Ford’s English Usage

To the Editors:

Edward Dahlberg’s piece on Ford Madox Ford was of special interest to me, because I had the privilege of listening to many of Ford’s rambling, but always entertaining, discourses, over drinks at the Café des Deux Magots, and at his “cocktail parties” in the rue de Vaugirand, where the refreshments consisted of half a bottle of warm vermouth, and a plateful of stale cookies.

Ford once told me that he and Hilaire Belloc were the only living writers of good English, because, as good Catholics, their style had never been corrupted by the King James version of the Scriptures.

Elmer Rice

Stamford, Connecticut