Correspondence with and relating to American poet, editor and translator Felix Stefanile, which also includes correspondence with James L. Weil of the Elizabeth Press, New York. Most of the correspondence relates to Thirty-one poems by Umberto Saba, translated by Stefanile, originally published in America by Elizabeth Press in 1978, and offprinted by Carcanet for British distribution in 1980. Includes references to: the acceptance of some of Stefanile's new Saba translations for PN Review in early 1979 [published in issue 11], and the mailing list for complimentary copies; efforts to secure copyright permission from Linuccia Saba for the Carcanet publication and for a larger American edition of Saba's poems; Carcanet's plans to overcome these copyright problems by offprinting from the American edition and distributing this in Britain; and Stefanile's satisfaction with the finished publication. There is also correspondence (at /24-25 and /30-39) relating to Carcanet's offprinting of the Elizabeth Press edition of The blue moustache, Stefanile's translation of work by the Italian Futurists, which appeared in Britain in 1982. Also includes references to Stefanile's belief that both Pound and Apollinaire were influenced by the Futurists.
The other major topic covered in the correspondence is the literary climate and literary funding in America, in particular the policies of the National Endowment for the Arts. Includes references to: Stefanile's essay on the subject, 'The Little Magazine Today', which was originally published in America in TriQuarterly and subsequently accepted for PN Review [12]; a subsequent essay on the same topic contributed to the New York Times Book Review (photocopy at /25), and responses to this. See pieces /1, /3-7, /12-13, /20-21 and /24-29 for references to this topic. In addition, /41 is a photocopy of an article by Ruth Dean on 'Democratic Art (Or the Politics of Literature)'. The Weil correspondence also includes references to publishing modern translations of the Greek and Roman Classics (/38-40).
The following typescript poems by Stefanile are included in the file: a humorous translation of Cecco Angiolieri's Sonnet 100 called 'To the Chairman of the NEA, And to His New Directors and Deputies' (/1); and 'Patronage' (/12).
Stefanile's letters are typescript with autograph and dated at West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.