Craig Raine

The nature of genius

No, says Craig Raine. He was excitable, eccentric and politically unacceptable, but he was far from crazy

issue 18 February 2017

On 21 December 1945, Ezra Pound was confined to St Elizabeths hospital in Washington DC. He had broadcast for Rome Radio from 29 January 1942 to July 1943. To avoid his almost certain conviction for treason (and the death penalty visited on William Joyce, Lord Haw-Haw), the superintendent Winfred Overholser testified that Pound was insane and unfit to stand trial.

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