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Library of Congress Ordered to End Literary Prizes After Protests Against Pound Award

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The Library of Congress was this week-end ordered by Congress to end all literary prize-giving in the wake of complaints arising from the $1,000 Bollingen award to Ezra Pound who made anti-Semitic broadcasts for Mussolini during World War II.

Pound was given the award for his “Pisan Cantos” while he was awaiting trial for high treason. Jewish organizations objected to Pound getting the prize for the highest achievement of American poetry for 1948,” pointing out that sections of the “Cantos” were anti-Semitic.

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