The letter below is addressed to all members of the Ezra Pound Society.
I recently sent out this letter to all subscribers to Paideuma, because
everyone who subscribes to the journal is automatically a member of the
Society.  So too, although most of you probably don't know this,
everyone on the Pound list is automatically a member of the Society,
with all of the rights (there are none) and responsibilities (there are
none of these either) that go with such membership.  Thus I am sending
this letter to the list as well.  Those of you who subscribe to
Paideuma will receive the same letter through the mail.
 
Burt Hatlen
 
 
August 15, 1999
 
 
Dear Pound Society Member,
 
Hugh Witemeyer, the Society s first president, has proposed that the
Society institute an annual award for the best book-length contribution
to Pound studies.  Current president Barry Ahearn, I as secretary of
the Society, and several other members have discussed Hugh s proposal
and endorse it.
 
The Society would make the award annually at the Modern Language
Association convention.  It would be called  The Ezra Pound Society
Prize  (the  Ez  for short).  The judges for the award will be the
reviewer of Pound books for American Literary Scholarship and the
Managing Editor of Paideuma, with the immediate past president of the
Society called in to cast a tie-breaking vote, if necessary.  We hope
to make the first presentation this December in Chicago, awarding a
prize for the best Pound book published in 1998.
 
We hope to raise $500 each year for this award.  Hugh, Barry, and I
have each pledged $25 to this end, and the National Poetry Foundation
has pledged $100 annually to the prize. We are writing at this time to
ask you to contribute to this year s prize. If you are able to make
such a contribution, please send a check to the National Poetry
Foundation at the address on this letterhead. NPF will place all such
donations in a separate account for the Ezra Pound Society Prize.
Please indicate on the check that you are making a contribution to the
Pound Prize. NPF is an agency of the University of Maine, a tax-exempt
institution; therefore your donation should be tax deductible.
 
If you are in a position to pledge continuing contributions in later
years, we would also welcome such pledges.  If we can find sixteen
people willing to pledge $25 per year (and we ve already found three
such persons), we will be able to fund the prize indefinitely.
 
Thank you for your attention, and we hope to hear from you soon.
 
 
Sincerely,
 
 
Burton Hatlen
Secretary, Ezra Pound Society
 
for Hugh Witemeyer, immediate past president, Ezra Pound Society
and Barry Ahearn, president, Ezra Pound Society