Olga Rudge & Ezra Pound: "What Thou Lovest Well..."

137 Overture to War
’normous bunch of flowers for her—& wuz she pleazed, & wuz He nice.
. . . She will now go on being good.’’
On June 12, 1939, at the 127th commencement of Hamilton College, his
alma mater, Pound was awarded the degree of honorary doctor of letters
with distinguished company: Elihu Root, Jr. (doctor of laws), the Reverend
Malcolm Endicott Peabody (doctor of divinity), and H. V. Kaltenborn
(doctor of humane letters).
‘‘Waal, he iz been degreed & is a D. Litt.!! About bust the commencement
by heckling a s.o.b. that was spouting twaddle,’’ he wrote Olga.
(Kaltenborn, a veteran political journalist and commentator, had launched
into a speech that was anti-Fascist, and by implication critical of Pound.)
Some two months after Ezra’s departure, he was due to arrive in Genoa
on the Conte di Savoia. Olga had left for the Accademia before he arrived,
and Ezra did not like it: ‘‘He come bak to see her, dambit an she ain’t
here.’’
While in the United States, he had consulted an attorney to explore the
possibility of legally adopting Mary to legitimize her status and secure a
U.S. passport for her, in case they had to leave Italy suddenly. When Olga
heard the news, for the first time in their fifteen-year relationship she ‘‘put
her cards on the table’’ and stated her position in strong language that
could not be misunderstood: ‘‘He has put her o√ every time she tries to get
Him to consider [the] subject of [the] present triangle,’’ she wrote. There
was no reason to maintain a ‘‘marital front’’ out of respect for Dorothy’s
parents, since both were gone. ‘‘He has told her He did not believe in
marriage . . . certainly no church would consider a marriage entered into
as He told her His was, as sacred or binding.’’ On the brink of war with its
possible dislocations, it might be a good time to reconsider legitimizing
her own—as well as her child’s—status. But she strongly opposed ‘‘an
adoption that would make it [her child] over to you and implicitly to D.,
while I would lose every right.’’
Another perceived humiliation occurred when Maestro Casella asked
Olga to do typing and secretarial work at the Accademia in addition to her
administrative duties. Her hurt and disappointment were obvious in the
next letter: ‘‘I have no intention of being the devoted mother, drudging in