ABSTRACT
Never economically secure or artistically satisfied in a single location, Ford Madox Ford spent the last twenty years of his life shuttling across the Atlantic. This chapter looks at the North American portions of his life and work to assess his legacy from a transatlantic perspective, examining his involvement in America and American identity in terms of his interest in building transnational artistic communities. Throughout New York is Not America, Ford is at pains to identify himself as both an outsider and a New Yorker—appropriately so, for New York City’s immigrant ethos depends on the narrative of the outsider made insider. New York is for Ford largely a continuation of the artist’s community he saw taking shape in Paris in the 1920s—the creative side of humanity gathering together regardless of national origin. Pound clearly saw Ford not only as a champion of belles lettres, but in particular as a man committed to fostering literary talent in the young.
