Olga Rudge was an American-born concert violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist, now mainly remembered as the long-time mistress

Mistress (lover)

A mistress is a long-term female lover and companion who is not married to her partner; the term is used especially when her partner is married. The relationship generally is stable and at least semi-permanent; however, the couple does not live together openly. Also the relationship is usually,...

 of the poet Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...

, by whom she had a daughter, Mary.

A gifted concert violinist of international repute, her considerable talents and reputation were eventually eclipsed by those of her lover, in whose shade she appeared content to remain. In return, Pound was more loyal, not to say faithful, to her than to any of his many other mistresses. He dedicated the final stanza of his epic The Cantos

The Cantos

The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date from 1922 onwards. It is a book-length work, widely considered...

to her, in homage and gratitude for her courageous and loyal support of Pound during his 13 year incarceration in a mental hospital after having been indicted for treasonous activities against the United States and in support of Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

's Fascist

National Fascist Party

The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...

 regime. She also defended Pound against the accusation that he was anti-Semitic. During the last 11 years of Pound's life, Rudge was his devoted companion, secretary, and nurse, as he sank into eccentricity and prolonged silences.

Rudge survived Pound by twenty-four years, remaining in the small house in Venice she had shared with him. In her declining years, an ongoing difficult relationship with Mary, her only child, left her vulnerable to the attention of parties with ulterior motives, resulting in the sad situation described in John Berendt

John Berendt

John Berendt is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction....

's The City of Falling Angels

The City of Falling Angels

The City of Falling Angels is a non-fiction work by John Berendt. The book tells the story of some interesting inhabitants of Venice, Italy, whom the author met while living there in the months following a fire which destroyed the historic La Fenice opera house in 1996.The book explores local...

, in which Rudge could not account for how Pound's papers and letters in her possession had found their way to Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

. Failing health eventually forced her to leave her beloved Venice and spend her final days with her daughter. Rudge died a month before her 101st birthday and is buried next to Pound in Venice's Isola di San Michele

Isola di San Michele

San Michele is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy.Originally a prison island, Napoleon's occupying forces decreed that Venetians could not bury their deceased on any of the main Venetians islands, but only on San Michele...

 cemetery.

Early life

Rudge was born to J. Edgar Rudge, a real estate

Real estate

In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...

 investor, and Julia O'Connell Rudge, a professional singer. Wanting to pursue a singing career, Julia moved to Europe with her three children when Olga was 10, living first in London then in Paris. Olga was educated at a convent

Convent

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

 school in Sherborne

Sherborne

Sherborne is a market town in northwest Dorset, England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. The population of the town is 9,350 . 27.1% of the population is aged 65 or...

, Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

, England, before studying in Paris under the violinist Léon Carambât of the Opéra-Comique

Opéra-Comique

The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...

.

By 1916, Rudge was a renowned concert violinist, performing in many concerts to raise money for the British and French side of the First World War. Her brother Arthur was killed in action in 1915. At the end of the war in 1918, she began her career as an international concert violinist, under the auspices of Ildebrando Pizzetti

Ildebrando Pizzetti

Ildebrando Pizzetti was an Italian composer of classical music.- Biography :Pizzetti was born in Parma in 1880. He was part of the "Generation of 1880" along with Ottorino Respighi and Gian Francesco Malipiero. They were among the first Italian composers in some time whose primary contributions...

 and his patroness Katherine Dalliba-John. In 1918, Pizzetti and Rudge did a joint concert tour of Italy, performing modern Italian music

Music of Italy

The music of Italy ranges across a broad spectrum of opera and instrumental classical music and a body of popular music drawn from both native and imported sources. Music has traditionally been one of the cultural markers of Italian national and ethnic identity and holds an important position in...

.

Career

Rudge first met the poet Ezra Pound

Ezra Pound

Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...

 when he reviewed a concert Rudge gave at the Aeolian Hall in November 1920, admiring the "delicate firmness of her fiddling" yet criticising the "piano whack" of her accompanist

Accompaniment

In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...

 Renata Borgatti

Renata Borgatti

Renata Borgatti was an Italian classical musician, performing in Europe and the United States.-Early life:She was the daughter of the great Wagnerian tenor Giuseppe Borgatti , whose imposing career at Milan's La Scala opera house was ended by blindness...

