I want to thank Luca Gallesi for pointing out that Pound had read Proudhon.
  The evidence appears quite strong.  It makes sense, at least in part,
because Mussolini was originally a guild socialist, and an enthusiast of
Sorel and his “Reflexions sur la violence.”   So to the extent that there
was a sort of intellectual genology:  Mussolini--Sorel--French
syndicalism--Proudhon, and to the extent that Pound was interested in
Mussolini’s intellectual formation, it is not unreasonable to believe that
Pound may have had more than a passing acquaintance with Proudhon.  Though
what Pound thought of Proudhon would have to be deduced.

So another question for Luca Gallesi:  Do you think Pound knew much about
the Hegelio-Fascist philosopher Gentile.  I have not found any references to
Gentile in the Cantos or in the prose writings.  Perhaps in the some of the
Letters?  I believe Pound was far more interested in Odon Por and “fascist
economics” than he was in Gentile’s dialectics for Italian fascists.  (He
translated several of Por's articles on economics into English).

Can anyone else speculate on this, or offer some clue?

Luca Gallesi said,



>
>  I am quite sure that Pound read Proudhon during the Repubblica Sociale
>Italiana.I remember having read something about Proudhon his letters to the
>Minister of Popular Culture Mezzasoma and in his letters to Ubaldo degli
>Uberti.
>One of these letters is translated in Heyman's "The Last Rower" (page 336,
>Citadel Press), where EP states: "We must remember that Mussolini and
>Gesell
>both preferred Proudhon to Marx"
>  Again, we may infer Pound's reading of Proudhon in his obituary for Orage
>(Selected prose, pag 410):  "Proudhon will be found somewhere in the
>foundations of perhaps all contemporary economic thought that has life in
>it".
>
>Luca Gallesi
>via Lario 13
>  20159 Milano Italia
>

[Note to L. Surette:  Thought I would forward this to you, in case you
missed it.  It may help your presentation in Paris.]

PS  Does anyone have any information on the Paris Conference that they could
post here (or repost)?


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