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

251 The Last Ten Years
Mario Casamassima brought a copy of Spots and Dots: Ezra Pound in
Italy, photos by Vittorigo Contino of Ezra in Venice, Siena, and Rapallo,
recently published by Ivancich. Count Cini thumbed through it attentively,
Olga recalled, and o√ered to promote the book. When the count
left, a woman from Mondadori, the publisher, with a copy of Mary’s
translation of the Antologia. Laughlin remembered ‘‘a good letter from
Mary describing the birthday celebration, which was fairly quiet, except
that a lot of reporters turned up.’’
Pound’s reputation as a leading Modernist poet was growing. Luigi de
Maino, an editor from Milan, wanted to publish one of Ezra’s early works,
and came to interview him. When he asked which of the works they
should publish, Ezra replied ‘‘Sextus Propertius—the best, of course.’’ (‘‘E.
could make decisions without any suggestions from me or anyone,’’ Olga
noted.)
The next morning, a photograph of Olga with Ezra, Buckminster
Fuller, and Guido Cadorin appeared in Il Gazzettino. For many years she
had avoided such publicity, ‘‘for reasons of propriety,’’ but at this point in
life she had given up the pretense.
The year 1971 saw Mary’s debut as a writer. Discretions (echoing the title
of Pound’s Indiscretions), published by Atlantic Monthly Press in the
United States and Faber & Faber in England, revealed to the world for the
first time Mary’s childhood with foster parents in the Tyrol. Her descriptions
of visits with her mother in Venice showed psychic pain: Olga, the
strict disciplinarian who admitted ‘‘little talent for motherhood,’’ inspired
fear and longing in the little girl, not understanding and love. In Olga’s
view, she had been trying to instill in her daughter the same discipline and
perfectionism drilled into her by Julia, qualities necessary to become a
concert violinist. But to Mary growing up, discipline came across as disapproval,
a feeling that she never measured up to Olga’s high standards.
Olga was deeply wounded by Mary’s revelations. ‘‘What good was she
doing unleashing her spite and repercussions to her own and her children’s
damage?’’ Olga wondered. What she minded most was Mary’s
claim that she had not wanted the name of a ‘‘dead man’’—that is, Arthur
Rudge, the brother whose name Olga had listed on Mary’s birth certificate
to save her the embarrassment of an ‘‘unknown’’ father. Olga recalled that