That's All, Fellows

Some of the nation's top poets and writers, as Fellows in American Letters of the Library of Congress, had joined last winter in awarding a $1,000 prize for the best 1948 American poetry to Ezra Pound, a man of large and warped talents. They had expected trouble. "The Fellows," they said, "are aware that abjections may be made to awarding a prize to a man situated as is Mr. Pound." Mr. Pound at that moment was 1) in an insane asylum and 2) under indictment for high treason against the U.S. for serving Mussolini as an anti-Semitic propagandist in World War II. In addition, there were many who thought that the poetry in his prizewinning Pisan Cantos was not worth a damn, or an award either.

Last week, at the behest of Congress' Library Committee, Librarian Luther H. Evans announced that the library will discontinue all prizes for art, music and literature. "We think it's a bad policy for the Government...to be giving prizes and awards," explained the committee, "particularly in matters of taste."

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