Ford Madox Ford and the Devil's Disciple Summary and Analysis

The Closerie des Lilas is Hemingway's favorite cafe in Paris. It is warm in winter and in the warm months there are pleasant trees to sit under. It is out of the way, he writes, so the people who go to the cafes mainly to be seen do not bother coming there. It has once been a popular cafe among poets, Hemingway says, but now is mainly filled with elderly men and their wives. Many of the patrons are war veterans, and wear their war ribbons.

One evening, Hemingway is sitting outside watching the activities on the boulevard. A man walks up to his table as if he has been looking for him. It is Ford Madox Ford, a writer and publisher of a periodical. He has a large...