ABC of Reading

In my review of Ezra Pound’s ABC of Reading, I wrote that Pound had many interesting insights and asides that, though they didn’t fit with the main review, are nonetheless worth discussing. So, here, I’ll go over some of the highlights. I’ll cover them in no particular order, and much of it will be direct quotations from the book with a few comments from me.

Today we’ll continue our series of books about literature, following Mortimer Adler’s advice about syntopical reading. This time, though, instead of a Classical author, will be someone of almost our own time, Ezra Pound.

I’ve written about today’s friend, Mr. Ezra Pound, a few times before, including addressing his war literature, a very short poem, and a brief reflection on his birthday. In literary terms, he’s a strong contender for the most accomplished friend we’ll meet during this whole series, as he was a great poet, a skilled though idiosyncratic translator, a thoughtful and opinionated critic, and an editor with a knack for finding and fostering talented writers. Because of all that he may be, apart from the Bard himself, the most important poet in English. His reputation suffered because of his support for Benito Mussolini, but I feel confident predicting that in a few centuries Mussolini will be a footnote to the Cantos, much as many great and powerful men are now footnotes to the Divine Comedy.

I’ve heard of Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren’s How to Read a Book here and there before, but decided to give it a read after seeing Henry Dampier’s review of it, and thinking that it may be useful, especially since I’m trying to read more (and maybe even read better) this year.

For the last few years, I’ve occasionally passed time by thinking of the shortest way to become literate in the Western literary tradition. In other words, what is the smallest number of books one can read, and which books, to say one is familiar with the general outline of Western literature?