[22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
Letter 110
Your letters of the 12th and 19th January, both numbered 114, arrived simultaneously, and the further news was welcome. ISmith CollegeEH considers leaving for war-work;c4 feel that if you think of asking for leave in order to do war work you should keep in mind that the war may last for a considerable time – this, both in relation to the future of teaching for you, and in considering what kind of war work to take up. Just because it was ‘war work’ it would not necessarily [be] worthy your leaving Smith for, or, or [sic] suitable to your abilities. To find the right war job – in which one’s own talents and experience would be useful – is by no means easy: it takes time, obstinacy, and knowing one’s own mind: things which look useful at first sight often turn out to be futile; and when you have got into the wrong job it is not always easy, with the complicated machinery involved, to get out of it. I am glad now that no Ministry wanted me, because I think it would be a very peculiar job in which I could be more useful than in going on with my ordinary work.
On the other hand, I am unsettled by what you say about your work, and wondering why the girls are generally less satisfactory and sympathetic than those you had in California and Milwaukee. Perhaps you will explain this more fully, or perhaps it is one of those intangibles which cannot express themselves properly on paper. Meanwhile I must warn you again against taking on too much! with the S.P.C.A. (the poem amused me). TheEnglandLondon;h1TSE as air-raid warden in;d5 chief use for female ARP wardens in my area was for the telephone work from the posts – important work at that: but the women there were full time and of course took regular night shifts; in some areas I think women do patrol work as well. Find out what you would be wanted to do first, and make sure that it is something that you can combine with your other work: meanwhile it is useful to learn about stirrup pumps and fires etc. An ordinary ARP course did not and could not teach very much about First Aid: I think a First Aid course might be more useful. There have been many surprises, but I should still be surprised if Northampton was raided!
I have also thought with concern about the possible rise in cost of living for you: and of course that would affect you most painfully in affecting your mother. So you were quite right not to cable to me at Christmas.
I spentLivingstones, theput TSE up again;a4Livingstone, Sir Richard
OneHale, Emilyphotographs of;w7taken with Boerre;e3 of the worst photographs of you I have, unfortunately, is the one taken with Boerre.
1.OmarPound, Omar Shakespear Pound (1926–2010), author, editor and poet; son of Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear, he was born in Paris and brought up in his early years by his maternal grandmother, Olivia Shakespear; he met his father for the first time only in 1938. During 1940–2 he was a boarder at Charterhouse School, where TSE took a proactive avuncular interest in the progress and well-being of ‘the unfortunate Omar’: ‘I make a point of trying to see him about twice a quarter. The whole situation is difficult and I am afraid that the future is not going to be easy for him. I like the boy who at the present moment thinks that he would like to make hotel keeping his profession.’ On leaving school, Pound undertook to study hotel management and worked in a London hotel; but in 1945 he enlisted in the US Army and served terms in France and Germany. Subsequently he studied at Hamilton College, New York (his father’s alma mater); at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London; and at McGill University. Later he taught in Boston; at the American School of Tangier; at the Cambridgeshire School of Arts and Technology; and at Princeton. He brought out Arabic & Persian Poems (1970) and volumes of his own poetry, and was co-editor (with Philip Grover) of Wyndham Lewis: A Descriptive Bibliography (1978). Other editions include Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear: Their Letters 1908–1914 (1984), and Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945–1946, edited with Robert Spoo (1999).
1.OmarPound, Omar Shakespear Pound (1926–2010), author, editor and poet; son of Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear, he was born in Paris and brought up in his early years by his maternal grandmother, Olivia Shakespear; he met his father for the first time only in 1938. During 1940–2 he was a boarder at Charterhouse School, where TSE took a proactive avuncular interest in the progress and well-being of ‘the unfortunate Omar’: ‘I make a point of trying to see him about twice a quarter. The whole situation is difficult and I am afraid that the future is not going to be easy for him. I like the boy who at the present moment thinks that he would like to make hotel keeping his profession.’ On leaving school, Pound undertook to study hotel management and worked in a London hotel; but in 1945 he enlisted in the US Army and served terms in France and Germany. Subsequently he studied at Hamilton College, New York (his father’s alma mater); at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London; and at McGill University. Later he taught in Boston; at the American School of Tangier; at the Cambridgeshire School of Arts and Technology; and at Princeton. He brought out Arabic & Persian Poems (1970) and volumes of his own poetry, and was co-editor (with Philip Grover) of Wyndham Lewis: A Descriptive Bibliography (1978). Other editions include Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear: Their Letters 1908–1914 (1984), and Ezra and Dorothy Pound: Letters in Captivity, 1945–1946, edited with Robert Spoo (1999).
4.ElenaSorabji, Cornelia Richmond invited TSE to meet Cornelia Sorabji (1866–1954) – barrister and prominent social reformer, and author of a book of reminiscences entitled India Calling – at their London home, 3 Sumner Place, S.W.7, on Fri., 29 Mar. Sorabji’s ‘Note re Orthodox Hindus and Protection for Religion’ lamented one specific aspect of the Report on the Indian Constitutional Reform, to the effect that the protection accorded to religion since 1858 (Queen Victoria’s Proclamation) would seem to have been deliberately withdrawn.