Charles Henri Ford’s Blues: A Magazine of New Rhythms and the Belated Renovation of Modernism

This article focuses on the early editorial and literary career of Charles Henri Ford (1908–2002). Spanning much of the twentieth century, Ford’s multiform aesthetic sensibility incorporated poetry, visual art, filmmaking, photography, and magazine editing. Despite the breath and depth of his interests and achievements, little critical attention has been paid to Ford. My article addresses this imbalance. It recovers an unfairly marginalized poet and editor whose little magazine sought to renovate modernism along decidedly queer lines. The first section contextualizes Ford and his second-generation modernist little magazine. The subsequent sections chart the magazine’s trajectory.