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