Ezra Pound

An item at American Writers Museum

A controversial personality he supported Fascist politics), Ezra Pound was an artistic innovator and a true modernist. He invented Imagism, free verse that focused on observed detail, apt metaphors, and economy of language-poetry, as he said, composed "in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of the metronome."

Pound's Cantos, a 50-year project, is a dense, fragmentary modern epic. A dazzling array of references reflects Pound's great admiration for poetry of the past and of other cultures. A skilled translator, he made the poetry of ancient Greece and Rome, medieval troubadours, and Renaissance Italy, accessible to modern audiences.

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum