By Sara Haslam
August 1893: The Questions at the Well by Fenil Haig [the first of many pseudonyms Ford used] was published by Digby, Long & Co., dedicated to Miss Elsie Martindale.
Aside from the number of Elsie Martindale’s typed and handwritten story manuscripts, and the books of Ford’s that remained together in her possession, the most striking thing to this Ford scholar invited to explore the papers held by her descendants in Dublin were her diaries.
‘April 9th 95 F. is working again at the Life [of Madox Brown] getting through a year a day’
‘April 10th [1895] Beautiful day – windows open – cows grazing – a hot sun and warm wind.’
One covers the full year 1899 in a commercially produced, week per double page volume. Each day is in a bordered rectangle, and in general Elsie wrote inside the lines, keeping the margins for recording the weather.
January 21st, 1899: ‘Rain & terrific gale. Stores arrived. Nothing particular happened except a packet of Tibbles completely vanished. Did half a page of work. F. sent sonnet to Meredith - also wrote German poem.’
Arthur Mizener is the only one of Ford's biographers to have had direct access to the 1899 diary, and quotes from it very briefly with regard to Ford and Conrad's early relationship. But there was an earlier shorter text also: a loosely gathered fragment covering April 9th to 23rd, 1895 (Easter Day was on the 14th). Between them, these texts provide a welcome window into the everyday texture of their lives in the years following their marriage, and plenty of additional detail about Ford’s and Elsie’s relationship, and their friendships with their circle, especially the Conrads.
Saturday February 4th 1899 [in London]: ‘Left M[artindale]’s at 10, went to Burne Jones and Rembrandt exhibs. Both very fine. Lunched at Lyons and then went to the B.M. Bought Tristan and Lohengrins[?] songs. Waited for Robert and returned from London Bridge about 5. Bought haddock and cod fish for Sunday dinner. Found Mrs S[tepniak] flourishing and Xina cosily in bed. F. conducted Mrs S. home.’
Tuesday 31st February 1899: ‘Woke at 6.30 feeling a good deal better. A letter from Conrad with rather promising news about the C. P. [Cinque Ports] book & B’woods…’
I value these texts also because we hear Elsie’s voice so clearly, and for the insight they provide into the emergent professional woman of the time – writing though married, though more easily before Christina’s birth. April 19th [1895]: ‘Since then [she had visited a local couple, the Spratfords, along with Mrs Walker] I have written ‘Going Home’. I have now only one more to write before I send them up to Edward [Garnett?]. Hope he will approve of them.’ When she records encounters with Mrs Walker – the Meary Walker we know through Ford - and ‘old Jarvis’, she displays keen observational skills in ways closely related to the ‘peasant biographies’ Ford was later praised so highly for for.
Wednesday 12th April 1899: ‘Baked in brick oven with the help of Mrs Walker. Asparagus arrived and put in garden.’
Saturday 3rd June 1899: ‘F. and D[addy] went to Rye to golf. M[ary] and Ma came over in the morning. X still breathing quickly and wheezing kept her in bed. F. got a lot of books for “Rye”.’
Thursday 6th July 1899: ‘Money came from B’wood at last. Went out into the hayfield with X and they gave her some tea. Consequently she did not go to sleep until 9.30. Hyde suddenly turned up very loving and jovial. Went for midnight stroll.’
Wednesday November 1st 1899: ‘F. returned from the Pent in a very dismal mood. News the Boers captured 800 English.’
I'm looking forward to writing this up in more detail soon, and these Diaries will also provide invaluable context of course for Volume 1 of Ford’s Collected Letters, which I’m co-editing with Helen Chambers. But I wanted to write these notes first, to increase knowledge of the woman who made Ford’s domestic life possible for 10 years, and left a record of the first full year after he met Joseph Conrad. I hope you enjoy the taster offered by this introduction, and the selected quotations, for which, grateful acknowledgement to Charles and Gillian Lamb.
Photo courtesy of:
Ford Madox Ford Collection #4605, Division of Rare Books and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University
August 1893: The Questions at the Well by Fenil Haig [the first of many pseudonyms Ford used] was published by Digby, Long & Co., dedicated to Miss Elsie Martindale.
Aside from the number of Elsie Martindale’s typed and handwritten story manuscripts, and the books of Ford’s that remained together in her possession, the most striking thing to this Ford scholar invited to explore the papers held by her descendants in Dublin were her diaries.
‘April 9th 95 F. is working again at the Life [of Madox Brown] getting through a year a day’
‘April 10th [1895] Beautiful day – windows open – cows grazing – a hot sun and warm wind.’
One covers the full year 1899 in a commercially produced, week per double page volume. Each day is in a bordered rectangle, and in general Elsie wrote inside the lines, keeping the margins for recording the weather.
January 21st, 1899: ‘Rain & terrific gale. Stores arrived. Nothing particular happened except a packet of Tibbles completely vanished. Did half a page of work. F. sent sonnet to Meredith - also wrote German poem.’
Arthur Mizener is the only one of Ford's biographers to have had direct access to the 1899 diary, and quotes from it very briefly with regard to Ford and Conrad's early relationship. But there was an earlier shorter text also: a loosely gathered fragment covering April 9th to 23rd, 1895 (Easter Day was on the 14th). Between them, these texts provide a welcome window into the everyday texture of their lives in the years following their marriage, and plenty of additional detail about Ford’s and Elsie’s relationship, and their friendships with their circle, especially the Conrads.
Saturday February 4th 1899 [in London]: ‘Left M[artindale]’s at 10, went to Burne Jones and Rembrandt exhibs. Both very fine. Lunched at Lyons and then went to the B.M. Bought Tristan and Lohengrins[?] songs. Waited for Robert and returned from London Bridge about 5. Bought haddock and cod fish for Sunday dinner. Found Mrs S[tepniak] flourishing and Xina cosily in bed. F. conducted Mrs S. home.’
Tuesday 31st February 1899: ‘Woke at 6.30 feeling a good deal better. A letter from Conrad with rather promising news about the C. P. [Cinque Ports] book & B’woods…’
I value these texts also because we hear Elsie’s voice so clearly, and for the insight they provide into the emergent professional woman of the time – writing though married, though more easily before Christina’s birth. April 19th [1895]: ‘Since then [she had visited a local couple, the Spratfords, along with Mrs Walker] I have written ‘Going Home’. I have now only one more to write before I send them up to Edward [Garnett?]. Hope he will approve of them.’ When she records encounters with Mrs Walker – the Meary Walker we know through Ford - and ‘old Jarvis’, she displays keen observational skills in ways closely related to the ‘peasant biographies’ Ford was later praised so highly for for.
Wednesday 12th April 1899: ‘Baked in brick oven with the help of Mrs Walker. Asparagus arrived and put in garden.’
Saturday 3rd June 1899: ‘F. and D[addy] went to Rye to golf. M[ary] and Ma came over in the morning. X still breathing quickly and wheezing kept her in bed. F. got a lot of books for “Rye”.’
Thursday 6th July 1899: ‘Money came from B’wood at last. Went out into the hayfield with X and they gave her some tea. Consequently she did not go to sleep until 9.30. Hyde suddenly turned up very loving and jovial. Went for midnight stroll.’
Wednesday November 1st 1899: ‘F. returned from the Pent in a very dismal mood. News the Boers captured 800 English.’
I'm looking forward to writing this up in more detail soon, and these Diaries will also provide invaluable context of course for Volume 1 of Ford’s Collected Letters, which I’m co-editing with Helen Chambers. But I wanted to write these notes first, to increase knowledge of the woman who made Ford’s domestic life possible for 10 years, and left a record of the first full year after he met Joseph Conrad. I hope you enjoy the taster offered by this introduction, and the selected quotations, for which, grateful acknowledgement to Charles and Gillian Lamb.
Photo courtesy of:
Ford Madox Ford Collection #4605, Division of Rare Books and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University
RSS Feed
