Wei,
You suggested several days ago that Pound was a "subject"  -- that is, under
the thumb of fascist  totalitarian mind-control, and are here again
suggesting that Pound's anti-communism should be seen as further indication
that he was spouting "the party line" and not revealing deeply held views of
his own:

> Pound's numerous denunciations of Stalin, during 1943 and 1944 were the
> simple reflex actions to the dictates of fascist centers of propaganda in
> Berlin and Rome.   [WEI]

I had written that "Pound would have been content to remain an
'aristo-democrat' had the threat of world communism not arisen. He found
communism abhorrent, and his anti-communism was integral to the support he
gave the fascist cause." And you ask for evidence to support this view:


> Are you sure this is correct?  I think this may represent a very serious
misinterpretation of
> Pound's intellectual development, and the reasons he became a fascist.  I
> want to encourage you to make a case for your position
>  [....]
> I defy anyone to find any quote prior to 1940 where Pound expresses any
> strong anti-communist sentiments, in the form of a reasoned argument, or
> even in an off hand comment.

OK. Since you have asked so nicely <g>.

Let me address first my claim that  Pound was, at heart, an
"aristo-democrat" who would have been content to remain so had it not been
for the threat of world-communism, and its effect upon his native land. He
writes in a letter of February 1939 to Hubert Creekmore:

   ' I don't have to __try__ to be American. Merrymount, Braintree, Quincy,
all I believe in or by, what had been  "a plantation named Weston's."
    Vide also the host in Longfellow's "Wayside Inn." Wall ornament there
mentioned still at my parents'.  Am I American? Yes, and buggar the pres-
ent state of the country, the utter betrayal of the American Constitution,
the filth of the Universities, and the  -  -  -  - system of publication
whereby you can buy Lenin, Trotsky (the messiest mutt of the lot), Stalin
for 10 cents and 25 cents, and it takes __seven__  years to get a set of
John Adams at about 30 dollars. Van Buren's autobiog not printed till 1920.

This quotation -- we can agree that it is an "offhand comment" and not a
"reasoned argument---  indicates to me that Pound's anti-communism was not
merely the result  of his having lately adopted the fascist party line,  but
that it is intimately bound up with his sense of who and what he
s  --orWAS--   as a "native" american of old Quaker stock.  He goes on in
this letter to talk about "family migration; from the landing of _The Lion_,
via Conn., N.Y., WIsconsin (vide _Impact_), to Idaho"  and then harangues
Creekmore with the question, "When are you going to make the place safe for
_natives_"?

When, precislely, communism becomes linked in his mind with the "present
state of the country" and the deteriorating position of 'old families'
requires further investigation.

Tim Romano