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Ford Madox Ford

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Ford Madox Ford
c. 1905 photo
c. 1905photo
BornJoseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer
(1873-12-17)17 December 1873
Merton,Surrey,England
Died26 June 1939(1939-06-26)(aged 65)
Deauville,France
Pen nameFord Madox Ford
OccupationNovelist, publisher
Period1873–1939
SpouseElsie Martindale Hueffer
PartnerViolet Hunt
Stella Bowen
Janice Biala
Children3
RelativesFrancis Hueffer(father)
Catherine Madox Brown(mother)
Oliver Madox Hueffer(brother)
Juliet Soskice(sister)
Frank Soskice(nephew)
Ford Madox Brown(maternal grandfather)
Lucy Madox Brown(half-aunt)
Olivia Rossetti Agresti(cousin)
Johann Hermann Hüffer(paternal grandfather)

Ford Madox Ford(néJoseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer(/ˈhɛfər/HEF-ər);[1]17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journalsThe English ReviewandThe Transatlantic Reviewwere important in the development of early 20th-century English and American literature.

Ford is now remembered for his novelsThe Good Soldier(1915), theParade's Endtetralogy(1924–1928) andThe Fifth Queentrilogy(1906–1908).The Good Soldieris frequently included among the great literature of the 20th century, including the Modern Library 100 Best Novels,The Observer′s "100 Greatest Novels of All Time", andThe Guardian′s "1000 novels everyone must read".

Early life

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Ford was born in Merton in Surrey[2]toCatherine Madox BrownandFrancis Hueffer,the eldest of three; his brother wasOliver Madox Huefferand his sister wasJuliet Hueffer,the wife of David Soskice and mother ofFrank Soskice.Ford's father, who became a music critic forThe Times,was German and his mother English. His paternal grandfatherJohann Hermann Hüfferwas first to publishWestphalianpoet and authorAnnette von Droste-Hülshoff.He was named after his maternal grandfather, thePre-RaphaelitepainterFord Madox Brown,whose biography he would eventually write. His mother's older half-sister wasLucy Madox Brown,the wife ofWilliam Michael Rossettiand mother ofOlivia Rossetti Agresti.

In 1889, after the death of their father, Ford and Oliver went to live with their grandfather in London. Ford attended theUniversity College Schoolin London, but never studied at university.[3]In November 1892, at 18, he became a Catholic, "very much at the encouragement of some Hueffer relatives, but partly (he confessed) galled by the 'militant atheism and anarchism' of his English cousins."[4]

Personal life

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In 1894, Ford eloped with his school girlfriendElsie Martindale.The couple were married inGloucesterand moved toBonningtonin Kent. In 1901, they moved toWinchelsea.[3]They had two daughters, Christina (born 1897) and Katharine (born 1900).[5]Ford's neighbours in Winchelsea included the authorsJoseph Conrad,Stephen Crane,W. H. Hudson,Henry Jamesin nearby Rye, andH. G. Wells.[3]

In 1904, Ford suffered anagoraphobicbreakdown due to financial and marital problems. He went to Germany to spend time with family there and undergo treatments.[3]

In 1909, Ford left his wife and set up home with English writerIsobel Violet Hunt,with whom he published the literary magazineThe English Review.Ford's wife refused to divorce him and he attempted to become a German citizen to obtain a divorce in Germany. This was unsuccessful. A reference in an illustrated paper to Violet Hunt as "Mrs. Ford Madox Hueffer" gave rise to a successful libel action being brought by Mrs. Elsie Hueffer in 1913. Ford's relationship with Hunt did not survive the First World War.[6]

Ford used the name ofFord Madox Hueffer,but changed it to Ford Madox Ford after World War I in 1919, partly to fulfil the terms of a small legacy,[7]partly "because a Teutonic name is in these days disagreeable", and possibly to avoid further lawsuits from Elsie in the event of his new companion, Stella, being referred to as "Mrs Hueffer".[8]

Between 1918 and 1927, he lived withStella Bowen,an Australian artist 20 years his junior. In 1920, Ford and Bowen had a daughter, Julia Madox Ford.[9]

In the summer of 1927,The New York Timesreported that Ford had converted a mill building in Avignon, France into a home and workshop that he called "Le Vieux Moulin". The article implied that Ford was reunited with his wife at this point.[10]

In the early 1930s, Ford established a relationship withJanice Biala,a Polish-born artist from New York, who illustrated several of Ford's later books.[11]This relationship lasted until the late 1930s.

