How does one create an original work when the 'new' has already been established, marketed and institutionalised? Seeking to refine our own understanding of the high modernists through the frequent difficulties encountered by the generation that succeeded them, this study discusses issues of cultural value, the relationship of history to innovation, and the market for new works in an era already dominated by the likes of Joyce, Eliot and Pound. Containing illuminating examinations of Wyndham Lewis, Laura Riding and Henry Miller, this study will be invaluable reading for those interested in Modernism and its complicated legacy.