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48 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
Ford was one of Pound's earliest and most steadfast supporters,
but he was never able to remain in a position of strength, that is,
in a place where he could assist deserving talents and expose the
unworthy. Although his background fitted him for the editorship
of any literary journal in England, he was much too well-qualified.
After all, this is the century of the Third-Raters, and a First-Rater
can only accept the penalties against him that are inescapable, because
he is not of his time. The only editorships ever held by Ford
were those on two journals that he himself had founded, The
English Review, and the transatlantic review.
Although Pound's literary excursions provoked nervous admonitions
from Oxford dons who had staked their claims many years
earlier, Ford greeted his translations with enthusiasm. He welcomed
Pound's Cathay as "one of the most beautiful volumes of
poems in the world." 32
It was this book of translations from the
Chinese that led T. S. Eliot to term Pound the inventor of Chinese
poetry for our time.
His months of association with Pound on Holland Park Avenue are
delightfully chronicled by Ford in his New York Essays. He refers
to a time when he courted "a Beautiful Lady, so beautiful that Mr.
Bernard Shaw broke up the City Socialist Club by drinking champagne
out of her shoe." 33 It is typical of Ford's sly wit that he should
depict the Socialists as sitting around and drinking champagne.
The Beautiful Lady was wont to carry a red string bag, through
which the tips of onions protruded. She was joined on her morning
walks by Ford and Pound. "Ezra had a forked red beard," says Ford,
"luxuriant chestnut hair, an aggressive lank figure; one long blue
single stone earring dangled on his jawbone. He wore a purple hat,
a green shirt, a black velvet coat, vermilion socks, openwork,
brilliantly tanned sandals, and trousers of green billiard cloth in
addition to an immense flowing tie that had been hand-painted by a
Japanese Futurist poet."
In his casual way, Ford gives an encompassing picture of the
Beaux Arts society of pre-war London, where Japanese poets
painted ties and ballet dancers created sculpture.
"So, with the Beautiful Lady on my left," continues Ford, "and
Ezra on my right, Ezra scolding at the world and making at it
fencers' passes with his cane, we would proceed up Holland Park