Ford spent the last years of his life teaching atOlivet CollegeinOlivet,Michigan, US. He was taken ill inHonfleur,France, in June 1939 and died shortly afterward inDeauvilleat the age of 65.

Literary life

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Blue plaque, 80Campden Hill Road,Kensington, London

One of Ford's most famous works is the novelThe Good Soldier(1915). Set just before World War I,The Good Soldierchronicles the tragic expatriate lives of two "perfect couples", one British and one American, using intricateflashbacks.In the "Dedicatory Letter to Stella Ford" that prefaces the novel, Ford reports that a friend pronouncedThe Good Soldier"the finestFrench novelin the English language! "Ford pronounced himself a"Torymad about historic continuity "and believed the novelist's function was to serve as the historian of his own time.[12]However, he was dismissive of theConservative Party,referring to it as "the Stupid Party."[13]

Ford was involved in British war propaganda after the beginning ofWorld War I.He worked for theWar Propaganda Bureau,managed byC. F. G. Masterman,along withArnold Bennett,G. K. Chesterton,John Galsworthy,Hilaire BellocandGilbert Murray.Ford wrote two propaganda books for Masterman;When Blood is Their Argument: An Analysis of Prussian Culture(1915), with the help ofRichard Aldington,andBetween St Dennis and St George: A Sketch of Three Civilizations(1915).

After writing the two propaganda books, Ford enlisted at 41 years of age into theWelsh Regimentof the British Army on 30 July 1915. He was sent to France. Ford's combat experiences and his previous propaganda activities inspired histetralogyParade's End(1924–1928), set in England and on theWestern Frontbefore, during and after World War I.

Cover ofThe Fifth Queen: And How She Came to Court(1906) by Ford Madox Ford, then known as Ford Madox Hueffer

Ford wrote dozens of novels as well as essays, poetry, memoirs and literary criticism. He collaborated withJoseph Conradon three novels,The Inheritors(1901),Romance(1903) andThe Nature of a Crime(1924, although written much earlier). During the three to five years after this direct collaboration, Ford's best known achievement wasThe Fifth Queentrilogy (1906–1908), historical novels based on the life ofCatherine Howard,which Conrad termed, at the time, "the swan song of historical romance."[14] Ford's poemAntwerp(1915) was praised byT. S. Eliotas "the only good poem I have met with on the subject of the war".[15]

Ford's novelLadies Whose Bright Eyes(1911, extensively revised in 1935)[16]is atime travelnovel, likeTwain's classicA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,only dramatising the difficulties, not the rewards, of such idealised situations.

When theSpanish Civil Warbroke out, Ford took the side of the leftRepublican faction,declaring: "I am unhesitatingly for the existing Spanish Government and against Franco's attempt—on every ground of feeling and reason... Mr Franco wishes to establish a government resting on the arms of Moors, Germans, Italians. Its success must be contrary to world conscience."[17]His opinion of Mussolini and Hitler was likewise negative, and he offered to sign a manifesto against Nazism.[17]

Promotion of literature

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In 1908, Ford foundedThe English Review.Ford published works byThomas Hardy,H. G. Wells,Joseph Conrad,Henry James,May Sinclair,John GalsworthyandW. B. Yeats;and debuted works ofEzra Pound,Wyndham Lewis,D. H. LawrenceandNorman Douglas.Ezra Pound and other Modernist poets in London in the teens particularly valued Ford's poetry as exemplifying treatment of modern subjects in contemporary diction. In 1924, he foundedThe Transatlantic Review,a journal with great influence on modern literature. Staying with the artistic community in the Latin Quarter ofParis,Ford befriendedJames Joyce,Ernest Hemingway,Gertrude Stein,Ezra Pound[18]andJean Rhys,all of whom he would publish (Ford was the model for the character Braddocks in Hemingway'sThe Sun Also Rises[19]).Basil Buntingworked as Ford's assistant on the magazine.

