FORD MADOX FORD

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 482, 17 September 1948, Page 19

FORD MADOX FORD

THE LAST PRE-RAPHAELITE. By Douglas Goldring. Macdonald and Co., Londpn. ORD MADOX FORD is a novelist. who, nearly 10 years after his death, has not yet found the place reserved for him in literature. Douglas Goldring knew him personally, and admired his

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work; and although he sometimes finds it hard to reconcile the conflicting elements of Ford’s character, and to explain the more doubtful phases of his life, he has written an interesting biography. In Ford’s case it is necessary to make much allowance for the artistic temperament. He was untidy and eccentric in his private affairs, The failure of his marriage was followed by an unofficial alliance with a woman who later pursued him with gossip and innuendo. He escaped from this entanglement, and lived for about 10 years with a young woman who seemed to find him an attractive companion. When they decided to separate, for somewhat casual reasons, Ford had already found her successor in the United States, It cannot be surprising if a writer who drifted from one entanglement to another should be unpopular in England, where even artists are expected to take some notice of the social code. Unfortunately, Ford spread himself in other directions. As he grew older he was inclined to tell fairy tales of the kind which come from a_ harmless egotism. He had what H. G. Wells described as a "system of assumed persona and dramatized selyes." In‘plain words, he had difficulty in telling the truth about himself and his personal affairs. He was a man for whom truth was concerned more with artistic values than with the simple facts of experience, The‘ story-teller overflowed *into private and public life; it became easier for unfriendly critics-and he had many of them-to dismiss him as a slightly ridiculous. poseur. These oddities of temperament may’ seem less important when the man can be seen from a distance in time, Ford wes an artist who produced -books of unusual quality. The Good Soldier, for instance, makes admirable use of a de-vice-the "time shift"-which can be irritating in unskilful hands; and his ba pa trilogy, although little read in England, gave him a substantial reputation in the United States. Whether Mr. Goldring is justified in claiming gteatness for Ford, is another question. Ford was an expansive personality, vulnerable to depreciation. The value of this book, in spite of a somewhat anxious attempt to be comprehensive, is its provision of evidence which should make it easier for later critics to see the man and his work without prejudice.

M. H.

Holcroft