January 1995

What was Ezra Pound, the eccentric American poet-expatriate doing in the studios of EIAR in 1940, sending forth anti-American propaganda during 10 minute segments of the so-called "American Hour"? The answer can be interred from his last official residence in the United States: St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the mentally ill in Washington, D.C., to which he was committed in 1946. As one commentator put it, "It required 'an entire university course' to explain what was going on in the head of Ezra Pound." '"Europe calling, Pound speaking" began his broadcasts, for which he was paid the equivalent of $17 each.