As a critic, Ford is known for remarking "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."George Seldes,in his bookWitness to a Century,describes Ford ( "probably in 1932" ) recalling his writing collaboration with Joseph Conrad, and the lack of acknowledgment by publishers of his status as co-author. Seldes recounts Ford's disappointment with Hemingway: "'and he disowns me now that he has become better known than I am.' Tears now came to Ford's eyes." Ford says, "I helped Joseph Conrad, I helped Hemingway. I helped a dozen, a score of writers, and many of them have beaten me. I'm now an old man and I'll die without making a name like Hemingway." Seldes observes, "At this climax Ford began to sob. Then he began to cry."[20]

Hemingway devoted a chapter of his Parisian memoirA Moveable Feastto an encounter with Ford at a café in Paris during the early 1920s. He describes Ford "as upright as an ambulatory, well clothed, up-ended hogshead."[21]

During a later sojourn in the United States, Ford was involved withAllen Tate,Caroline Gordon,Katherine Anne PorterandRobert Lowell(who was then a student).[22]Ford was always a champion of new literature and literary experimentation. In 1929, he publishedThe English Novel: From the Earliest Days to the Death of Joseph Conrad,a brisk and accessible overview of the history of English novels. He had an affair withJean Rhys,which ended acrimoniously,[23]which Rhys fictionalised in her novelQuartet.

Reception

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Ford is best remembered for his novelsThe Good Soldier(1915), theParade's Endtetralogy(1924–1928) andThe Fifth Queentrilogy(1906–1908).The Good Soldieris frequently included among the great literature of the 20th century, including the Modern Library 100 Best Novels,[24]The Observer′s "100 Greatest Novels of All Time",[25]andThe Guardian′s "1000 novels everyone must read".[26]TheParade's Endtetralogy was made into an acclaimed BBC/HBO 5 partTV seriesin 2012, starringBenedict Cumberbatchand scripted byTom Stoppard.

Anthony Burgessdescribed Ford as the "greatest British novelist" of the 20th century.[27]Graham Greenewas also a great admirer, and more recentlyJulian Barneswho has written essays about Ford and his work. ProfessorMax Saundersis the author of an authoritative biography of Ford, published in two volumes by Oxford University Press in 1996, followed up by a single volume focusing on two of Ford's novels,The Good Soldier(1915), theParade's Endtetralogy(1924–1928), in 2023. Saunders has also edited some of Ford's oeuvre reissued by theCarcanet Press.