. Rudge does not seem to have taken much notice of Pound's review. She continued her association with Borgatti and pursuing her interest in modern Italian music, giving concerts with Borgatti and Pizzetti at the Sala Bach in Rome in 1921, and joining Renata Borgatti again at the Salle Pleyel

Salle Pleyel

The Salle Pleyel is a concert hall in Paris, France. The resident ensembles are the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.-History and Design:...

 in 1922.

One of her first meetings with Pound took place in 1923, in Paris at the salon

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...

 of Natalie Barney. Pound later recalled "her delicate and unemphatic reserve". At this time Pound was developing his own musical interests, composing an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 and advancing the work of the American composer George Antheil

George Antheil

George Antheil was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor. A self-described "Bad Boy of Music", his modernist compositions amazed and appalled listeners in Europe and the US during the 1920s with their cacophonous celebration of mechanical devices.Returning permanently to...

. Antheil and Rudge were to enjoy a long professional collaboration dating from this period, which also marked the beginning of her sexual relationship with Pound. Rudge was now an established and successful soloist

Solo (music)

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 living in a luxurious apartment on Paris's ultra respectable "right bank". She had nothing to gain by an association with a bohemian

Bohemian

A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...

 eccentric poet such as Pound, who was definitely "left bank" in his views and works. This willingness to flout convention and put her reputation at risk would typify her long affair with Pound.

In December 1923, Rudge and Antheil gave a concert at the Salle du Conservatoire which included not only works by Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

, Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

, and Antheil, but also Ezra Pound's "Sujet pour violin". For his work to be performed by a notable soloist was exactly the publicity Pound the aspiring composer desired. In 1924, Rudge and Antheil performed "Musique Americaine" at the Salle Pleyel. This concert also included work by Pound and Antheil's "Deuxieme Sonate", dedicated to Rudge. From 1923 onwards, Pound's letters to Rudge advise her on her career. He strongly recommended her to pay more attention to her patron

Patrón

Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...

s (something he himself never failed to do), and chided her for her lack of interest in the press comments concerning her concerts.

It is a major impediment to evaluating Rudge's qualities as a musician that, while her abilities are documented in the music criticism of her time, no recordings of her work are known to survive.

By 1924, Pound and his wife, the former Dorothy Shakespear

Dorothy Shakespear

Dorothy Shakespear was an English artist, the daughter of novelist Olivia Shakespear, and the wife of the poet Ezra Pound. She was a member of the Vorticism movement, and had her work published in the literary magazine BLAST.Dorothy met Ezra Pound in 1909; after a long courtship the two were...

, had moved from Paris to Rapallo

Rapallo

Rapallo is a municipality in the province of Genoa, in Liguria, northern Italy. As of 2007 it counts approximately 34,000 inhabitants, it is part of the Tigullio Gulf and is located in between Portofino and Chiavari....

, Italy. Rudge, now in the full throes of her enduring love affair with Pound, visited him several times. From this time Pound seems to have divided his time equally between Rudge and his wife, a situation which was to continue until the Second World War. In the Spring of 1925, Rudge was forced to pull out of a planned concert tour of the United States as she was pregnant by Pound. In June 1925, she gave birth to her daughter Mary (Pound's only biological child) at the local hospital in the city of Brixen

Brixen

Brixen is the name of two cities in the Alps:*Brixen, South Tyrol, Italy*Brixen im Thale, Tyrol, AustriaBrixen may also refer to:*Bishopric of Brixen, the former north-Italian state....

 in the province of South Tyrol

South Tyrol

South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...

. Keen to avoid the stigma

Social stigma

Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...

 an illegitimate child would have on Rudge's career, Olga paid to have Mary looked after by a peasant family in the South Tyrolian village of Gais—a German speaking village part of Italy.

She remained unconcerned about the possible stigma of being the mistress of a married man, and her association with Pound continued unabated. She resumed her career with a concert at the Salle Pleyel in 1926, where she played in the premiere of Pound's new opera, Le Testament de Villon

Le Testament de Villon

Le Testament de Villon is an opera written by American poet Ezra Pound.In 1919, when he was 34, Pound began charting his path as a novice composer, writing privately that he intended a revolt against the impressionistic music of Claude Debussy...

