Editing Ezra Pound (section)

===Visit to America===
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 | quote= {{center|1=[https://uploads0.wikiart.org/images/wyndham-lewis/ezra-pound-1939.jpg Ezra Pound reclining, 1939]}}
 |source= —&nbsp;by [[Wyndham Lewis]]
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When Olivia Shakespear died in October 1938 in London, Dorothy asked Ezra to organize the funeral, where he saw their 12-year-old son, Omar, for the first time in eight years. He visited Eliot and [[Wyndham Lewis]], who produced [[Ezra Pound (Lewis)|a famous portrait of Pound reclining]].<ref>Tytell (1987), 250</ref>

Believing he could stop America's involvement in World War II, Pound sailed for New York in April 1939 on the [[SS Rex|SS ''Rex'']] in a first-class suite.<ref name=Tytell1987p251/>{{efn|Tytell writes that the suite was said to have been paid for by the Italian government,<ref name=Tytell1987p251/> but Carpenter writes that Pound had simply decided to travel in style.<ref name=Carpenter1988p560/>}} Giving interviews on the deck in a tweed jacket, he told reporters that Mussolini wanted peace.<ref name=Tytell1987p251>Tytell (1987), 251</ref> In Washington, D.C., he attended a session of Congress, sitting in a section of the gallery reserved for relatives (because of [[Thaddeus Coleman Pound]]).<ref name=Carpenter1988p560>Carpenter (1988), 560</ref> He lobbied senators and congressmen,<ref>Tytell (1987), 252; Carpenter (1988), 560</ref> had lunch with the Polish ambassador, warning him not to trust the English or Winston Churchill,<ref name=":4">Tytell (1987), 254</ref> and asked to see the President but was told it could not be done.<ref name=Carpenter1988p560/>

He took part in a poetry reading at Harvard, where he agreed to be recorded by the Department of Speech,<ref>Carpenter (1988), 563</ref> and in July he received an honorary doctorate from Hamilton College, along with the radio commentator [[H. V. Kaltenborn]]. Kaltenborn, whom Pound referred to at the time as Kaltenstein, gave an anti-fascist speech after lunch ("dictatorships shall die, but democracies shall live"), which Pound interrupted loudly to the point where, according to one account, the college president had to intervene.<ref>Carpenter (1988), 565; also see Tytell (1987), 253</ref> Pound described this years later to Wyndham Lewis: "That was a music hall day, with a stage set/ only at a Kawledg Komencement wd/ one git in mouth-shot at that sort of wind-bag/ that fahrt Kaltenbourne."<ref>Carpenter (1988), 565</ref>{{efn|[[William Carlos Williams]], his friend since university, wrote to Pound's publisher, [[James Laughlin]], in June 1939: "The man is sunk, in my opinion, unless he can shake the fog of fascism out of his brain&nbsp;...".<ref>Tytell (1987), 253; Carpenter (1988), 562</ref>}} Pound sailed back to Italy a few days later on the [[SS Conte di Savoia|SS ''Conte di Savoia'']].<ref>Carpenter (1988), 566</ref>

Between May and September 1939 Pound wrote 12 articles for the ''[[The Japan Times|Japan Times]]'' (he became their "Italian correspondent"),<ref>Corkill, Edan (28 March 2020). [https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/03/28/national/history/our-man-mr-pound/ "Our man, Mr. Pound"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008154935/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2010/03/28/national/history/our-man-mr-pound/ |date=8 October 2020 }}. ''The Japan Times''.</ref> which included the claim that "Democracy is now currently defined in Europe as a 'country run by Jews{{'"}}.<ref name=Tytell1987p257>Tytell (1987), 257</ref> He discussed the "essential fairness of Hitler's war aims" and wrote that Churchill was a senile front for the Rothschilds.<ref name=Tytell1987p259/>