The Roots of Treason: Ezra Pound and the Secrets of St. Elizabeths.

London, UK Sidgwick and Jackson, 1984. Paperback First Edition UK (1984), so stated. A hardcover edition was published in the USA by McGraw-Hill earlier in 1984. First Edition UK (1984), so stated. Near Fine in Wraps: shows only the most minute indications of use: just a tick of wear to heel of the backstrip; the mildest rubbing to the rear panel; toning to the front and rear endpapers and outside edges of the text block; the binding is square and secure; the text is clean. Free of creases to the panels. Free of creases to the backstrip. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of underlining, hi-lighting, notations, or marginalia. Free of any ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, plates, or labels. A handsome, very-near-to--new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing a couple of unobtrusive cosmetic flaws. Bright and clean. Corners sharp. Very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. 8vo. (9.25 x 6.05 x 0.9 inches). xx, 339 pages. Notes and Index. Language: English. Weight: 18.8 ounces. .A hardcover edition was published in the USA by McGraw-Hill earlier in 1984. Paperback: Pictorial Wraps. One of the outstanding poets of the twentieth century, Ezra Pound was also an active fascist and anti-Semite. Indicted on nineteen counts of treason for his anti-American broadcasts over Mussolini's Radio Rome during World War II, Pound escaped trial by pleading insanity. He spent the next twelve years at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., until his literary friends - Ernest Hemingway, Archibald MacLeish, and William Carlos Williams among them - mounted a campaign to secure his release. In this biography, the author, who was himself a psychiatrist at St. Elizabeths, assesses the sanity of Ezra Pound. Using Pound's psychiatric hospital records, which Torrey obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and which had never previously been released, Torrey concludes that Pound did not go mad during World War II. Torrey also reveals the story of the salon Pound ran at St. Elizabeths and describes the collaboration of psychiatrists and poets in maintaining the charade of Pound's insanity. He also discloses, for the first time, Pound's support of Hitler as well as of Mussolini and explicates some of Pound's stranger mystical and sexual beliefs. Torrey integrates Pound's chaotic personal life with his poetry, illuminating both.