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From:
Roxana Preda <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
- Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 13 Nov 2013 22:24:53 +0000
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Dear Robert,
There no form, not yet, anyway. If you'd like to join the society,  
make a subscription to Paideuma.
With all my best,
Roxana

Quoting Robert Kibler <[log in to unmask]> on Wed, 13 Nov  
2013 19:41:22 +0000:

> where does one get the form to join the EPS? I would like one. Thanks. Robert
>
> "Foolish is he who stands guard over my intentions, but pays no heed  
> to his own.
>     Theognis, lines 439-40, Greek Elegiac Poetry, Loeb Classic
>
> Robert E. Kibler, PhD
> Professor of Literature and Humanities
> Minot State University, Minot North Dakota
> 701 858 3876
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: - Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine  
> [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Grace Davis  
> [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 1:33 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: EPS Information bulletin no.3/November 10, 2013
>
> Thanks, Roxana, for this wonderful information. I did not know all  
> of this, certainly, and many people want to know what's what. You  
> are great and continue to inject life into the society. I wrote Mary  
> de Rachewiltz about your work, and she is happy. Love, Grace
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: Roxana Preda <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 2:26 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.
>
>



-- 
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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