EZRA POUND AND THE BOLLINGEN PRIZE CONTROVERSY

The background to the story of Ezra Pound and the writing of The Pisan Cantos is too well known to develop in any detail at this time. It is enough to recall that the famed expatriate American poet was captured by the United States Army in Italy after the fall of Mussolini and charged with treason for having broadcast over Radio Rome for the Fascists. Pound, however, never stood trial on the treason charge because a trio of govern-ment psychiatrists pronounced him insane and he was locked up in a mental institution until his release in 1958. Before going to the United States to stand trial, however, Ezra Pound was imprisoned outside of Pisa, Italy for a period of six months. It was at this time that he began to write the eleven cantos (74 to 84) which make up the 118 pages of The Pisan Cantos. These poems were published i