[Rarebooks] fa: EZRA POUND - TYPED NOTE from ST. ELIZABETHS MENTAL HOSPITAL: "Who the blue hell..?"

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 18. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/o52x67t

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain



EZRA POUND. Typed note from a cantankerous Pound in response to a request to sign books: "Who the blue hell do yu expect to wrap parcels and carry 'em to the post office. ["?" added in pencil, presumably in Pound's hand] Are you literate AT LEAST to pt/ of having digested this series ?" With the original typed envelope addressed to "J.P. Murphey[sic]." Washington: 1957.

The request for the signed books was made by inveterate autograph seeker James P. Murphy, who appears to have persisted in his quest for Pound's autograph: also present is a T.L.s. to Murphy from Pound's "keeper,"  Dr. Winfred Overholser, Superintendent of Saint Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C., the mental hospital to which Pound was committed for twelve years after World War II, stating, "In reply to your note, I may say that Mr. Ezra Pound was discharged from this hospital last month. We do not have his present address… Dated June 11, 1958, with the original envelope. With three photographs clipped from Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Pound, A Serious Character (1988). The whole mounted, framed and glazed, measuring 17.5" x 16.25". Also included, loose in a separate envelope, is a flyer for The Unwobbling Pivot, a translation of Confucius by Pound, one of the "Square Dollar Series" to which Pound refers in his note.

Feel free to email with any questions before bidding. Shipping costs determined by destination. Insurance extra, if desired. WE ACCEPT PAYMENT METHODS OTHER THAN PAYPAL, by prior arrangement. Many thanks.