Selected works

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  • The Shifting of the Fire,as H Ford Hueffer, Unwin, 1892.
  • The Questions at the Wellas Fenil Haig,1893
  • The Brown Owl,as H Ford Hueffer, Unwin, 1892.
  • The Queen Who Flew: A Fairy Tale,Bliss Sands & Foster, 1894.
  • Ford Madox Brown: a record of his life and work,as H Ford Hueffer, Longmans, Green, 1896.
  • The Cinque Ports,Blackwood, 1900.
  • The Inheritors:An Extravagant Story,Joseph Conradand Ford M. Hueffer, Heinemann, 1901.
  • Rossetti,Duckworth, [1902].
  • Romance,Joseph Conradand Ford M. Hueffer, Smith Elder, 1903.
  • The Benefactor,Langham, 1905.
  • The Soul of London. A Survey of the Modern City,Alston Rivers,1905.
  • The Heart of the Country. A Survey of a Modern Land,Alston Rivers, 1906.
  • The Fifth Queen(Part One ofThe Fifth Queentrilogy), Alston Rivers, 1906.
  • Privy Seal(Part Two ofThe Fifth Queentrilogy), Alston Rivers, 1907.
  • The Spirit of the People. An Analysis of the English Mind,Alston Rivers, 1907.
  • An English Girl,Methuen, 1907.
  • The Fifth Queen Crowned(Part Three ofThe Fifth Queentrilogy), Nash, 1908.
  • Mr Apollo,Methuen, 1908.
  • The Half Moon,Nash, 1909.
  • A Call,Chatto, 1910.
  • The Portrait,Methuen, 1910.
  • The Critical Attitude,as Ford Madox Hueffer, Duckworth 1911.
  • The Simple Life Limited,as Daniel Chaucer, Lane, 1911.
  • Ladies Whose Bright Eyes,Constable, 1911 (extensively revised in 1935).
  • The Panel: A Sheer Comedy,Constable, 1912 (published in the U.S. asRing for Nancy: A Sheer Comedy).
  • The New Humpty Dumpty,as Daniel Chaucer, Lane, 1912.
  • Henry James,Secker, 1913.
  • Mr Fleight,Latimer, 1913.
  • The Young Lovell,Chatto, 1913.
  • Antwerp(eight-page poem), The Poetry Bookshop, 1915.
  • Henry James, A Critical Study(1915).
  • Between St Dennis and St George,Hodder, 1915.
  • The Good Soldier,Lane, 1915.
  • Zeppelin Nights,withViolet Hunt,Lane, 1915.
  • The Marsden Case,Duckworth, 1923.
  • Women and Men,Paris, 1923.
  • Mr Bosphorous,Duckworth, 1923.
  • The Nature of a Crime,withJoseph Conrad,Duckworth, 1924.
  • Joseph Conrad, A Personal Remembrance,Little, Brown and Company, 1924.
  • Some Do Not...,(First inParade's Endtetralogy) Duckworth, 1924.
  • No More Parades,Duckworth, 1925.
  • A Man Could Stand Up --,Duckworth, 1926.
  • A Mirror To France. Duckworth. 1926
  • New York is Not America,Duckworth, 1927.
  • New York Essays,Rudge, 1927.
  • New Poems,Rudge, 1927.
  • Last Post,(Fourth inParade's Endtetralogy) Duckworth, 1928.
  • A Little Less Than Gods,Duckworth, [1928].
  • No Enemy,Macaulay, 1929.
  • The English Novel: From the Earliest Days to the Death of Joseph Conrad(One Hour Series), Lippincott, 1929; Constable, 1930.
  • Return to Yesterday,Liveright, 1932.
  • When the Wicked Man,Cape, 1932.
  • The Rash Act,Cape, 1933.
  • It Was the Nightingale,Lippincott, 1933.
  • Henry for Hugh,Lippincott, 1934.
  • Provence,Unwin, 1935.
  • Ladies Whose Bright Eyes(revised version), 1935
  • Portraits from Life: Memories and Criticism of Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, H.G. Wells, Stephen Crane, D.H. Lawrence, John Galsworthy, Ivan Turgenev, W.H. Hudson, Theodore Dreiser, A.C. Swinburne,Houghton Mifflin Company Boston, 1937.
  • Great Trade Route,OUP, 1937.
  • Vive Le Roy,Unwin, 1937.
  • The March of Literature,Dial, 1938.
  • Selected Poems,Randall, 1971.
  • Your Mirror to My Times,Holt, 1971.
  • A History of Our Own Times,Indiana University Press, 1988.

