If This Be Treason by Ezra Pound 1st / 1st 1948

A first edition, one of a small print run of 300 privately printed in Siena in 1948. This copy as is the case with most found, is unnumbered. This is a near fine copy with no creases or marks to the stiff card covers. There is some fading to the back cover and to the spine. 34 pages in total and all are clean with no marks at all. A near fine copy of this scarce privately printed booklet. 
 
Ezra Pound's mistress, Olga Rudge, privately published this slim volume containing a selection of Pound's Italian radio broadcasts from World War II. The broadcasts are unedited and include discussions on E.E. Cummings, James Joyce, Pounds Canto 45 and Blast - the vorticist manifesto. Pound supported the Fascists in his broadcasts on Radio Rome, but he also dealt with literary matters as well. Pound continued to broadcast for the fascists until he was arrested by American forces in Italy in May 1945. The Publication was an attempt by Rudge to exonerate Pound of the charges. He spent 13 years in custody, including over 12 years in St. Elizabeth's psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C. When he was released in May 1958, and then returned to Italy.