Confucius: those who knew it did not speak out. So you were invited again.
 
Peter Bi
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Everett Lee Lady <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 1999 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: Visitors and fish
 
 
> >Date:  Thu, 16 Sep 1999 09:20:14 -1000
> >From:  Jonathan Morse <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject:      Visitors and fish
>
> >Lee was there and I wasn't, but I don't think it can be correct that
Pound
> >was simply at home to anybody who felt like dropping in. Evidence to the
> >contrary can be found on Jonathan Williams' Website,
> >
> >www.jargonbooks.com/ep.html
>
> Correct.  A new visitor could definitely not just drop in.  The standard
> procedure was to write a letter to St. Elizabeth's asking for permission
> to visit Pound.  The hospital then checked with Pound, who would make the
> decision.  If Pound approved ths request, one's name was added to the
> file of permitted visitors, until such time as Pound decided that one
> was no longer welcome.  On each visit, a visitor was supposed to check
> in with the hospital office upon arrival.  I got a little lax about
> this after a while, and Pound asked me to please comply with standard
> procedure.
>
> I had a friend who knew T. David Horton and who had visited a number of
> times.  This was undoubtedly the reason why I got approval for the first
> visit.  I had never heard of Ezra Pound up till then and was not
> especially interested in poetry.  But my friend Erik made it sound like
> visiting him would be an interesting experience.
>
> My first visit was sometime during the winter, because Pound was
> receiving inside, in an alcove of the Chestnut Ward.  There were about
> twenty people visiting that first time, which I would later learn was an
> unusually large crowd.  Pound was in top form, talking continuously with
> nobody else saying much of anything.  I didn't understand a word he said,
> so I just sat there and listened and looked around at the scene.
>
> Among the visitors was a somewhat large youthful male with a large boil
> on his forehead and an expression on his face that I found rather
> disturbing.  I wondered whether this might be a fellow inmate.  For all I
> knew, it might be possible that other inmates sometimes attended Pound's
> lectures.  Later I would learn that this was John Chatel, who was
> certainly not crazy, but often seemed a bit of a fool.
>
> I was later told that the reason I was invited back after that first time
> was that I had sat quietly and not tried to interrupt with comments or
> questions.
>
> --Lee Lady