Memories and impressions

As a child, ‘Fordie’ frequently heard loud arguments between William Morris, Rossetti and the other Pre-Raphaelites; he was well used to finding Swinburne dead drunk in the bath; he say on Turgenev’s knee and offered a chair for Tolstoy. As a young writer he was companion to Henry James; contorted to Crane; collaborator with Conrad; friend and then enemy of H.G. Wells. Fattish and fiftyish, he was universal uncle to ‘the arts’; patron of Ezra Pound; first guide of D.H. Lawrence; employer of Ernest Hemingway. Later still be turned, like Horace, to his garden, living off his own shareholding in Provence and preaching the holocaust to come.

This book is an engaging collection of essays, anecdotes and autobiographical passages taken from various of his works. Arranged chronologically, they create a fascinating picture of his life in England, France and America, and an intimate glimpse into the lives of many of the literary giants of the century.