Ralph Fletcher Seymour-Ezra Pound Papers

Collection

Identifier: VAULT-Case-MS-fY 245 .P8656

Staff Only

Scope and Content of the Collection

Collection relates mainly to the Ezra Pound work Patria Mia, written in 1912-13 but not published as a book until 1950, and consists of the manuscript of the book, Seymour’s draft for a preface, and sixteen letters between Seymour and Ezra and Dorothy Pound and T.S. Eliot.

Ezra Pound sent the manuscript to Ralph Fletcher Seymour in 1913, but as Seymour explains in the preface to the eventual publication, the manuscript was mislaid and not recovered until thirty-seven years later. Patria Mia first appeared in the English periodical New Age in 1912. On a stiff backing, Pound mounted cuttings of the articles, interspersed with his own typed text and handwritten corrections and insertions, and sent it off to Seymour in Chicago, where it then disappeared until its discovery and publication in 1950.

There are 16 letters in the collection: two from Pound to Seymour relating to copyright issues, 1958 and 1960; one from Seymour to Dorothy Pound and a responding one from her in 1950; and twelve letters between Seymour and T.S. Eliot, written in 1950. Seymour corresponded with T.S. Eliot, then an editor at Faber and Faber Limited, London, about a possible English edition of Patria Mia. Later in the year the two enjoyed luncheon together at the Cliff Dwellers club when Eliot was visiting Chicago, and six of the letters refer to that social event.

Two of the letters, removed from “Office Copy” of Patria Mia (Case Y 245. P86565), have been included in this collection. They are: Pound to Seymour, April, 1960, and T.S. Eliot to Seymour, July 31, 1950.

Dates

Creation: 1913-1960

Creator

Seymour, Ralph Fletcher, 1876-1966 (Person)

Language

Materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The Ralph Fletcher Seymour-Ezra Pound Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

Ownership and Literary Rights

The Ralph Fletcher Seymour-Ezra Pound Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Biography of Ralph Fletcher Seymour

American publisher, artist, and designer.

Born in Cincinnati, Seymour was long based in Chicago, both as an artist and as a book publisher. He illustrated or designed numerous books, taught decorative illustration, painted, produced block prints and woodcuts, and was a well-known creator and etcher of bookplates.

Seymour ran a book publishing firm in Chicago for almost seven decades, designing and issuing many fine editions, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s The Japanese Print in 1912 and Henry Blake Fuller’s Bertram Cope’s Year in 1919. Always interested in the American Southwest and Mexico, he published his own book, Across the Gulf in 1928, about his travels.

Seymour died in Batavia, Illinois in 1966, aged 89.

Extent

0.2 Linear Feet (1 box)

Additional Description

Abstract

Manuscript of Patria Mia by Ezra Pound, submitted by him to Ralph Fletcher Seymour in 1913, but which was not published until 1950. Consists of combination of Pound’s hand-written text with corrections and printed excerpts from periodical New Age, where the work was originally published in 1912. Also, letters: two from Pound to Seymour; two between Seymour and Dorothy Pound; and twelve between Seymour and T.S. Eliot in 1950, regarding publication of Patria Mia and a social meeting in Chicago.