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

193 A Visitor to St. Elizabeth’s
Dear Miss Rudge:
I will try to be as short, and . . . as blunt as you were . . . You ask
what I actually have done for Ezra. I obtained monitorings of
Ezra’s broadcasts during the war—Ezra was my true friend, and I
wanted to see what sort of an ass he was making of himself, so that
I might come to his aid when it was necessary. His broadcasts,
which contained occasional pieces of excellent sense and brilliance,
were really awful, and I saw that there would be a di≈cult problem
whenever the war was over and he was a prisoner.
At the time . . . I was in Germany fighting, my oldest boy Jack
was wounded and a prisoner, and I knew nothing of Ezra’s fate.
When his attorneys wrote me . . . I made a statement . . . that he
was of unsound mind when he made his broadcasts after the U.S.
entered the war. . . . If Ezra is released at this moment, as of sound
mind, to be tried, he would receive a sentence of from ten to fifteen
years. . . . He made the rather serious mistake of being a traitor to
his country, and temporarily he must lie in the bed he made.
If I were a King or a President or even a divisional commander,
I would pardon Ezra instantly, kick him in the ass, ask him to have
a drink and tell him to use his head if he has one. But I am only his
friend, and can only use my head in his behalf. I hope this answers
your questions as bluntly as they were put. To be even more blunt,
I have always loved Dorothy, and still do.
Hemingway’s letter contributed to Olga’s depression; she could not
concentrate, was ‘‘in a state nervosa.’’ Its closing statement must have
wounded her deeply, but she did not admit it when she wrote to Ezra:
‘‘Sounds like a hangover—[but] full of expressions of a√ection for Him.’’
Mary sent photos of Patrizia’s christening. The child’s hair, dark at
birth, now had a reddish cast like Olga’s and Ezra’s. ‘‘Fotos rec’d. of tribal
unity,’’ Ezra wrote; ‘‘’tenny rate, yu got a family.’’
Olga joined the family at Brunnenburg for Easter and the April birthdays:
‘‘Moidile looking very well and slimming rapidly . . . very e≈cient
with Patrizia Barbara—only baby wot come across wot don’t smell!’’ Mary
prepared a festa for her mother, complete with the ‘‘first birthday cake I’ve