Elinor Nauen

I love her work. Far beyond loving her because she was my favorite novelist's last wife. I may have become a Biala collector. The one on the right we bought yesterday. 

Even though she'd been sick a long time, it is sad that Bernadette has died. The last time I saw her, Annabel & I drove up to her place in upstate New York. We sang our version of her "Essay" to the tune of "Streets of Laredo," her moving closer & closer in delight. I recently translated a poem of hers ("Carlton Fisk Is My Ideal") into Norwegian. Her wonderful Midwinter Day.

 

An image of love allows what I can't say,
Sun's lost in the window and love is below
Love is the same and does not keep that name
I keep that name and I am not the same

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.

~ George Herbert (1593-1633) 

 

I most often think of George Herbert in relation to Ford Madox Ford's great WWI novel, Parade's End. As he waits for further bombing, Christopher Tietjens struggles to remember the name of Herbert's parish, knowing that if he can, his mind will be safe. Thinking about FMF sent me into an hour's rabbit hole: does the FMF Society still exist? (Yes.) Then I thought about Biala, who I was first interested in as his last wife but now love her on her own & had half-forgotten I got to her through him. Read Ford! Read Herbert!

 

I first took notice of the painter Biala, first name Janice I once heard, in connection with Ford Madox Ford, but she is terrific in her own right. What a pleasure to see the well-chosen show at Tibor de Nagy yesterday. Several small paintings of bouquets, a few large landscapes, this Bonnard-esque interior-exterior. Her work is self-confident in the way of someone with nothing to prove.

Tibor de Nagy's principal, Andy Arnot, said Biala was Ford's literary executor. I wonder what happened to his daughters. Did they have any connection to his estate later in life? I wonder how I can find out more than their birth & death dates.

But that's mostly idle curiosity,  Read More