ABSTRACT
Ezra Pound (b. 1885) is one of the most colourful and controversial figures in modern literature. Born in Idaho, America, he studied at Hamilton College and the State University of Pennsylvania before making his way to Europe. In 1908 he published his first book of poems, A Lume Spento, in Venice, and he came to England in the same year. Until 1921 Pound lived in London actively involved not only in writing his own verse and prose, but also in editing, criticizing, publishing, and encouraging the work of others in the literary and artistic avant-garde of the time. 'Make it new' was Pound's slogan, and perhaps he, more than any other single man, was responsible for the emergence of an authentically modernist literature in England at this time.
