TLS, two pages, 8 x 10, The Little Review letterhead, November 1918. Letter to G. H. Thring of the Authors Society. In part: "Mr H. G. Wells and Miss May Sinclair have both sent me letters from you re/ straightening out American copyright mess. My activities have been as follows: Two articles in the New Age, followed by one by 'R. H. C.'…Mr. Paul Perry…promised to send my two articles to Washington with recommendation that the suggestions be acted upon, by proper Senate Committee. They covered both copyright and the import duty on books…Am reprinting the articles in The Little Review…Mr John Quinn, who got through the decent law on importation of works of art, thinks the matter wont work just at present…I should like to know what 'stupid' suggestion Putnam made to you. He idioticly messes up the question of import duty on books with general free trade propaganda, from which it should be rigidly separated…see Mt Perry and assure him that the matter is of importance. I took it up with him on the grounds of U. S. A. propaganda; the line to take with him, and the only line on which he can work officially is that America will improve her position with European intellectuals, and via them with all the public, by getting rid of two mediaeval imbecilities, the rotten copyright regulation and the import duty on books…Of course, you English don't care a curse about America's enlightenment or the opposite, but it might be just as well to appear to care, or even to consider the inconvenience of having a hundred million unenlightened neighbors with only the Atlantic between you and them…Now that the democratic party has been beaten and the majority of the republicans is so small, either party might be goaded into taking up an intelligent measure in the hope of getting a little support even from the loathed intellectuals…I can publish for you in The Little Review any matter bearing on the question, provided it is well written, not in Spectatorial, Letters of Junius, stodgidity." Pound adds a few notes in his own hand to the second page, noting that he is unsure of the opinion of the US Authors Society and identifying another individual concerned with the matter. In very good condition, with intersecting folds and significant blocks of toning and small stains to the first page. Accompanied by a modern photo of Pound.
Pound was living in disillusioned postwar London and spent much of this period of his life fighting against American lawmakers and publishers on behalf of the arts. Working for The Little Review, he was responsible for beginning the serialization of James Joyce's Ulysses in March 1918—only to have shipments of the publication seized and burnt by the US Post Office on the grounds that its prose was 'obscene.' The publication's head editors were then brought up on obscenity charges and found guilty in a 1921 trial. Meanwhile, Pound was advancing proposals for copyright reform as a 'cure' for book piracy in America, specifically endorsing exclusive and perpetual copyrights for authors while also seeking compulsory license provisions that would encourage wide and inexpensive dissemination of works. A biographically important letter in Pound's typical condescending style. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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