Dear Roxana,
A most useful summary! Thank you!
Cordially,
Tim Redman
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roxana Preda" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 4:26:06 PM
Subject: EPS Information bulletin no.3/November 10, 2013
Dear Poundians,
I have written the text below as a short historical report on our
society ? it is not meant to be exhaustive and final, but to settle
some important points for us and better define our society. Please
write to me if you find errors or would like to add info I may have
overlooked.
Many people have helped me with information: warmest thanks are due to
Gail Sapiel, who gave me scans of documents from the Paideuma
archives; Prof. Barry Ahearn who generously sent me a copy of his own
historical report of 2001; Rick Catrone for adding a scan that I
circulated to friends to ask for advice, and finally Demetres
Tryphonopoulos who pointed out a very informative article by Burt
Hatlen ? you?ll find my sources at the bottom of the report.
This short history of the society is the first part of a larger
posting about the society in the context of the other initiatives in
which Poundians are involved. But that other colourful info is
reserved for later. My first story now concerns the EPS.
The Ezra Pound Society - The Story So Far
Our tale begins in 1978, when Carroll F. Terrell had the initiative of
adding a ?book club? to the National Poetry Foundation. He had created
the NPF seven years previously, to enable the launching of Paideuma.
Since 1972, the journal had gathered around it the best scholarship on
Ezra Pound and implicitly created a community of scholars who would
have needed to buy books that were of great interest to them, but too
specialized for a general market. At some point, Terrell wanted to
rename the NPF ? he made the attempt of calling it the Ezra Pound
Society. However, this did not work out. This is what he wrote:
"Stuffed into the pages of this issue you will find ? a membership
blank which is an invitation to join the Ezra Pound Society as an
adjunct activity of the National Poetry Foundation, Inc. I had once
planned to convert the Foundation to the new name, but the red tape
and legal fees make that idea [with apologies] 'inoperative.' Since we
can accomplish the same thing by this ploy, the trouble is also
unnecessary.
?
My idea is to form a sort of Mini-Readers Subscription Club made up of
people who will be the most interested in special studies on the work
of Pound. I expect to publish 2 to 4 books a year but will
deliberately choose those which commercial publishers or university
presses cannot print because they can be expected to have too small a
market. [?] Members of the Ezra Pound Society will receive a 50%
discount on each book." (Paideuma Bulletin Board, 8 1 Spring 1979)
In the same number, Terrell announced the formation of two "chapters"
of the EPS: one at the University of Maine and one in Kyoto,
expressing the hope that similar organisations of minimum ten members
would be created to form a network of chapter locations in the United
States, Canada and Europe. This did not come to pass. The two initial
chapters are the only ones that have been created to date. Membership
to the society in the Western hemisphere was established by the
subscription to Paideuma, which continued to be the axis of all
Terrell?s initiatives. He wrote the initial charter of the society,
which established the minimum number of members, the dues ($25), and
the privileges (free issue of Paideuma and 50% discount on books).
This initial charter was rather unspecific as to the kind of officers
it might have needed, since Terrell assumed the type of officer would
be determined locally. Since this was to be a network, the document
also mentioned ?delegates? to ?national meetings.? The mission of the
society was to ?promote and develop the study of Pound?s work as a
poet and man of letters.? (charter document, 1978)
The year the EPS was founded (1979, if we take it to overlap with the
announcement in Paideuma) was very critical. Terrell was finishing the
first volume of the Companion (published in 1980) and was also
retiring from full time academic duties (1981) to concentrate on the
second volume (1985). Additionally, the NPF was enlarging its sphere
of scholarly interest to the Objectivists and other poets in the Pound
tradition: Terrell founded Sagetrieb in 1982 and after the first issue
asked Burt Hatlen to take over editorship (Hatlen 59). In 1989,
Terrell gave up full-time responsibility for the NPF, though
continuing to act as consultant for Paideuma (Hatlen 48). Membership
in the EPS was in all respects included within the NPF and its
activities at Orono: the publication of the journals, the conferences
at the University of Maine (1975, 1980, 1985, 1990), and the books
that were published under the aegis of the NPF.
It was Burt Hatlen who gave our society a degree of autonomy when he
became Director of the NPF and Secretary of the EPS in 1990. In 1992
he revised the initial charter of the EPS and established a set of
amended by-laws that are still governing the society today. Hatlen
proposed that since membership to the society is the subscription to
the journal, a dollar from the Paideuma subscription should go into
financing the EPS. The revision of the by-laws had become necessary
because Terrell?s initial idea of the EPS as network of local chapters
had not materialized. Additionally, the society was applying for MLA
affiliate status and had to comply with the MLA conditions: a society
had to be at least four years old, have a charter, dues paying
membership, and an elected slate of officers. Additionally, the MLA
stipulated that members should have the opportunity ?to participate in
the full range of the operations of the organisation? (Hatlen, letter
to members, July 20, 1992).
