Pound in Purgatory: From Economic Radicalism to Anti-Semitism

Pound in Purgatory overturns all previous explanations of Pound's anti-Semitism by uncovering its roots in economic and conspiracy theory. Leon Surette demonstrates that, contrary to popular opinion, Pound was not a life-long anti-Semite and consistently ignored or resisted anti-Semitic comments from his correspondents until after 1931.Through an incisive analysis of Pound's correspondence and writings, much of it previously unexamined, Surette shows how Pound's heroic efforts to inform himself on economic theory led him into confusion and conflict.As the world spiraled toward war, Pound's program of economic reform foundered and he gradually succumbed to a paranoid belief in a Jewish conspiracy. Surette shows how this belief fostered the virulent anti-Semitism that pervades his work - both poetry and prose - from this time forward.