The Letters (1950)
A64
Editions
a. First edition
THE LETTERS OF | EZRA POUND | 1907~1941 | EDITED BY D. D. PAIGE | | HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY : NEW YORK
XXV, 358 pp. 24.3 X 16.5 cm. Brown cloth boards stamped in blind on front cover and in gold on spine; end-papers; top edges stained yellow. Yellow dustjacket printed in red and brown.
Published 26 October 1950 at $5.00; 4000 copies printed. On verso of title-leaf: ... first edition Printed in the United States of America Contains a “Preface,” by Mark Van Doren, pp. [c]-ix. The running heads give place and year of writing. Included in the letters or as footnotes to them are: four lines omitted from “Reflection and Advice” [later, “Pax Saturni”] and four from “Commission” when those poems were printed in Poetry (to Harriet Monroe, 30 Mar. 1913), p. 17, footnote 1; “Sage homme,” a 27-line “squib” on The Waste Land (to T.S. Eliot, 24 Saturnus (Dec. 1921), ie. Jan. 1922), p. 170; text of Bel Esprit ([1922])—Ez2e (to Kate Buss, (?23) Mar. 1922), pp. 174—5, footnote 1; “Ballade of the most gallant Mulligan, Senator in ordinary and the frivolous milkwench of Hogan... ” (to James Joyce, 16 Jan. 1923), pp. 184-5; “Program 1929” (to Charles Henri Ford, 1 Feb. 1929), p. 223, footnote 1; six-line “Epi- taph [on Harriet Monroe]” (to T. C. Wilson, (?Feb.) 1934), p. 253; “To — — on England,” four lines of doggerel (to E. E. Cummings, 25 Jan. 1935), p. 265; “Song fer the Muses’ Garden,” six lines of doggerel (to T. S. Eliot, 28 Mar. 1935), P- 272; four lines of doggerel beginning “There onct wuzza lady named Djuna [Barnes]” (to T. S. Eliot, Jan. 1937), p. 286; four lines of doggerel begin- ning “A[t] contract time the Hippol’s [sic] eye” (to Laurence Pollinger, Feb. 1937), p: 289; four lines of doggerel beginning “Sez the Maltese dawg to the Siam cat” (to T.S. Eliot, 16 Apr. 1938), p. 307; nine lines of doggerel, on the death of the Criterion, beginning “Who killed Cock Possum?” (to Ronald Dun- can, 10 Jan. 1939), p. 320; eight-line text of the song “Buck Flea”—E4ko (to Tibor and Alice Serly, Oct. 1939), p. 326, footnote 1; ten “Lines to go into 83 Canto 72 or somewhere,” beginning “Now sun rises in Ram sign” (to Katue Kitasono, 12 Mar. 1941), p. 348.
Notes: An advertising leaflet entitled 4 Sampler from the New Book ... The Letters of Ezra Pound 1907-1941 ..., 14, [2] pp., wire-stitched, was issued in an edition of 15,000 copies by the publishers. A new (offset) edition (8000 copies) was issued in paper binding by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. in New York on 31 October 1962 at $2.25 as “Harvest Book HB 54.” [he two letters to T. E. Lawrence printed (apparently from retained carbon copies) on pages 152-3 and 154-5 are reprinted (from the originals) with slight variations in Letters to T. E. Lawrence, Edited by A. W. Lawrence (London [1962]), PP. 149-51.
This book was published paperbound by New Directions in New York 24 March 1971 at $2.95 with title The Selected Letters of Ezra Pound 1907-1942 as their Paperbook 317, in a first printing of 4470 copies.
b. First English edition ([1951])
THE LETTERS OF | EZRA POUND | 1907-194r | edited by | D.D. PAIGE | [quotation in 2 lines] | FABER AND FABER | 24 Russell Square | London
1 blank leaf, 2 leaves, 7-464 pp. 22.5 X 15 cm. Red cloth boards lettered in gold on spine; end-papers, top edges stained yellow (or, later—1958, blue). Orange dust-jacket printed in red and black (or, later—1958, green dust-jacket printed in green and red).
Published 22 March 1951 at 25s. (raised to 30s. in 1958); 2990 sets of sheets printed (of which 971 were issued 3 December 1958 at 305.). On verso of title-leaf: First published in memli ... Printed in Great Britain by Western Printing Services Limited, Bristol ... This edition does not contain the preface by Mark Van Doren. The running heads give place and Pound’s age at time of writing.
c. Second English edition ({1971])
THE SELECTED LETTERS OF | EZRA POUND | 1907-1941 | EDITED BY D. D. PAIGE | FABER AND FABER | LONDON
XXV, 358 pp. 22.3 x 14 cm. Green cloth boards stamped in gold’ on spine; endpapers. Cream dust-jacket printed in yellow, black, and green.
Published 11 October 1971 at £3.50; 750 copies printed. On verso of title-leaf: ... This edition published in the U. K. by Faber and Faber Limited 3 Queen Square London W. C.1... This book was originally published in 1950 as The Letters of Ezra Pound, 1907-1941. 84 “This reissue is a copy of the original American edition, which differs slightly from the original British edition.” (Dust-jacket) Contents as in A64a, from which the text was reproduced by offset.
Content is now editable.