TABOO: THE ACTUAL MODERNIST AESTHETIC, MADE REAL A ...

focused on to narrate Pound‘s indirect intimidation of Aldo Massera. It was Cunard that
discovered the Broglio manuscript that piqued Pound‘s interest and unfortunate ireTheir
meeting in Pisa at the end of her tenure in February of 1923 allows Rainey the
opportunity to sum-up their relationship: ―[p]ublisher and poet, in short, moved in a
homogenous world of elite tourism and understood the shared premises of bourgeois
historicism‖ (157). It is important that we understand what Rainey misses in his slight
treatment of Cunard, evinced in his donning her with the anachronistic title of
―publisher.‖ Cunard would not open the Hours Press in Paris until 1928, becoming a
publisher half a decade later than Rainey states.
Cunard was originally brought close to Pound during the course of an illness she
suffered while in Paris. He prompted her to write poetry as a means of overcoming
extended bed-stay (1920-21). Although she never took Pound‘s literary advice in any of
her own publications, Outlaws, Sublunary, and Parallax she did, it seems, harbour an
abiding affection for him. This is evident in the way she adjusted her plans to meet his
needs. In 1922, Cunard intended to travel as a tourist through Europe following an
itinerary she had created for herself that included visiting Sanary, South of France
(February), Monte Carlo (March), Deauville (mid-summer), and Spain (late summer).
Her plans change after meeting Pound in Normandy, as she is soon on the Orient Express
heading to Italy, all the while sending letters back expressing her wish that he join her,
her purpose for going changed from that of tourist to researcher. In September she arrives
in Venice and her investigations begin in earnest. She writes:
Tennis is going on, at the Lido; I will watch you after we have
bathed together.
141