. Her association with Antheil continued with concerts in the capital cities of Europe, and at this time she began to specialise in the works of Mozart. She was now one of the most celebrated solo violinists of the era, playing before the Heads of State

Head of State

A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...

 and political leaders of Europe.

In 1928, Rudge's father bought her a small house in Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

, situated in the Calle Querini. Named "The Hidden Nest," it was to be her Venetian home for the remainder of her life. There, she began to develop her maternal instincts, bringing her daughter Mary for occasional visits. It was the beginning of a difficult and complex relationship between mother and daughter. Mary's existence was a closely guarded secret: Pound did not disclose it even to his own father until 1930. Pound often stayed with Rudge when their daughter visited Venice. However, the couple were often keen to be alone together, and so Rudge rented a Rapallo house near that of Pound and his wife, where the couple were able to conduct their affair unhindered by wife and children (Pound had a stepson, Omar, who was Dorothy's son by an unknown father, thought to be an Egyptian).

The 1930s were the years of a global depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 affecting all industries including the music industry. Most patrons and customers of concerts, venues, and performers were now often in financial difficulties themselves. To make ends meet, Rudge worked in 1933 as a secretary to Accademia Musicale in Siena

Siena

Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...

. She also managed to continue her musical career, performing in the annual Concerti Tigulliani program organized by Pound at Rapallo. Around this time, Rudge and Pound became key figures in the Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...

 revival. The 1936 Concerti Tigulliani program was devoted to Vivaldi, especially his lesser known works. To prepare for these concerts, Rudge studied many of Vivialdi's original scores kept in Turin

Turin

Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

. She attempted to organize a Vivaldi Society in Venice, without success. In 1938, she founded the "Centro di Studi Vivaldiani" at the "Accademia Chigiana", devoted to Vivaldi's work.

Rudge and Pound were both keen readers of mystery and detective novels: this was the era of Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...

, whose books earned her a fortune. Seeking to do the same, Pound and Rudge began in the 1930s, but never completed, a detective novel of their own; titled "The Blue Spill", it centred on the escapades of a Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 detective.

As World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 approached, Rudge limited her travel outside of Italy, last playing in London in 1935. By this time, Pound was vehemently pro-Mussolini and had begun broadcasting his views on Radio Rome, with Rudge's support. In 1941, they thought of returning to the U.S.A. for the duration of the war. Pound eventually decided against doing so, and they remained in Italy throughout the war. Pound's failure, at a crucial juncture, to declare his loyalty to his native country when it was at war, haunted him from the end of the war until the end of his life. As for Rudge, she had to live with the suspicion that she was the lover of a traitor to her country.

War years

The war years were difficult for the couple. After the United States entered the war, Pound and his wife Dorothy became enemy alien

Enemy alien

In law, an enemy alien is a citizen of a country which is in a state of conflict with the land in which he or she is located. Usually, but not always, the countries are in a state of declared war.-United Kingdom:...

s in Italy, an ironic situation in light of Pound's support of Mussolini. Their home in Rapallo was sequestered in 1943 and the couple had little choice but to move in with Rudge. Thus the ménage à trois

Ménage à trois

Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...

 for so long a matter of public speculation became a reality. Rudge sent her daughter back to Gais to live with her original peasant guardians, and was forced by necessity to support the Pounds and her daughter by giving language lessons. It was a very difficult time for the trio: while both women adored Pound, they hated each other. Pound's wife later wrote that "hatred and tension permeated the house".

Following the United States' invasion of Italy in 1945, Pound was arrested as a traitor and was held in an open cage in Pisa for 25 days. His alleged anti-Semitism, support for the Fascists, and broadcasts for Rome radio, led to an indictment

Indictment

An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...

 for treason. Rudge too had been arrested. She was released after interrogation, but she was not permitted to correspond with her lover until several months later. She and Pound's wife are known to have once visited him during his detention.

Although she was deprived of her lover, the end of the war saw an improvement in Rudge's fortunes as her sequestered Venetian home was returned to her. In order to avoid a trial for treason, Pound was declared criminally insane and incarcerated in an asylum

Psychiatric hospital

Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...

, St. Elizabeths Hospital

St. Elizabeths Hospital

St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. It was the first large-scale, federally-run psychiatric hospital in the United States. Housing several thousand patients at its peak, St. Elizabeths had a fully functioning...

