Daily Quiz for February 9, 2009

Treason. American-born poet Ezra Pound was found to be mentally unfit to stand trial in 1946 after being charged with committing treason against the United States during World War II. A resident of Italy beginning in 1924, the pro-Fascist Pound broadcast propaganda to the U.S. via short wave radio during the war. He was indicted for treason by the U.S. in 1943 and after the war brought to Washington, D.C., to stand trial. At that time Pound was adjudged to be mentally unfit to stand trial and was confined to a mental hospital from 1946 until 1958, when he was released and returned to Italy. Born in Hailey, Idaho in 1885, Pound was an innovator of verse forms and techniques, founder of the Imagist movement and a leader in other avant-garde poetry trends. Pound, who died in Italy in 1972, is recognized as one of the 20th century’s most important literary figures.