From the bulletin board of the Paideuma (spring-fall 1992), we can
see that Hatlen?s procedures fully complied with MLA directives and
were radically democratic: he sent out cards with requests for votes
and scholars responded:
"So far over 100 of you have returned the form which designates $1.00
of your Paideuma subscription as dues to the Society. This group seems
large enough to allow us to move on to the next step, which is to
update the bylaws. So if you sent in your form, you will receive, some
time in May, a copy of the old by-laws along with a set of proposed
revisions and a ballot which you should return to Burton Hatlen, the
secretary of the association. In June or July we will apply to the MLA
for affiliate status. If the application is approved, we will have one
or two sessions at the 1993 MLA convention." (Paideuma bulletin board
21 1/2).
At the same time, Hatlen ensured that the society had two slots at the
annual conference of the American Literature Association ? the first
panel organised by the EPS was at the ALA conference of 1993. Hatlen
announced: ?Anyone interested in participating in the 1993 convention
can write to me. You need not be a EPS member to give a paper?
(Paideuma bulletin board winter 21 3 1992).
Participation in the MLA conventions was delayed until 1995 (Ahearn
and Witemeyer 456). According to the amended by-laws, the society then
got its first president: Hugh Witemeyer (1992-1997). He was followed
by Barry Ahearn (1997-2001), Alec Marsh (2001-2013) and Roxana Preda
(2013-). Burton Hatlen served as Secretary until 2008 when Demetres
Tryphonopoulos took over. Alec and Demetres have run the society since
Hatlen?s passing away that year ? they have had the help of Tim Redman
and Ira Nadel. All four have consented to become members of a society
Advisory Board ? they discuss and validate all new initiatives
concerning the EPS.
Regular panels at the MLA and ALA conferences have structured the
society activity ever since 1993 and have constituted the main service
that the EPS has brought to Pound scholars. Over the years, alliances
with other societies, mainly those devoted to William Carlos Williams,
James Joyce, and H.D., have enriched and diversified the palette of
sessions. Here are some recent examples: Ezra Pound and the San
Francisco Renaissance (ALA, 2006), Teaching Ezra Pound?s Poetry and
Prose (ALA, 2009); Ezra Pound in H.D.?s Work (ALA 2012) Prosody in the
Poetry of Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams (MLA 2011); Ezra
Pound and James Joyce: Connections and Disconnections (MLA 2012).
In 1999, at Hugh Witemeyer?s suggestion, the society initiated its
annual award for the best book of Ezra Pound scholarship. Along the
years, the society thus honoured Alec Marsh, Margaret Fisher, Walter
Baumann and Leon Surette, among others. The award is not financed out
of the society dues (which are minimal) but out of private
sponsorship. The recipient is announced at the MLA convention. In 2013
the society has added a prize for best article in Pound scholarship,
which will be awarded next year for the first time at the ALA
convention in Washington.
In 2013, the society has also received the opportunity to participate
with a regular panel at the Louisville conference. Starting with 2014,
the EPS has an assured slot for this major annual event dedicated to
20th century literature in relation to the arts. Our panel for 2014 is
called: Contributions to the Poetics of Ezra Pound?s Cantos:
Epic-Image-Music.
The Paideuma number for 2013 is dedicated to Burt Hatlen and is a
memorial to his great work and service to both the Ezra Pound Society,
as long-term Secretary and to the National Poetry Foundation, as its
Director for eighteen years. In 2001, one of his initiatives made
possible a greater definition of the profiles of both organisations:
he decided to open up Paideuma to the poetry of American modernism
more generally, retaining a substantial focus on Pound scholarship
(Hatlen, letter to the EPS, June 15, 2001). This decision, while
favoring the development of the NPF away from Pound studies strictly
conceived, has proved problematic for scholars who would prefer to
remain within the more circumscribed area of author research.
The time has now come, I think, to reconsider the by-laws of 1992, to
attune them to the situation of the scholarly community as it now
stands, and to see how we can improve the functioning of our society.
References:
Ahearn, Barry and Hugh Witemeyer. ?The Ezra Pound Society.? Dictionary
of Literary Biography Yearbook. Ed. Matthew Bruccoli. Detroit: Gale,
2001. 455-456.
Bulletin Board Paideuma 8 1 (Spring 1979)
Bulletin Board Paideuma 21 1-2 (Spring Fall 1992)
Bulletin Board Paideuma 21 3 (Winter 1992)
Hatlen, Burt. ?Carroll Terrell and Great American Poetry Wars.?
Paideuma 26 2-3 (Fall/Winter1997): 33-62.
Ezra Pound Society materials.pdf (compiled by Gail Sapiel)
--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
|