Reading List: April 2016

Reading List: April 2016
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From Poetry magazine
By Lindsay Garbutt

The Reading List is a feature of Poetry magazine's Editors' Blog. This month contributors to the April 2016 issue share some books that held their interest.

The book that I have been reading for the past month is A. David Moody's three-volume biography of Ezra Pound. I came upon the book in a particular way. I was exhausted, and I decided to spend a few hours in the reading room of the New York Society Library rather than working. There are no computers allowed in that room. I happened to pick up a journal, and I read an academic review that mentioned the Pound book.

The reason that I am so interested in this book is that I grew up hearing "mythology" around Pound: stories of him creating "Imagism," his teenage love affair with H.D., his time in the cage in Pisa, his non-traditional relationships and so on. What I really wanted was to distinguish between the real Pound and the mythological Pound.

Something I found, which perhaps forgives or saves me from criticism of reading this controversial figure, is a surprising link to some of my own work. Pound was not afforded an actual trial, nor did he plead insanity.

Read the full article on the Poetry Foundation website.

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