Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism

Ezra Pound’s vocal support for Benito Mussolini and Italian fascism and his indictment, arrest, and imprisonment without trial have been a source of considerable puzzlement and embarrassment to an entire generation of poets and critics. In this book, Tim Redman draws from previously unexamined and unpublished archival material, to provide the first detailed and historical account of Pound’s support for Italian fascism. Beginning with Pound’s earliest political journalism for the socialist paper The New Age during the First World War, the book traces Pound’s growing interest in the economic theories of C.H. Douglas and Silvio Gesell, his move to Italy, his meeting with Mussolini, and his increasing activity as an apologist and propagandist for the Italian fascist regime up to the time of his arrest. This fascinating account of Ezra Pound and Italian Fascism allows the reader to understand the causes and results of Pound’s ideology and actions as well as the broader implications they have for the poetry and politics of this century.