IN MEMORIAM
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NOEL STOCK (1929-2013)
Noel Stock, a native of Australia, has worked as a writer and translator since 1949. From 1968-1969 he was Visiting Lecturer at the University of Tasmania, and from 1969-1971 was Visiting Professor at the University of Toledo, English Department. In 1971 he assumed the position of Professor.
Stock first began to read Ezra Pound's poetry in Melbourne in 1946. He knew that Pound had been connected with the beginnings of the "modern movement" in English poetry and that he held strong views on economics and politics. He also knew of Pound's problems due to broadcasts he had made over Rome Radio during World War II and of his indictment for treason by the U.S. In 1953, after Pound was sent to St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Washington, D.C., Hugh Kenner who had just published a book on Pound's poetry, suggested that Stock contact Pound. He did so and received an immediate reply which was followed by more than 100 letters in the next five years. Stock left Australia in 1958 and was en route to England when charges against Pound were dropped, and he was released from the hospital. Pound returned to Italy in 1959 and Stock moved to Brunnenburg Castle, Tirolo di Merano, Italy where the poet's daughter lived. He first met Pound at Rapallo that summer and edited a collection of his essays entitled Impact: Essays on Ignorance and the Decline of American Civilization, which were published in 1960. From that year on, Stock had full access to Pound's collection of books and papers and had frequent contact with the poet and his wife and daughter. In 1961 he was awarded the Bollingen Fellowship to catalogue the Ezra Pound Archive at Brunnenburg. He was also awarded the Leverhulme Fellowship in 1968.
Stock has published several books including Poet In Exile (1964), Reading the Cantos: A Study of Meaning in Ezra Pound (1967, 1968), The Life of Ezra Pound (1970, 1974, 1982, 1985), Ezra Pound's Pennsylvania (1976), A Call to Order: Essays and Reviews, 1954-1974 (1976). In addition, he and Ezra Pound were the translators of Love Poems of Ancient Egypt (1962, 197l, 1978). Between 1960 and 1980 he edited and contributed to several books, including some written by Ezra Pound. Some of the periodicals he edited and contributed to between 1953 and 1980 are Shenandoah, X Quarterly, Modern Age, Quadrant, Poetry Australia, Helix, Edge, and Texas Quarterly. He also had numerous poems published in literary and poetry magazines between 1950 and 1957.
(Noel Stock’s papers are housed at the Ward M. Canaday Center, U. of Toledo, from whose Finding Aid this biographical sketch was taken)
JAMES JEROME WILHELM (1932-2012)
Dr. Wilhelm was born February 2, 1932 in Youngstown, Ohio. After moving to Seattle as a child, he went there to school and received a scholarship to Yale. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1954, graduating valedictorian of his class. He later went on and received his doctorate in philosophy.
Dr. Wilhelm was a professor at Rutgers University for over 40 years, retiring in 1997. He was an author of twenty-plus books and a world renowned scholar of Ezra Pound, Dante Alighieri, and medieval literature.
Comprehensive list of publications: