Tag Archives: Ford Madox Ford

When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, / Hath put a spirit of youth in everything …

Today is (supposedly, roughly) the birthday of William Shakespeare. April 23, 1564. (Title of the post from Sonnet 98.) One of the things I think about when I think about Shakespeare, is my late great teacher Doug Moston, who died … Continue reading

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“I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.” Happy Birthday, Rebecca West

It is hard to talk about her without referencing the generations of writers she inspired, all of whom admit their debt to her. Robert Kaplan is the most open about it (his Balkan Ghosts, which launched his career, has him … Continue reading

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Rejoyce. It’s Bloomsday.

Some men send flowers to commemorate an anniversary. James Joyce wrote Ulysses. Overachiever. On June 15, 1904, young James Joyce sent a note to Nora Barnacle, who was a waitress at Finn’s Hotel. Barnacle (what an apt name) was a … Continue reading

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Beautiful Isolation

Memorial Day will bring on the real summer beach season. I was at the beach this past weekend and it was beautiful, and misty, and nearly empty. It’s also still quite chilly, the air anyway, and the only people in … Continue reading

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The Books: Passions of the Mind, ‘Accurate Letters: Ford Madox Ford,’ by A.S. Byatt

On the essays shelf (yes, there are still more books to excerpt in my vast library. I can’t seem to stop this excerpts-from-my-library project. I started it in 2006!) NEXT BOOK: Passions of the Mind, a collection of essays by … Continue reading

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“Like Peter Pan…”

Like Peter Pan, he never grew up, and he lived his own stories with such intensity that he ended by believing them himself. — Ford Madox Ford on Jack London, 1916

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National Poetry Month: Geoffrey Chaucer

Merciless Beauté I. CAPTIVITY Your yën two wol slee me sodenly. I may the beauté of hem not sustene, So woundeth hit through-out my herte kene. And but your word wol helen hastily Mt hertes wounde, whyl that hit is … Continue reading

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Ford Madox Ford: “the cadence of his prose”

“For myself then, the pleasure — the very great pleasure — that I get from going through the sentences of Mr. Joyce is that given me simply by the cadence of his prose, and I fancy that the greatest and … Continue reading

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