Birth of Modernism

Leon Surette is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Western Ontario. His previous books include The Modern Dilemma: Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, and Humanism and The Birth of Modernism: Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and the Occult.

• Discovering the past; the occult tradition in the cantos; Nietzsche, Wagner, and myth; Pound's editing of "The waste land'; conclusion.

"Surette's study will be a controversial work of literary history, but it is one that deserves respect for its wide-ranging scholarship, its wit, and the thoughtful subtlety and restraint with which he presents his challenging thesis." E.F. Harden, Choice. "A good book on a great theme. It should, and will, alter the way we read the 20th century." Chris Scott, The Ottawa Citizen.