Olga Rudge - Venice and Pound

Venice and Pound

In 1958, Pound was declared incapable of standing trial. He was stripped of his rights of citizenship and released from St. Elizabeth's on condition that he return to Europe. With his wife, who was also his legal custodian, he quickly returned to Italy. The couple stayed with Rudge's daughter by Pound, Mary, now married to Boris de Rachewiltz and living at Brunnenberg castle in Tirol. Pound's health was now broken and he spent a year in the sanatorium Martinsbrunn in Meran. It is thought that during his time in St. Elizabeth's Pound was treated with mind altering drugs that altered his personality permanently for the worse. In early 1962, "depressed and ill, Pound chose to put himself in Olga's hands". For the remainder of his life he lived with her, part of each year in Venice, part in Rapallo.

The last eleven years of Pound's life accentuated his eccentricities, including a self-imposed vow of near-silence, with which Rudge coped while completely arranging his life and acting as his secretary. Many scholars and students sought Pound out and would arrive at the small house. Rudge devised a test to distinguish the genuine from the merely curious. She would ask the prospective visitor to recite a line from one of Pound's works; those who could gained admittance, those who could not were shown out. For Rudge, life with Pound was not easy; yet, her belief in him was absolute.

For the first time, Rudge now had Pound completely to herself, as his wife Dorothy withdrew from the triangle. Pound saw Dorothy only twice during his last four years. The couple seldom left their Venice or Rapallo homes; however, they journeyed to London in 1965 for the funeral of T.S. Eliot and to the United States in 1969. Pound, hospitalized immediately following his eighty-seventh birthday celebration, died November 1, 1972 holding Rudge's hand. She organized his funeral in the cemetery on the Isola di San Michele, Venice. After his death Rudge acquired a large archive of his papers and artifacts. Dorothy Pound died the following year, leaving Rudge the last member of the ménage à trois to carry Pound's torch.