ABSTRACT
A volume in this series about a living writer requires a word of explanation, Ezra Pound's great longevity makes it possible to think in terms of a 'tradition' or 'heritage' of critical thought having developed during the long course of his literary career. Our own perspective on this material is inevitably distorted: possibly some of the criticism of Pound which seems hopelessly irrelevant today may at some future time be a stimulant to further thought. With this in mind, this anthology has been compiled with the intention of representing the variety of comment on Pound's work. Material from newspapers and periodicals has been preferred to passages or chapters from books: the inaccessibility and ephemeral nature of the publications, the less formal quality of the writing, seemed to argue for this emphasis. On occasion, assumptions and tones appear which either have not been adequately represented in books or have not been preserved elsewhere.
