Ezra Pound's and Olga Rudge's The Blue Spill

Written during the Italian winter of 1930, The Blue Spill is an unfinished detective novel written by Ezra Pound – the leading figure of modernist poetry in the 20th century – and his long-time companion Olga Rudge. Published for the first time in this authoritative critical edition, the novel reflects both Rudge’s and Pound’s voracious reading of popular fiction as it echoes and parodies such writers as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and P.G. Wodehouse.

Based on the original manuscripts of the novel, this critical edition includes annotation and textual commentary throughout. The book also includes critical essays exploring the contexts of the work, from the dynamics of artistic collaboration to the growing popularity of detective fiction at the beginning of the 20th century. Taken together, this unique publication sheds new light on the relationship between the literary avant-garde and popular culture in the modernist period.

Ezra Pound (1885-1972) was one of the most influential poets of the 20th century and perhaps the key figure in defining and promoting Anglo-American poetic modernism. The Cantos – an epic poem written over 50 years – is his major poetic work.

Olga Rudge (1895-1996) was a concert violinist and long-time companion of Ezra Pound.

Mark Byron is Associate Professor in English Literature and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia. His publications include Ezra Pound's Eriugena (Bloomsbury, 2014).

Sophia Barnes is Adjunct Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Sydney, Australia.