More on Pound

Abstract

Wendy Stallard Flory. Ezra Pound and The Cantos: A Record of Struggle. New Haven : Yale University Press, 1980. 321 pp. Forrest Read. 76: One World and The Cantos of Ezra Pound. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 1981. 476 pp. Carroll F. Terrell. A Companion to the Cantos of Ezra Pound. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. Volume I (Cantos 1-71). 362 pp. Anthony Woodward. Ezra Pound and the Pisan Cantos. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.128 pp. These four books on Pound's Cantos are an ill-assorted lot. One, Carroll F. Terrell's Companion, is the single most important aid toward an under- standing of this daunting text yet published, and it should be in the hands of every serious reader. I shall save it for last. The three critical books all have their limitations, though the most successful—Anthony Woodward on The Pisan Cantos— is a pleasure to read. The most curious thing about these three books is the way in which their value varies in inverse proportion to their authors' reputation, pretension and garrulity.