At twenty six years old, in 1921, Olga went to Capri, before it became a tourist spot, where there were many women living, artists and musicians, what could be called a lesbian colony. She went there with the woman who she had partnered with for her performances, pianist Renata Borgatti, who was lesbian, and they shared housing. The question lingers, the possibility that the two women did have a lesbian relationship. Olga seemed to deny it, was even a bit defensive, and yet, it seems that Ezra considered that she might have had an experience. What is known is that the two women were life-long collaborators, and that Ezra Pound got used to Renata's temperament. Olga wrote years later that the three men most important in her life, her father, Egerton, and Ezra all liked Renata but that might have been sentimentality. Egerton continued to profess his love for Olga that summer and in some way Olga continued to love him, for she would someday be buried in a red kimona that he had brought back from Japan for her. Ezra had attended Olga's performance, and we know they had written to each other, but exactly when the couple became a couple remains a mystery.
Whatever the case there is evidence that Ezra was slow to acknowledge or accept the new circumstances of his life. He remained married to Dorothy, and was known for socializing without her, but when he had Olga come to Rapolla, Italy, in February 1924, he installed her in the same hotel where he and his wife were staying, which angered her. Meanwhile Egerton again proposed that he and Olga marry. These were years in which both Olga and Ezra traveled for performances and business and to connect with their peers, family and friends. She went back and forth to London. They came and went and so there many have been weeks or months in which their paths did not cross. And, there is always a question of how much Dorothy knew or accepted. The Pounds were thinking that Rapolla would be their permanent home. It can also not be assumed that it was Ezra who seduced the much younger Olga. He may have kept a certain distance in their relationship or his wife might have tried to do that in the beginning. But they certainly managed to meet up because Olga became pregnant by Ezra. Ezra and Dorothy remained childless and rumors were that Dorothy had never warmed to sexuality.
Excerpt page 56:
In Olga's view, Ezra should not be deprived of the privilege of having a child, a torchbearer. They had a daughter by "mutual consent." Olga wrote "but it was I who wanted the child, and saw no reason to make him responsible... EP could not have undertaken the child's upbringing, and OR was not counting on it." When she first mentioned the subject, Ezra had turned down the suggestion: the world was no place to bring a child into, he said, especially without economic security. ...... she did not mention the subject again until an unidentified patron if the arts, a friend of both, suggested to Ezra that she would supervise the upbringing of Olga's child and support it financially. With this commitment, Ezra changed his mind and asked Olga if she might change hers.
***
It's possible that the unknown art patron was lesbian Natalie Barnes, who's friendship with Ezra was enduring. In any case, Olga decided she would not accept financial help. She though stipends from her father and subletting her deceased mother's Paris apartment would suffice
Olga Rudge gave birth after a long and difficult labor that required a surgery, a daughter Mary, and she registered Arthur Rudge, the name of her brother who had died in World War I, as the father, to spare her daughter and Ezra future difficulties. She had given birth in a town north of Rome at a time when unaccompanied women were not welcome in hotels and she had kept her pregnancy quiet from some of her peers and was not honest with her own father. Baby Mary was premature and not robust and Olga could not breast feed. She was left with a wet nurse in the village so that the baby would prosper and Olga could continue to perform concerts and earn money.
C 2024 Mistress Manifesto - BlogSpot
All rights reserved including Internet and Intentional Rights
Reviews, selection of excerpts, narrative.
No comments:
Post a Comment