I did not know this, but the publisher, New Directions (which has done great and unselfish work in keeping the writings of Pound and other twentieth century alive and in print for decades), has been publishing volumes of Ezra Pound’s correspondence, with each volume being dedicated to his letters to a particular person.

The article that alerted me to this focused on the publication of his letters to his parents.

It’s odd seeing the idiosyncrasies of the Cantos appear in the excerpts of these letter, especially his occasional offbeat spelling. I had taken it for an effort to reflect a broader colloquial language, but now I don’t wonder if it isn’t just a particular tic of Pound to have his own, private written language.

And the sentences varying between short, incomplete fragments and long sentences containing only vaguely connected thoughts in its clauses.

You can also see Pound’s obsession with money – mainly inspired by his lack of it (though his parents were apparently generous in supporting their self-proclaimed ‘genius’ son).