On the 14th Anniversary of Charles Henri Ford’s Passing

On the 14^th Anniversary of Charles Henri Ford’s Passing

Charles Henri Ford. Photo by Matthew R Lewis

Fourteen years ago, on September 27^th, 2002, Charles Henri Ford passed away here in New York. He was 94 years old when he died, but his spirit was youthful and busy right up until that day. On this same date in 1934, Charles wrote a letter to his father, which he mailed from France. 

“To Daddy,” he wrote. “Arrived in Paris last night after a few days in Toulon and a couple of nights in Marseilles. Visited Aix-en-Provence on the way up, like walking in the 18^th century. Spain has a brutality in the landscape that one misses in France.” 

He mentions a manuscript for a novel, for which he hoped to find a publisher. His agent of the day had told him the book was without commercial value, but that was never something that bothered Charles or stopped him, and he had plenty of successes over his long life that made him happy, if not rich. The book he wrote with Parker Tyler, The Young and Evil, published around the time of this letter, was considered without commercial value too, and it was also considered shocking. I think that probably made Charles happy, the fact that it was shocking. 

Charles lived for art of every kind, and he lived to experience life to the fullest, which he did. And he was lucky in that the world when he was young was still full of undiscovered places compared to the world as it is today. Charles was blessed with good timing in his life.

“I can’t describe in a letter all the wonderful things we saw in Spain,” he wrote to his father in that letter dated September 27^th, 1934, about his travels with Pavel Tchelitchew.  “We also visited Granada, which was the most marvelous of all.”

Could Charles have ever imagined that this same day on the calendar, sixty-eight years in the future, would be his last? I don’t think he thought about it at all, but if he had known it, I think he might have wanted to have it made into a poem or a play or another manuscript “without commercial value.”  

Charles lived a long life full of marvelous achievements and experiences, and in case he’s watching, I want him to know that he’s not forgotten, and his influence lives on more than ever. 

Charles Henri Ford

February 10, 1908 – September 27, 2002

-Indra Tamang

 09/27/2016

copyright © Indra Tamang 2016, all rights reserved.

On the Passing of Edward Albee

On the Passing of Edward Albee 

Edward Albee, three time recepient for Pulitzer prize for drama. Photo credit: Academy of Achievement

On August 12^th, 2009, Ruth Ford passed away in the Dakota, where she had lived for many years and where she hosted her legendary salon. Since then I’ve usually written a little piece every year to commemorate the day of her passing, but this year I did not due to some personal circumstances, and I want to make up for that now with a note on the passing of Ruth’s friend Edward Albee. 

I never met Mr. Albee myself, but he was our neighbor when Charles and I would stay out at Montauk, and he resided there until the end of his life on September 16^th. During the time when Ruth was hosting her salons, Edward Albee was one of the favorite guests among the theatrical and literary luminaries—William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and many others—who would come to enjoy those famous evenings at the Dakota.

One of the famous plays Edward Albee wrote is Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. It is safe to say that Ruth would have attended the opening night of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway—starring Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill—and the premier of its movie version starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as well, because Ruth was always invited to those glamorous events and she always attended if she were in town. It is also a sure bet that the awards that Mr. Albee won for that play—the Tony Award and the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for best play—would have been celebrated and talked about in Ruth’s elegant sitting room. 

Ruth definitely lived a charmed life surrounded by other charmed lives, and when she died, she left behind a huge library of plays—including those by Edward Albee—because reading plays was something she loved to do. Ruth enjoyed reading plays whether she intended to act in them or not, and it is well known that William Faulkner wrote his play Requiem for Nun specifically for Ruth. 

Edward Albee’s plays are almost constantly in production somewhere, and in that way he’ll live on in this world. Just as Ruth lives on through the movies she made in the 1940s, preserved forever on film and easy to find today. Wherever you are Ruth, I hope you are doing great things. And to you, Mr. Albee, bon voyage, good luck and break a leg!

Edward Albee 

March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016

Ruth Ford 

February 18, 1911 – August 12, 2009

-Indra Tamang

 09/27/2016

copyright © Indra Tamang 2016, all rights reserved.