Finding aid for the Noel Stock Papers, 1886-2007

Biography of Noel Stock

Noel Stock, a native of Australia, has worked as a writer and translator since 1949. From 1968-1969 he was Visiting Lecturer at the University of Tasmania, and from 1969-1971 was Visiting Professor at the University of Toledo, English Department. In 1971 he assumed the position of Professor.

Stock first began to read Ezra Pound's poetry in Melbourne in 1946. He knew that Pound had been connected with the beginnings of the "modern movement" in English poetry and that he held strong views on economics and politics. He also knew of Pound's problems due to broadcasts he had made over Rome Radio during World War II and of his indictment for treason by the U.S. In 1953, after Pound was sent to St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Washington, D.C., Hugh Kenner who had just published a book on Pound's poetry, suggested that Stock contact Pound. He did so and received an immediate reply which was followed by more than 100 letters in the next five years. Stock left Australia in 1958 and was en route to England when charges against Pound were dropped, and he was released from the hospital. Pound returned to Italy in 1959 and Stock moved to Brunnenburg Castle, Tirolo di Merano, Italy where the poet's daughter lived. He first met Pound at Rapallo that summer and edited a collection of his essays entitled Impact: Essays on Ignorance and the Decline of American Civilization, which were published in 1960. From that year on, Stock had full access to Pound's collection of books and papers and had frequent contact with the poet and his wife and daughter. In 1961 he was awarded the Bollingen Fellowship to catalogue the Ezra Pound Archive at Brunnenburg. He was also awarded the Leverhulme Fellowship in 1968.

Stock has published several books including Poet In Exile (1964), Reading the Cantos: A Study of Meaning in Ezra Pound (1967, 1968), The Life of Ezra Pound (1970, 1974, 1982, 1985), Ezra Pound's Pennsylvania (1976), A Call to Order: Essays and Reviews, 1954-1974 (1976). In addition, he and Ezra Pound were the translators of Love Poems of Ancient Egypt (1962, 197l, 1978). Between 1960 and 1980 he edited and contributed to several books, including some written by Ezra Pound. Some of the periodicals he edited and contributed to between 1953 and 1980 are Shenandoah, X Quarterly, Modern Age, Quadrant, Poetry Australia, Helix, Edge, and Texas Quarterly. He also had numerous poems published in literary and poetry magazines between 1950 and 1957.

Along with the undergraduate and graduate courses taught by Stock, he has given numerous lectures and conducted seminars on the subjects of modernism and Ezra Pound.

Timeline

1929, May 29 - born in Melbourne, Australia

(?) married Marjorie and is the father of Maria and Jenny

1949-1955 - employed by News Department, Australian Broadcasting Commission

1955-1958 - free-lance writer

1961 - Bollingen Fellowship (New York) to catalogue Ezra Pound Archive at Brunnenburg, Italy

1961-1968 - writer and translator 1968 - Leverhulme Fellowship (London)

1968-1969 - Visiting Lecturer, University of Tasmania 1969-1971 - Visiting professor, University of Toledo

1971- 1991 - Professor, University of Toledo

Scope and Content

Noel Stock's papers consist of correspondence, articles, news clippings, poetry, photographs, publications of his and other writers, and typescripts for A Call to Order and Lives of the Saints. Many of the papers relate to Professor Stock's publications, The Life of Ezra Pound and Ezra Pound's Pennsylvania. Included are typescripts, publishers' galleys, page proofs, etc. relating to these publications and news clippings, reviews, extracts and copies of municipal records and documents associated with Ezra Pound's Pennsylvania. A large portion of the correspondence comes from Stock's publishers and publishers of Ezra Pound. Notable correspondents include family members of Ezra Pound, including his wife Dorothy; daughter, Mary de Rachewiltz; and Olga Rudge, his mistress; T. S. Eliot; Valarie Danby-Smith, an associate of Mrs. Ernest Hemingway; Herbert Woodward Martin; James Laughlin; Hugh Kenner; Peter Owen; Dudley Randall; Peter Russell; Stephen Spender; Henry Swabey; Charles Tomlinson; Florence Williams, the wife of William Carlos Williams; David Wright; Donald Gallup; and Peter Whigham.

Materials associated directly with Ezra Pound include correspondence, reviews, news clippings, photographs of Ezra Pound and people and places associated with him, school and church memorabilia, Pennsylvania maps, advertising leaflets, programs, and other literature written by Pound on the series of musical concerts which he and concert violinist Olga Rudge organized in Rapallo, Italy during the 1930's, FBI transcript of Pound's interrogation in Genoa, and other papers. Correspondence includes copies of Pound's letters to Miss Florence Ridpath, his public school teacher in Wyncote, Pennsylvania; a letter to W. B. Yeats; and letters to Pound from Wyndham Lewis. Also among the collection are letters to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Gatter from Pound and his wife and daughter with a written account by Mr. Gatter of Pound's visit to his childhood home in Wyncote in June, 1958. Much of the material relating to Pound was originally gathered by Mr. Gatter (Pennsylvania historian) for the publication of Ezra Pound's Pennsylvania and refers to Pound's origins and early life.

The correspondence and manuscript folders in the Noel Stock papers are organized alphabetically. The contents of the folders are chronological (earliest date to present) with the exception of Incoming Correspondence that is arranged alphabetically and chronologically.

2 linear feet of publications written by Noel Stock, largely about the life of Ezra Pound are organized alphabetically at the end of the collection.

A scrapbook of newspaper articles about Stock’s time in Italy at the Pound estate and reviews of his published works on Pound is included. It is located in Range 66.

Statement of Arrangement

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

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Preferred Citation

"[Collection Name], Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections, University of Toledo Libraries"