Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound was a major figure in the Modernist movement of the early 20th century. In addition to his own success as a writer, Pound made his mark as an influential critic, publicly supporting poets such as H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, to whom he was briefly engaged), T. S. Eliot, and Robert Frost.

From 1941 to 1943, Pound recorded pro-Facist, anti-Semitic radio broadcasts (Ernest Hemingway called them “vile, absolutely idiotic drivel”). Later arrested by the U.S. government for treason, Pound was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial and was committed to an American mental hospital called St. Elizabeths from 1945 to 1958.