as I ensure you, you will be pleased. Not only just for the brilliant, modern picturescontained within but for the amazing life and work that Brzeska belived inand lived for. A must for all budding artists. ... Read more

Product Description
A new edition of the accessible guide to one of the great works of the twentieth century. Drawing upon his deep knowledge of Ezra Pound's life and work, William Cookson provides introductory background material to each canto and a detailed, page-by-page commentary identifying quotations, explaining allusions and cross references, and translating foreign phrases. Expanded to include previously unavailable cantos, this book is an invaluable reference tool for Pound scholars and any interested reader. Foreword, introduction, preface, appendices. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very useful for shorthand reference and getting a hold of the Cantos
In comparison with Carrol Terrell's similar volume, this book is much more accessible and less intensely encyclopedic, which will be more or less useful for you depending on your intention. It offers some more intelligible general comments for each Canto, which are very helpful for understanding the basic forces at play in each individual Canto. Whereas Terrell's is more of a massive set of glosses, this volume is not as exhaustive in its explanations of less important allusions, but offers pertinent explanations for what is significant, sometimes giving information that Terrell's edition doesn't mention (such as Sordello, from Canto II, also being a significant presence in Dante's Purgatorio). On a side note, this edition does not cover--nor do other guide--Pound's own republishing and translation of Canto 72-73, though Cookson covers these Cantos as translated by an interlocutor, and a guide to these Cantos in any form is very hard to come by.


Overall Cookson's guide is superior to most other guides in terms of establishing an intelligible and accessible elucidation of the Cantos, and is very useful to break into, make your way through, and comprehend the overall forces of, The Cantos.

An excellent introductory guide.
The highly allusive nature of Pound's 'Cantos' makes them, as everyone knows, difficult to understand. Only when extensively annotated do they become comprehensible, and we are still waiting for the variorum edition that would provide us with an ideal text of the 'Cantos,' a fully annotated text that would clarify every allusion and obscurity, and that would provide sources and translations for Pound's numerous foreign quotations. In the meantime one is extremely grateful for books such as the present excellent introductory guide.

Basically the book consists of useful and occasionally extensive commentaries to each block of cantos, with briefer commentaries to individual cantos, followed by glosses to lines which require explication or are likely to cause puzzlement. Cookson's aim has been to provide the _minimum_ help a new reader requires.

The glosses are helpful and very well done, and Cookson's book will be found indispensable by new readers who are looking for a less intensive treatment than that found in the similar but much fuller guide by Terrell, details of which are as follows:

A COMPANION TO THE CANTOS OF EZRA POUND. By Carroll F. Terrell. 791 pp. Berkeley : University of California Press, 1993 (1980). ISBN 0-520-08287-7 (pbk.)

A Companion to The Cantos of Ezra Pound

Although Cookson borrowed many of his annotations from Terrell, and admits that his book is not so comprehensive, his guide does contain much useful material that will not be found in Terrell, and his canto-by-canto commentaries provide just what the new reader needs. Strongly recommended. ... Read more