‘The Noble Crested Screamer’: 1914–20

Abstract

Pound became a figure London could not avoid. Suddenly, he was everywhere: Punch, the papers and the public took notice. His enthusiasms dictated his friendships, while his ideas decreed his behavior as he hunted for new talent to promote in his role as literary advisor to The Egoist and Foreign Correspondent of Poetry. With ‘exuberant hair’ and flying clothes, Pound descended upon literary dinners, lectures or appointments with an air of purpose and controversy, projecting a persona that could ignite a room with conversation and controversy (Barry 165). He epitomized the Crested Screamer, a South American bird he would soon celebrate in a review of a book by the writer, W.H. Hudson.¹ Vocal and visible, Pound perched on numerous London branches, it seemed, at once.

I appear to be the only person of interest left in the world of art, London.

(Pound, 1916)