resulted in 1915 in his editing a second anthology called, un-
advisedly, Catholic Anthology. As a reaction to Some Imagist
Poets, it included no credo or manifesto; it contained only
the poems (featuring Eliot) which in Pound’s opinion were
the significant ones of the time. Although it was not
expected to have much of a sale, Pound’s refusal to change
the title at his publisher’s (Elkin Mathews) request didn’t
help matters: As he wrote to Kate Buss in March, 1916:
I have told Mathews to send you also a Cat. Anth.
The Jesuits here have, I think, succeeded in
preventing its being reviewed in press (at least
I have seen no review during the past months).
Poor Elkin wailing, Why, why will you needlessly
irritate people?’ (Letters, p. 73)
Like Des Imagistes before it, and Profile and Active Anthology
to come after in later years, Catholic Anthology was a way of preserving
in book form a few of the poems Pound thought valuable. It was another
of his several successful failures of this kind.
A GUIDE TO EZRA POUND (1885-1920), lan Christie Clark, 1958