Ezra Pound (1885–1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic who was a major figure in the early modernist movement. His contribution to poetry began with his development of Imagism, a movement derived from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry, stressing clarity, precision and economy of language. His best-known works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), and the unfinished 120-section epic, The Cantos (1917–69). Later in life, he became a controversial figure with his descent into mental illness and for the advocacy of Mussolini’s fascist regime in Italy during the 1930s and 1940s that resulted in his imprisonment.