Beschreibung:

* POUND, EZRA An exceptional unpublished archive of forty seven letters to artist Ernest Tino Trova from St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., circa 1950, comprising 10 autographed letters signed ("E.P."), six autographed cards signed ("E.P."), one humorous drawing on a card signed ("E.P."), 30 typescript letters unsigned (10 with Dorothy Pound's autographed postscript [five signed ("D.P."), three signed ("Dorothy Pound"], two unsigned, most with original envelopes), and nine autographed addressed by Ezra Pound, along with photographs, additional correspondence from Dorothy Pound, Edith Hamilton, and Jaime de Angulo, and three original drawings (unsigned) attributed to Ernest Tino Trova [see below]. The letters between the modernist poet and critic, Ezra Pound, and the modern St. Louis-based artist, Ernest Tino Trova ("Tino"), are primarily political in nature and relate to the publication of Mood. Fall, [1950] (no. 24): containing Pound items, Saint Louis: [Ernest Trova, 1950], which contained the following pieces: "Ezra Pound on gold, war, and national money"; "Ecrire franchement ce qu'ils pensent" [a translation of a letter from Remy de Gourmont to Pound]; Madox Ford at Rapallo : a conversation between Ford Madox Ford and Ezra Pound [translated by Olga Rudge]; A draft Bill of Rights adapted for the needs of Great Britain; As Sextant. The archive contains not only contributions of material for that issue, but also numerous tid-bits of advice from Pound to the young Trova, and correspondence regarding Pound's request of Trova to draw a portrait of his ailing friend, Jaime de Angulo (Trova painted a portrait of Pound that Pound was very pleased with). In one of her letters to Trova, Dorothy Pound writes: "There is no doubt E.P. is interested in your ability, and he has NOT been interested in modern art for the past 20 years or more." Outraged by the loss of life in WWI, Ezra Pound moved to Italy in 1924 and embraced Benito Mussolini's fascism, expressed support for Adolf Hitler, contributed to fascist publications and made numerous broadcasts on behalf of the Italian government against the United States and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As a result, he was arrested by American forces in Italy in 1945 and sent to a U.S. military camp in Pisa, where a 25-day stint in a small outdoor steel cage triggered a mental breakdown in the poet and critic. Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was incarcerated in St. Elizabeth's psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C. from 1945-1958. Many notable authors, artists and academics contacted Pound while he was in St. Elizabeth's, including T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams and William Butler Yeats, or made contact with his wife Dorothy, to facilitate a connection. These individuals, along with young students of art and literature and fanatics, kept Pound connected to the outside world and gave him an outlet to publish his work. The letters, typescripts and scribbled notes to Trova contain a pithy of expositions of Pound's theories on economics and politics; he argues about taxation, systems of government, and the theories of his contemporaries. Ernest Tino Trova, who was quite young at the time, gave Pound a wonderful outlet in his publication of Mood, but he clearly saw more in the young artist, along with Dorothy, as is apparent in the correspondence regarding his portrait for their friend Jaime de Angulo. In addition to the correspondence from Pound directly, the archive contains the following: 12 ALS and one TLS from Dorothy Pound to Ernest Tino Trova (six signed "Dorothy Pound," six signed "D.P.", with original holograph envelopes); five TLS and one original drawing from Jaime de Angulo, thanking Trova for his portraits; six original black and white photographs of Jaime de Angulo sent by the Pounds to Trova for study; the two original drawings of Jaime de Angulo attributed to Ernest Tino Trova (referred to as "masks" by Ezra Pound); one original drawing of Ezra Pound attributed to Ernest