Ezra Pound: Poet, Vol 2: The Epic Years: Poet: Volume II: The Epic Years

by Moody (Author), Moody (Author)

New
Illustrated
2018
$26.15

The long-awaited second volume of A. David Moody's critically acclaimed three-part biography of Ezra Pound weaves together the illuminating story of his life, his achievements as a poet and a composer, and his one-man crusade for economic justice. The years 1921-1939 were the most productive of Pound's career. In 1920s Paris, he was among the leading figures of the avant-garde and, in that ambience, he composed an opera, made original contributions to the theory of harmony, and wrote the first thirty cantos of his great epic. Moody explores this creativity in fascinating detail, examining the environment that allowed for some of Pound's greatest work. This period also brought Pound's politics firmly into view and Moody is able to shed new light on his sympathy for Mussolini's Fascism, his invoking Confucian China as a model of responsible government, and his abiding commitment to the democratic values of the American Constitution. Pound is revealed as a great poet and a flawed idealist caught up in the turmoil of his darkening time and struggling, sometimes blindly and in error and self-contradiction, to be a force for enlightenment.

Synopsis

The long-awaited second volume of A. David Moody's critically acclaimed three-part biography of Ezra Pound weaves together the illuminating story of his life, his achievements as a poet and a composer, and his one-man crusade for economic justice. The years 1921-1939 were the most productive of Pound's career. In 1920s Paris, he was among the leading figures of the avant-garde and, in that ambience, he composed an opera, made original contributions to the theory of harmony, and wrote the first thirty cantos of his great epic. Moody explores this creativity in fascinating detail, examining the environment that allowed for some of Pound's greatest work. This period also brought Pound's politics firmly into view and Moody is able to shed new light on his sympathy for Mussolini's Fascism, his invoking Confucian China as a model of responsible government, and his abiding commitment to the democratic values of the American Constitution. Pound is revealed as a great poet and a flawed idealist caught up in the turmoil of his darkening time and struggling, sometimes blindly and in error and self-contradiction, to be a force for enlightenment.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 456
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 11 Oct 2018
ISBN 10: 0198825595
ISBN 13: 9780198825593

Media Reviews

... makes the reader long for the prompt publication of the final volume of what is already an impressive biographical achievement. * Ruud van den Beuken (Radboud University Nijmegen) The Journal *
It's almost a day-to-day account of the life of this prolific and erudite writer and scholar. As such, it illuminates and validates the poetry. * David Crook, Bookwitty *
Moody writes well and answerably, and has mastered the difficulties of his subject; for all its length his book is never dull or disproportioned. * David Bromwich, The Times Literary Supplement *
The story will have been in expert hands throughout, and it will surely end up being better told than any of the many available versions previously on offer... The great virtue of what Moody is, has been, and obviously will be doing is to make 'the whole and all' as coherent as any biographer-critic could reasonably be expected to do. * Review of English Studies, John Pilling *
A fascinating tour around the landscapes of Pound's mind, and it is a refreshing antidote to the simplistic view of Pound that sometimes prevails. * Shiny New Books, Rob Spence *
A seriously important contribution to making sense of the complexity of Pound ... [a] biography which guides us brilliantly. * Luca Gallesi, Il Giornale *
Splendid * Denis Donoghue, Irish Times *
The second volume of a magnificent biography that will surely take its place among the most important studies of any Modernist writer. * David Mason, Wall Street Journal *
Another impressive installment in what will surely stand as the definitive biography of a flawed titan. * Booklist *
The eagerly awaited second instalment of this life of Pound is wonderfully panoramic, covering his time in France and Italy alongside his growing interests in money and musicality. Moody's close reading of The Cantos is similarly assured and impressive. * Matthew Feldman, Times Higher Education *
Moody - who quotes Leon Edels remark that a biographer is a novelist, on oath - reports all this and more with wry, scholarly impartiality. He becomes expertly serious as comedy shades into tragedy in the Thirties, and Pound's admiration for the fascism of Mussolini grows unfunnily naive... Masterly. * Jeremy Noel-Tod, Daily Telegraph *
Moody's biography is the best kind of slow read, its authority and grip increasing as the details accumulate. It is also an exceptional feat of criticism, often shedding light on unexpected facets of Pounds poetry. When the final volume is with us, it will stand as the definitive account of perhaps the most troublous and dramatic life in 20th-century literature. * Matthew Sperling, Literary Review *

Author Bio

A. David Moody is a Professor Emeritus of the University of York, and the author of the acclaimed Thomas Stearns Eliot: Poet (Cambridge University Press: 1979, 1994).