It was never going to be easy being Ezra Pound’s child and her unconventional start in life didn’t help. Mary de Rachewilitz was Pound’s daughter by his long-time mistress the violinist Olga Rudge. Hidden way at birth with a foster family in the Italian Alps, she had no idea who her real parents were for many years, even though they visited her on occasion. After such an inauspicious start, it’s not surprising that Mary’s life turned out to be complicated and often troubled, and this compelling and engaging biography tells a fascinating story. Decades of lies, obfuscations and divided loyalties followed, made even more difficult by Pound’s actions during the war, which ultimately led to his imprisonment. How Mary navigated her way through life makes for some compelling reading, and I found this an astonishing chronicle of a remarkable woman. In spite of its rather haphazard structure I was gripped by the book and very much enjoyed this study of complex personalities, families, politics and literary legacy.

Let the Wind Speak
Mary de Rachewiltz and Ezra Pound
by Carol Shloss
Pub Date 21 Feb 2023
University of Pennsylvania Press
Biographies & Memoirs | Nonfiction (Adult) | Poetry


I am reviewing a copy of Let the Wind Speak through University of Pennsylvania Press and Netgalley.



In Let the Wind Speak Carol Loeb Shloss attempts to create a compelling portrait of a complex relationship of a daughter and her literary-giant father: Ezra Pound and Mary de Rachewiltz, Pound’s child by his long-time mistress, the violinist Olga Rudge. Brought into the world in secret and hidden in the Italian Alps at birth, Mary was raised by German peasant farmers, had Italian identity papers, a German-speaking upbringing, Austrian loyalties common to the area and, perforce, a fascist education.


For years, de Rachewiltz had no idea that Pound and Rudge, the benefactors who would sporadically appear, were her father and mother. Gradually the truth of her parentage was revealed, and with it the knowledge that Dorothy Shakespear, and not Olga, was Pound’s actual wife. Dorothy, in turn, kept her own secrets: while Pound signed the birth certificate of her son, Omar, and claimed legal paternity, he was not the boy’s biological father. Two lies, established at the birth of these children, created a dynamic antagonism that lasted for generations.

Pound maneuvered through it until he was arrested for treason after World War II and shipped back from Italy to the United States, where he was institutionalized rather than imprisoned. As an adult, de Rachewiltz took on the task of claiming a contested heritage and securing her father’s literary legacy in the face of a legal system that failed to recognize her legitimacy. Born on different continents, separated by nationality, related by natural birth, and torn apart by conflict between Italy and America, Mary and Ezra Pound found a way to live out their deep and abiding love for one another.


Though I wanted to love this book, the truth is I struggled through it. There were interesting aspects to the book, but honestly I struggle to get through segments of it.


I give Let the Winds Speak Three out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

I was looking for ward to reading this, but unfortunately the author has no methodology to speak of, and the book is rather a mess. There's a lot of speculation, a lot of problems with the authorial distance to the subject (or lack thereof), and a structure that simply doesn't work, jumping around in time but also in ideas, which makes it hard to grasp developments or a linear narrative.