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Daniel Swift. The Bughouse. The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound. London: Harvill Secker, 2017. 

In 1945, the American poet Ezra Pound was due to stand trial for treason for his broadcasts in Fascist Italy during the Second World War. 

Before the trial could take place, however, he was pronounced insane. Escaping a possible death sentence, he was sent to St Elizabeths Hospital near Washington, DC, where he was held for over a decade.

At the hospital, Pound was at his most infamous, and most contradictory. He was a genius and a traitor; a great poet and a madman. He was also an irresistible figure and, in his cell on Chestnut Ward and in the elegant hospital grounds, he was visited by the major poets and writers of his time. T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Charles Olson and Frederick Seidel all went to sit with him. They listened to him speak, and wrote of what they had seen. This was perhaps the world’s most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist, held in a lunatic asylum, with chocolate brownies and mayonnaise sandwiches served for tea. 

Pound continues to divide all who read and think of him. At the hospital, the doctors who studied him and the poets who learned from him each had a different understanding of this wild and most difficult man. Tracing Pound through the eyes of his visitors, The Bughouse tells the story of politics, madness and modern art in the twentieth century.

Find it on Amazon: here.

Reviews of The Bughouse. The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound.

1. Brown, Craig.  "Ezra Pound was an ardent fascist who wrote much of his finest work while locked in an asylum for 12 years. So can a mad, bad man also be a great poet?" Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics And Madness Of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift. Daily Mail Online (February 11, 2017).  Free online.
2. Crawford, Robert. "Voice from the Asylum." Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift. Literary Review 450 (Feb. 2017). Free online. 
3. Feay, Suzi. "The Bughouse by Daniel Swift — madness and modernism." Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift. Financial Times (February 10, 2017). Free online. 
4. Ford, Mark. "The Bughouse by Daniel Swift review – Ezra Pound, antisemitic and in the asylum." Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift. The Guardian (March 9, 2017). Free online. 
5. Jones, Lewis.  "How mad was Ezra Pound?" Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift. The Telegraph (February 12, 2017). Excerpt.
6. Kirsch, Adam.  "Why Ezra Pound was the most difficult man of the twentieth century."  Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift.  New Statesman (February 28, 2017). Free online. 
7. Lewis, Roger. "Pound and the poetry of the padded cell." Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound by Daniel Swift. The Times (February 4, 2017): 17. Excerpt.
8. McCrum, Robert. "Was Ezra Pound insane - or just difficult to read?" Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift. The Observer, 19 February 2017.  Free online.
9. Rahim, Sameer.  "Books in brief: The Bughouse by Daniel Swift."  Rev. of The Bughouse by Daniel Swift. Prospect Magazine (April 2017). Free online. 
10. Raine, Craig. "Was Ezra Pound mad?" Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift. The Spectator (Feb. 18, 2017). Free online.
11. Walton, James.  "Was Ezra Pound mad... or just downright bad?"  Rev. of The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound, by Daniel Swift. Daily Mail (April 6, 2017). Free online.