Ezra Pound, Silvershirt

Here’s another one I will expand slightly from a recent facebook blurb…

Ezra Pound, famous poet, was a Silvershirt. Their papers were seized several times and at some point, someone close to one or the other investigation got their hands on correspondence from the Legion's files and shared it with the communist New Masses magazine, who then published it. Here are the first letters between Ezra Pound and Bob Summerville of the Silver Legion.

Also, I corresponded with and met Pound’s biographer, Eustace Mullins, a couple of times. We discussed Pelley and Eustace was a fan.

This Difficult Individual Ezra Pound by Eustace Mullins.

Here’s Eustace and myself just a couple of months before his death. He had suffered a stroke and his speech was impaired at this point, but he expressed admiration for Pelley. Beneath the American Archvillain hallmark and behind the water bottle you might just be able to make out the 1936 paperback edition of “No More Hunger.”

As for the letters that made their way to New Masses, I lay blame at the door of one Alvin Kartus, a young Asheville jew. When he was interviewed by the FBI about Pelley a few years later he admitted that a substantial bounty had been offered around town for anyone who could find legal grounds to shut down Pelley’s operation. This led to the Blue Sky trial and bankruptcy of Galahad Press. Kartus would not reveal the source of the bribe but it was likely a collection taken up by several influential jews, to include Albert Kahn. His nephew and namesake was author of the book “Sabotage!” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_E._Kahn