James Griffyth Fairfax and Ezra Pound in Edwardian London

James Griffyth Fairfax and Ezra Pound in Edwardian London Hugh Witemeyer University of New Mexico WRITING TO William Carlos Williams in May 1909, Ezra Pound extolled the advantages of London: There is no town like London to make one feel the vanity of all art except the highest.... If you'll read Yeats, & Browning, & Francis Thompson, & Swinburne & Rosetti [sic] you'll learn something about the progress of Eng. poetry in the last century. And if you'll read Margaret Sackville, Rosamund Watson, Ernest Rhys, Jim G. Fairfax, you'll learn what the people of second rank can do & what dam good work it is.1 For many readers of modern poetry, Pound's letter has provided a first and last encounter with the name of "Jim G. Fairfax." Who was he, and why did Pound like his poetry? The story of their relationship will illuminate the pre-war English literary milieu in which the careers of Pound and other transplanted Anglophone poets took shape. Edwardian London had much to offer ambitious young writers in 1909: a wealth of literary publishers and periodicals, a receptive and liberal audience devoted to spiritual pursuits, and an established poetic discourse acknowledged by writers, publishers, and readers alike. No other literary community in the English-speaking world offered such advantages to beginners. Moreover, these advantages were no less available to aspirants from the British colonies and former colonies than to home-country hopefuls. Pound and Fairfax made their authorial debuts in this environment when both were in their early twenties. For several years, their lit243 JamesGriffithFairfax ByMaryLaffan ©NationalLibraryofAustralia WITEMEYER : FAIRFAX & POUND erary and personal careers were closely intertwined. They were friendly rivals both as poets and as prospective suitors for the hand of Dorothy Shakespear. Around 1914, however, their London lives diverged sharply. In his poetry and criticism, Pound turned radically away from the Edwardian consensus, convinced that it lacked imaginative vitality. He also married Dorothy. Fairfax, on the other hand, became more conservative . He continued to write in the Edwardian manner, and his public career resumed a pattern of service that was characteristic of his wealthy Australian family. The story of the Pound-Fairfax relationship is of interest not only as biographical narrative but also as a commentary upon Hugh Selwyn Mauberley. Pound published this condensed poetic assessment of his English experience on the eve of his departure for Paris in 1920. Mauberley 's meditation on the fates of minor artists in the English literary milieu raises issues of artistic growth, stylistic entrapment, and response to the demands of the age. As we shall see, the same issues arose in the lives of Pound and James Griffyth Fairfax. Although Fairfax was not the model for Pound's apolitical aesthete, Mauberley, his career undoubtedly contributed some elements to the poem's anatomy of artistic struggle and failure. Eight months younger than Pound, James Griffyth Fairfax (1886-1976) also came from a half-savage country. Born in Sydney, Fairfax belonged to one of Australia's most prominent business families. His great-grandfather, John Fairfax (1804-1877), was a printer, bookseller, and newspaper publisher who emigrated to Australia from Warwickshire in 1838. By 1841 he was part owner, and by 1853 sole owner, of the Sydney Morning Herald, the largest and most influential newspaper in the colony. Under the astute management of John's eldest son, James Reading Fairfax (1834-1919), the family holdings grew to include the Melbourne Age, other periodicals, and substantial interests in banks and insurance companies. James R. Fairfax became a philanthropist, a leader of the Anglican Church, and a prominent art collector. He was knighted in 1898. The eldest of Sir James's six sons, Charles Burton Fairfax (1863-1941), proved unsuited to business and public affairs. He became a partner in the family firm in 1888, and ran the Morning Herald's clerical and accounting departments until 1904. But he then withdrew from 245 ELT 42 : 3 1999 business and retired with his wife and son to England. He is described in one family history as "a man of warm and ready sympathies, but by nature reserved and even shy."2 He received no shares in John Fairfax Limited when Sir James died...