, where he remained for twelve years. Rudge began the onerous task of trying to secure his freedom. She used friends and their many contacts in the literary world to mount a petition attesting to his character and that amongst other things he had never in fact been a member of the Italian Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista). One of her ideas was that Pound be released to live in an American monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

, but all her entreaties fell on deaf ears. In St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Pound was treated well and was given an individual cell where he was able to continue his work. His letters discourage Rudge from visiting him but she did travel to America to visit him twice, once in 1952 and again in 1955. Pound at this time was receiving visits not only from his wife but other mistresses too. Following the 1955 visit, their letters to each other become cooler and more impersonal, and they rarely communicated at all from 1955 to 1959.

This coolness between 1955 and 1959 is the only hint that perhaps she did mind his other lady friends, but little is known of Rudge's views of Pound's "other women". She had no choice but to tolerate the existence of his wife. Marcella Spann, an English teacher, began to write to him in St. Elizabeth's, which led to visits. Following his release, Spann accompanied Ezra and Dorothy back to Italy, acting as his secretary. Pound is alleged to have proposed to her (although he was already married), but Dorothy sent Spann packing. Nevertheless, Spann and Pound jointly edited the 1964 volume Confucius to Cummings: An Anthology of Poetry.

Venice and Pound

In 1958, Pound was declared incapable of standing trial. He was stripped of his rights of citizenship

Citizenship

Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...

 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

Boris de Rachewiltz

Prince Boris de Rachewiltz was an Italian-Russian Egyptologist and writer on Africa and the ancient world. He studied Egyptology at the Pontifical Biblical Institute ....

 and living at Brunnenberg castle

Schloss Brunnenburg

Brunnenburg is a castle in the province of South Tyrol, in northern Italy.- History :Originally built circa 1250, it was completely restored by Boris and Mary de Rachewiltz, who made it their home in the mid-20th century...

 in Tirol. Pound's health was now broken and he spent a year in the sanatorium

Sanatorium

A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

 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

Eccentricity (behavior)

In popular usage, eccentricity refers to unusual or odd behavior on the part of an individual. This behavior would typically be perceived as unusual or unnecessary, without being demonstrably maladaptive...

, 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

Isola di San Michele

San Michele is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, northern Italy.Originally a prison island, Napoleon's occupying forces decreed that Venetians could not bury their deceased on any of the main Venetians islands, but only on 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.

Alone in Venice

Rudge was 78 when Pound died, the beginning of the final phase of her life. She became one of Venice's resident celebrities, quick witted, intelligent, and cultured. She sat on many committees organizing the city's many charities and galas. She was an essential guest at the city's profuse "dolce vita" gatherings, but continued to inhabit the same small house she had shared with Pound. Encouraging young aspiring poets and artists, she often offered them free use of the top floor of her home in return for a small painting or dedicated poem. Frequently asked to write an autobiography, she always replied "write about Pound". She saw it as her raison d'être to promote Pound's work and defend his reputation against charges of anti-Semitism and Fascism.

Rudge's relationship with her daughter Mary had always been complex: at the time of the birth, Rudge had in fact wanted a son. Having boarded the child with Tyrolean farmers at birth, Rudge was later surprised to find the child developed into "a dialect speaking farm girl". Rudge tried to rectify this situation upon being permanently reunited with Mary when the child was ten. Elocution

Elocution

Elocution is the study of formal speaking in pronunciation, grammar, style, and tone.-History:In Western classical rhetoric, elocution was one of the five core disciplines of pronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper diction, but on the proper...

, etiquette

Etiquette

Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...

, and music lessons were met with fierce opposition; a violin that Rudge gave to her daughter was smashed against a chicken coop: in short, Mary found her mother distant, impenetrable, and authoritarian. Her relationship with her father was better. She learned of her illegitimacy only in her late teens. Pound asked Mary to translate his epic work The Cantos

The Cantos

The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date from 1922 onwards. It is a book-length work, widely considered...

into Italian. This was to be the beginning of a lifelong passion and study of Pound's work, with Mary later referring to The Cantos as "my bible". Mary wrote her autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

, Discretions, in 1971 (the title being a play on words on Pound's autobiography, Indiscretions). The revelations contained in the book "deeply hurt" Rudge, and she and her daughter did not communicate for several years, although she remained in regular contact with Mary's children, Walter de Rachewiltz and Patrizia de Rachewiltz de Vroom. Mother and daughter later overcame their estrangement.

