ABSTRACT
In late 1944 and early 1945, as winter slowed the Allies' advance up the Italian peninsula and as partisan activity escalated in the north, Ezra Pound continued to write. It is a bitter swipe at the Italian people, in whom Pound was clearly disappointed. The Americans, too, have been led into war by the nose: twice Pound brands his compatriots 'gonzi e gonzissimi', fools and even worse fools. Yet most striking is that confession of credulity. However ingenuous the Italians and Americans may have been, Pound too has misplaced his trust. In this climate mistrust was a virtue and trusts a vice. For Pound, the public's credulity allowed contemporary politics and economics to be so corrupt, whether in Italy, Britain or the United States. But then that mistrust was not universally relentless. Pound's belief in the importance of facts was itself a leap of faith.