References

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  1. ^Jones, Daniel (1967).Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary(13th; rev. A.C. Gimson ed.). London: Dent. p. 236.
  2. ^Ford, Ford Madox (17 November 2013).Complete Works of Ford Madox Ford.Delphi Classics.ISBN9781908909701.Retrieved3 February2014.
  3. ^abcdSaunders, Max."Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939): Biography".The Ford Madox Society.Retrieved31 May2015.
  4. ^Janet Soskice, "I have never felt so at home."The Tablet,8 September 2012, 15. Ford was a great uncle of Soskice's husband.
  5. ^"Biography".Ford Madox Ford Society.
  6. ^South Lodgeby Douglas Goldring, Constable and Co, 1943)
  7. ^Stang, Sondra (1986).The Ford Madox Ford Reader.Manchester: Carcanet. p. 481.ISBN0-85635-519-4.
  8. ^Judd, Alan (1991).Ford Madox Ford.London: Flamingo. p. 324.ISBN0-00-654448-7.
  9. ^Mizener, Arthur (1971).The Saddest Story: A Biography of Ford Madox Ford.New York: World Publishing.
  10. ^Birkhead, May(14 August 1927)."Americans in Paris Find Book Material; Burton Holmes Obtains Unique Pictures -- Maddox Ford Writes in an Old Mill. Deauville Season Starts Fine Weather Draws Notables to Coast Resort for the Racing and Polo".The New York Times.Retrieved31 May2015.
  11. ^South Lodgeby Douglas Goldring, Constable & Co, 1943)
  12. ^Moore, Gene M. (23 December 1982). "The Tory in a Time of Change: Social Aspects of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End".Twentieth Century Literature.28(1): 49–68.doi:10.2307/441444.JSTOR441444.
  13. ^Ford, Ford Madox (1911).Memories and Impressions: A Study in Atmospheres.Harper & Brothers. p.193.
  14. ^Judd, Alan (1991).Ford Madox Ford.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p.157.ISBN9780674308152.
  15. ^Lewis, Pericles."Antwerp".Archived fromthe originalon 23 June 2017.Retrieved12 March2013.
  16. ^Cassell, Richard A. (November 1961). "The Two Sorrells of Ford Madox Ford".Modern Philology.59(2): 114–121.doi:10.1086/389447.JSTOR434869.S2CID154530201.
  17. ^abSaunders, Max (2012).Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life: Volume II: The After-War World.Oxford University Press. pp. 627–628.
  18. ^Pound, Ezra; Ford, Ford Madox; Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita (1982). Lindberg-Seyersted, Brita (ed.).Pound/Ford, the story of a literary friendship: the correspondence between Ezra Pound and Ford Madox Ford and their writings about each other.New Directions Publishing.ISBN978-0-8112-0833-8.
  19. ^Wald, Richard (1964).Ford Madox Ford: The Essence of His Art.University of California Press. p. 84.
  20. ^Seldes, George (1987).Witness to a Century.New York: Ballantine Books. pp.258–259.ISBN0345331818.
  21. ^Hemingway, Ernest.A Moveable Feast.
  22. ^Honaker, Lisa (Summer 1990). "Caroline Gordon: A Biography, and: Flannery O'Connor and the Mystery of Love (review)".Modern Fiction Studies.36(2): 240–42.doi:10.1353/mfs.0.0714.S2CID161254508.
  23. ^Liukkonen, Petri."Jean Rhys".Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi).Finland:KuusankoskiPublic Library. Archived fromthe originalon 15 June 2008.
  24. ^"100 Best Novels".Modern Library.Random House. 20 July 1998.
  25. ^"The Observer's 100 Greatest Novels of All Time - Book awards".Librarything.Retrieved23 December2017.
  26. ^"1000 novels everyone must read".The Guardian.23 January 2009.
  27. ^Anthony Burgess (3 April 2014).You've Had Your Time.Random House. p. 130.ISBN978-1-4735-1239-9.

Further reading

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  • Attridge, John, "Steadily and Whole: Ford Madox Ford and Modernist Sociology," inModernism/modernity15:2 ([1]April 2008), 297–315.
  • Carpenter, Humphrey (1987).Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s.Unwin Hyman.ISBN0-04-440331-3.Contains a sharp, critical biographical sketch of Ford.
  • Hawkes, Rob,Ford Madox Ford and the Misfit Moderns: Edwardian Fiction and the First World War.Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.ISBN978-0230301535
  • Goldring, Douglas,The Last Pre-Raphaelite: A Record of the Life and Writings of Ford Madox Ford.Macdonald & Co., 1948
  • Mizener, Arthur,The Saddest Story: A Biography of Ford Madox Ford.World Publishing Co., 1971
  • Judd, Alan,Ford Madox Ford.Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991.
  • Saunders, Max,Ford Madox Ford: A Dual Life,2 vols. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1996.ISBN0-19-211789-0andISBN0-19-212608-3
  • Thirlwell, Angela,Into the Frame: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown.London, Chatto & Windus, 2010.ISBN978-0-7011-7902-1
  • Davison-Pégon, Claire; Lemarchal, Dominique (2011).Ford Madox Ford, France and Provence.Amsterdam:Rodopi.ISBN9789401200462.OCLC734015160.
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