Venice with its many steps and lack of motorised road vehicles is a difficult city for the old and infirm, and with her family several hours' drive away, Rudge had to become dependent on friends and acquaintances for the necessities of life. In later life her memory began to fail her.

Ezra Pound Foundation

It had always been Rudge's intention to set up a foundation of some kind to house Pound's archives, but this was a task she always deferred, while continuing to assist scholars of his work and organize several exhibitions devoted to him. In 1986, Rudge together with an American friend, Jane Rylands, and an attorney from Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, formed the "Ezra Pound Foundation". Rudge sold most of her archive and her house to the Foundation for a sum of approximately seven thousand dollars. After the establishment of the Foundation, Rudge's family alleged that this had not been her intention, and that the house and archive were worth considerably more. Part of the problem was that, aged 91, Rudge was becoming forgetful of things she had agreed to. In April 1988, Rudge wrote to the Cleveland attorney informing him of her wish to dissolve the Foundation. The reply told her that such a request was not within the law. The papers were later deposited in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library was a 1963 gift of the Beinecke family. The building was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft of the firm of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, and is the largest building in the world reserved exclusively for the preservation of rare books...

, Yale University, where they are housed today, and the Ezra Pound Foundation was dissolved. One box of papers concerning the transfer of the archive from the Ezra Pound Foundation is withheld from public viewing.

Final years

At the time of the creation of the Ezra Pound Foundation, Rudge's friends were becoming increasingly concerned for her. The sculptress Joan Fitzgerald contacted Rudge's daughter, and Rudge's son-in-law and grandson immediately came to Venice. They found that ownership of her house "The Hidden Nest" had not yet been conveyed to the Foundation and were able to recover it, but the archive, containing letters not only from Pound but from other great literary figures of the day, had passed from her ownership. Rudge continued for a short while to live at "The Hidden Nest" until old age and infirmity forced to her to leave Venice and make her final home with her daughter at Schloss Brunnenburg

Schloss Brunnenburg

Brunnenburg is a castle in the province of South Tyrol, in northern Italy.- History :Originally built circa 1250, it was completely restored by Boris and Mary de Rachewiltz, who made it their home in the mid-20th century...

. Her family – her daughter, two grandchildren and four great-grandsons – were protective of her, and it was at their home that Rudge died, aged 100, on 15 March 1996.

She was buried with Pound in Venice. Joan Fitzgerald, a close friend of the couple, engraved on their simple tombstones the verse "O God, what great kindness have we done in times past and forgotten it, That thou givest this wonder unto us, O God of waters?" (Night Litany). An alternative epitaph

Epitaph

An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that is inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively. Some are specified by the dead person beforehand, others chosen by those responsible for the burial...

 to Rudge could have been that written by Pound in 1966 and intended to be placed at the end of the final Canto:

That her acts

Olga's acts

of beauty

be remembered.

Her name was courage

and is written Olga.

The courage to which Pound was referring was her resolute and very public loyalty to him after the war, when Pound, his work and those who supported it were vilified as a result of Pound being perceived as an anti-Semitic, fascist traitor. Her loyalty to Pound continued until her own death.

Legacy

Rudge was fiercely proud to have always been financially independent of Pound, and continued her career as concert violinist until the Second World War. Her advocacy of the works of Vivaldi, which included publishing a catalogue of his works and an article in the Grove Dictionary of Music, did much to establish his modern day popularity. She discovered and publicised 309 Vivaldi concerto

Concerto

A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

s which had either been lost or forgotten. However, it is as Pound's muse, mistress, and champion that she is chiefly remembered today. Anne Conover's book Olga Rudge and Ezra Pound (2001) is one of the few to credit Rudge for her own endeavours as well as her role of muse to Ezra Pound. Shortly before his death, Pound wrote of Rudge "There is more courage in Olga's little finger than in the whole of my carcass ... she kept me alive for ten years, for which no one will thank her. The true story will not be told until her version is known".

External links

• Fondazione Georgio Cini, the Rudge collection.
• Olga Rudge Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
• Olga Rudge Papers Addition. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
• Olga Rudge Papers(Digital) Digital collection from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
• 1918 passport photo of Olga Rudge