Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 MC.833 Finding aid prepared by Sandra Glascock This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit October 21, 2014 Describing Archives: A Content Standard Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections October, 2014 370 Lancaster Ave Haverford, PA, 19041 610-896-1161 hc-special@haverford.edu
Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 MC.833 Table of Contents Summary Information... 3 Biographical note...4 Scope and Contents note... 5 Arrangement note...5 Administrative Information...5 Related Materials... 6 Controlled Access Headings...6 Collection Inventory... 7 Series I. Correspondence, 1955-1968...7 Series II. Publications, 1955-1960... 7 Series III. Ephemera, 1958, undated... 8 - Page 2 -
Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 MC.833 Summary Information Repository Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections Creator Comfort, Howard, 1904- Creator Martinelli, Sheri Creator Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972 Title Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence Date 1955-1968 Extent 0.25 Linear feet (1 box) Language English Preferred Citation note Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 (MC.833), Special Collections, Haverford College. - Page 3 -
Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 MC.833 Biographical note Ezra Loomis Pound (1885-1972) Ezra Pound was an American poet, translator, critic and editor and was among the foremost literary figures of the twentieth century. Born in Idaho, his family moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia in 1889. At the age of twelve Pound entered Cheltenham Military Academy and by fifteen he was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania on the strength of his Latin. He remained at Penn for two years before transferring to Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, from which he graduated with a degree in philosophy in 1905. Pound returned to Penn to pursue graduate work in Romance languages, during which time he formed a friendship with the future poet William Carlos Williams, and he received his M.A. in 1906. In 1908 he left for Europe and also published his first volume of poetry. He settled in London and produced several volumes of verse over the next few years. By 1911 Pound had established his reputation as an innovative poet and critic and in 1913 he founded his own form of poetry called Imagism. He married the artist Dorothy Shakespear in 1914 and the following year he left the Imagists due to an ideological falling-out and subsequently founded another form of poetry he named Vorticism. Moving to Paris in 1920, Pound began associating with Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and others in the circle of American expatriates that dominated the avant-garde literary movements of the period. Pound left Paris to live in Rapallo, Italy in 1924 and by the late 1930s he began to devote much of his energy to the cause of Fascism. When World War II broke out he started a series of fanatical and virulently anti-semitic radio broadcasts to American troops and as a result of these addresses he was indicted for treason by the United States in 1945. He was kept for a month in a U.S. detention camp near Pisa and then returned to America. His lawyer successfully made the case that Pound was unfit to stand trial by reason of insanity. In 1946 Pound was committed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the Insane in Washington, D.C. His indictment was dismissed in 1958 and after his release from St. Elizabeth's he returned to Italy amid a flurry of controversy. From: Literature Online. Howard Comfort (1904-1993) Howard Comfort was the son of Haverford College president and professor, William Wistar Comfort, and Mary L. Fales Comfort. He received his B.A. from Haverford College in 1924 and he earned a master's degree and a doctorate from Princeton University in 1927 and 1932, respectively. Comfort joined the faculty at Haverford College in 1932 as an assistant professor of classics and retired in 1969 as professor of classics, having served as chairman of the department from 1958 to 1969. In 1950, he took a two-year leave of absence from teaching to serve as cultural attaché with the American Embassy in Rome and later as cultural affairs officer with the American Legation in Berne, Switzerland. Outside of teaching, Comfort published numerous articles on Roman ceramic archaeology and founded the Rei Cretariae Romanae Fautores, an organization for those who study Roman pots. A life-long Quaker, he was a member of the Haverford Monthly Meeting and served as clerk of the Meeting on Worship and Ministry of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting from 1958 to 1960 and worked with the American Friends Service Committee in Italy early in World War II. In 1931 he married Elizabeth P. Webb and they had two children. - Page 4 -
From: Main Line Times, September 30, 1993. Sheri Martinelli (1918-1996) Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 MC.833 Born Shirley Burns Brennan in Philadelphia, Martinelli began going by "Sherri" in her teens and attended the Philadelphia School of Industrial Arts to study ceramics. She married Ezio Martinelli, a fellow artist, and they had one child together. After separating from her husband, Martinelli moved to Greenwich Village and began associating with an avant-garde group of artists and writers. As part of the Beat Generation, she began writing her own prose and poetry and became a protégée of the author Anaïs Nin. In 1951, Martinelli visited Ezra Pound at St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the Insane and quickly became his muse and possibly mistress. Under Pound's tutelage she continued to write and make art and she published this work in her own magazine The Anagogic & Paideumic Review. From: Moore, Steven: "Sheri Martinelli: A Modernist Muse" Gargoyle, (41:), 1998, 29-54. Scope and Contents note The bulk of this collection contains correspondence between Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound. In 1955, Comfort contacted Pound at St. Elizabeth's Hospital to discuss the Roman poet Catullus. This began a several years long correspondence between the two men in which they primarily discussed the translation of Latin poetry and other classical matters. Also included in the collection is the correspondence between Comfort and Pound's protégée, Sheri Martinelli; avant-garde literary publications including The Anagogic & Paideumic Review published by Martinelli; and ephemera materials such as clippings for literary magazines and a report from the Defenders of the American Constitution backing the release of Pound from St. Elizabeth's Hospital. Arrangement note Correspondence is arranged chronologically by recipient; publications are arranged alphabetically. Administrative Information - Page 5 -
Publication Information Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 MC.833 Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections October, 2014 Conditions Governing Use note Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17) Acquisition Gift of Howard Comfort, 1973. Processing Information note Processed by Sandra Glascock; completed October 2014 Related Materials Related Archival Materials note Other letters of Ezra Pound and a portrait can be found in the Charles Roberts Autograph Letters Collection, Coll. No. 110. For a paper on Ezra Pound see "Ezra Pound's Correspondence with Howard Comfort" by Thomas Klubock in Coll. 811-1984 (History 361f papers). Controlled Access Headings Subject(s) American poetry--20th century Catullus, Gaius Valerius Saint Elizabeths Hospital (Washington, D.C.) - Page 6 -
Series I. Correspondence, 1955-1968 Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 MC.833 Collection Inventory Series I. Correspondence, 1955-1968 Box Folder Letters to Ezra Pound from Howard Comfort, 1955-1958, undated 1 1 Letters to Howard Comfort from Ezra Pound, 1955-1958, undated 1 2 Letters between Howard Comfort and Sheri Martinelli, 1959-1961, undated 1 3 Miscellaneous Howard Comfort correspondence, 1955, 1959, 1968, undated 1 4 Series II. Publications, 1955-1960 Box 1 Folder 5 "Agenda." Nos. 2 & 4, 1959 2.0 Items "The Anagogic & Paideumic Review." Vol I., nos. 2-4, 1959-1960 3.0 Items "Colloquy" by C.V.J. Anderson, 1960 1.0 Item "Ekstasis" by Philip Lamantia, 1959 1.0 Item "Strike." Nos 1-4, 8-10, 1955-1956 7.0 Items - Page 7 -
Series III. Ephemera, 1958, undated Howard Comfort and Ezra Pound correspondence, 1955-1968 MC.833 Writings by Sheri Martinelli, undated 4.0 Items Series III. Ephemera, 1958, undated Box 1 Folder 6 Clippings, undated 4.0 Items Report, April 1958 1.0 Item - Page 8 -