ABSTRACT
Lewis’ support of Hitler in 1930 led, indirectly but inexorably, to his exile in 1939. On September 1 Hitler invaded Poland, on September 2 Lewis and Froanna sailed for Canada, and on September 3 England declared war on Germany. Lewis’ reasons for leaving England were complex. His decision was based essentially on the misconception that he could earn more money as an artist in America than in England. Though financial considerations were predominant, Lewis was also influenced by a number of other factors: the encouragement of friends, the exhibition of his painting in New York, his Canadian passport, his desire to contact his family, his perpetual restlessness, and his urge to escape the depressing spectacle of another war in Europe. Lewis’ old friends Ford and Pound had also been in America in 1939 and might have been able to help him if they had been there when he arrived.
