ALONG with T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) and Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957),
Ezra Pound (1885-1972) remains
one of the most vilified cultural figures of the twentieth century, but few people can deny that he was also one of the foremost poets and critics of his generation. In addition, of course, Pound was an extremely passionate and outspoken individual with a keen interest in politics and economics and made no attempt to hide his justifiable loathing of the usurious banking system which, even now, continues to hold the world to ransom. But despite the American's well-known support for Italian Fascism and especially its chief spokesman, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), Pound was also influenced by the anarcho-individualist beliefs of the French sculptor, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (1891-1915).
