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

14
A Visitor to St. Elizabeth’s
192
1950–1955
‘‘Sitting on His lawn is paradise’’
The Fifties began with new life, and Olga passed along the good
news: ‘‘Born—Washington’s birthday, a granddaughter, Patrizia Barbara
de Rachewiltz.’’ The answer from St. Elizabeth’s: ‘‘Banzai! Warn’t sure if
Mlle. X arrov on 22nd, but thought so—hadn’t calculated the Birthington
Washday.’’
Ezra sent other news from Washington: Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, the
President’s widow, was to have her own television show, James Laughlin
was in Aspen skiing, Holy Year rates reported in the press at the luxury
hotels in Rome, the Hassler and the Excelsior, were a minimal six dollars
per day. The ambiance at St. Elizabeth’s was often bizarre: ‘‘Just received,
in a confidential whisper from the Colonel, that ‘Hitler’ is right here on
this ward, going by the name of Jones.’’
Olga was still lobbying for Ezra’s release. She had met Ernest Hemingway
in Paris with Ezra in the 1920s, and she recalled this meeting when
appealing to ‘‘Hem’’ and other literary friends for help. She received in
reply a ‘‘peevish letter from Mr. Hemingway’’: