Portraits from Life

Ford Madox Ford's wry look at authors he had known, rendered as small sketches or vignettes of Henry James, Stephen Crane, Thomas Hardy, DH Lawrence, and others. A fun read, especially for readers who enjoy late 19th and early 20th century literature.

Written late in his life (1936-37; Ford died in 1939), this book collects 11 essays on well-known literary luminaries Ford had known personally. They include Henry James, Stephen Crane, W.H. Hudson, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, John Galsworthy, D.H. Lawrence, Ivan Turgenev, Theodore Dreiser, and Algernon Charles Swinburne. Each essay mainly relates Ford's personal take on each man rather than a discussion of each man's work. He was impressed with the talent of all these writers, some more than others. He thought Crane was the first American writer because he was "the first to be passionately interested in the life that surrounded him - and the life that surrounded him was that of America." (What about Mark Twain?) He didn't go along with Wells's belief in machines and economics; he believed to "have a living civilization we must have civilized hearts." When Ford first met Dreiser he says humorously that " when Mr. Dreiser said hurriedly that he had read all my books and liked them very much and I had replied just as hurriedly that I had read all his and liked them very much too, I was not lying as much as he was." He disliked Lawrence the most, man and books. Above all he felt that Turgenev was the ultimate master, the best writer and craftsman of all these writers and of all writers. One wonders at times exactly what audience Ford had in mind for these essays (despite himself: Ford always seems to have himself in mind) because they don't speak to the reader directly, though in spots they can be very interesting. By the end, though, I felt I wanted more than Ford delivered.