The Pound Era

This is, in fact, several books at once: a critical discussion of Pound's poetry; an immensely learned investigation of its sources, ranging over Greek, Provençal and Chinese poetry; a biography of Pound and a sympathetic discussion of all the ideas that interested him during his long life; a series of essays on the parallel developments of Eliot, Joyce, Lewis and Williams; and a collection of photographs of the "sacred places" and artefacts that have been important to Pound and which he refers to in the Cantos… This remarkable book is full of information and revealing anecdote, and can be endlessly dipped into, like an encyclopedia.