Record Number: 34319

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have lately re-read here the complete works of Conrad and Henry James and am engaged on reading all the books of Stephen Crane that I can lay my hands on—for the to me astounding fact is that the works of these three writers are here out of print and practically unobtainable, such being glory! I had to borrow the Conrad and James from Doubleday and Scribner's respectively and Knopf has only been able to lend me Crane’s "George's Mother". . . after ringing up more than twenty new and second hand booksellers. Of Conrad I was most re-impressed by "Under Western Eyes", "Nostromo" and the "Secret Agent"; of James the "Spoils of Poynton", the "Wings of the Dove", the "Turn of the Screw" and a dozen short stories. I have also been reading during a fortnight in Tennessee from which I have just returned, the "Agricultural Census" of the United States, several lives of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Boone, Crockett and minor Southern Notabilities, the new (as yet unpublished) volume of poems by Allen Tate; the new (as yet unpublished) novel of Robert Penn Warren—both these admirable; and a number of other works in ms. Of lately published work I have vivid recollections of and admiration for “Aleck Maury, Sportsman”, by Caroline Gordon, “Act of Darkness” by John Peale Bishop,” Walls Against the Wind” by Frances Park, “Little Candle’s Beam” by Isa Glenn and Graham Greene’s “It’s a Battlefield” and Arnold Gingrich’s “Cast Down the Laurel”.' [Ford then indicates his intended shipboard reading between New York and Naples on the S.S. "Roma" including Crane and W. H. Hudson over the next week or so.]

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 7 Jun 1935 and 24 Jun 1935

Country:

United States of America

Time

n/a

Place:

county: Tennessee
specific address: Benfolly

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Ford Madox Ford

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

17 Dec 1873

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Writer

Religion:

Catholic

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

United States of America

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

[n/a] [n/a]

Title:

United States Census of Agriculture

Genre:

Agriculture / horticulture / husbandry, Reference / General works

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

borrowed (other)

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

34319

Source:

Print

Author:

Ford Madox Ford

Editor:

Sondra Stang

Title:

The Ford Madox Ford Reader

Place of Publication:

New York

Date of Publication:

1986

Vol:

n/a

Page:

501

Additional Comments:

Ford to Lewis Gannett (book columnist, New York Herald Tribune), 27 June, 1935, from New York.

Citation:

Ford Madox Ford, Sondra Stang (ed.), The Ford Madox Ford Reader, (New York, 1986), p. 501, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=34319, accessed: 21 December 2024

---

Additional Comments:

Dates are speculative. Ford spent two weeks early in June 1935 at Benfolly, Allen Tate's and Caroline Gordon's country house near the Kentucky border. Ford was reading about US agriculture as background for "The Great Trade Route".