Leon Surette is surely mistaken when he says Tytell, author of The
Solitary Volcano, is a psychiatrist who worked at St. Elizabeths.  Tytell
came of age after Pound returned to Italy and has taught for many years at
Queens College.  The reference is surely to E. Fuller Torrey and his Roots
of Treason, which most academics (guilty, your honor) dismiss as motivated
by something other than disinterested truth.

By the way, I have copies of some of the nursing logs from St. Elizabeths
(don't ask...) and for the most part, these medical professionals describe
a happy and healthy, if eccentric, patient.  There are, however,
stretches in which the patient is described in terms that seem to resemble
something deeper than total despair.  In one case, he lies down in a snowy
road and says he can't go on.

Jonathan Gill
Columbia University