Ford Madox Ford Popular Books

Ford Madox Ford Biography & Facts

Ford Madox Ford (né Joseph Leopold Ford Hermann Madox Hueffer ( HEF-ər); 17 December 1873 – 26 June 1939) was an English novelist, poet, critic and editor whose journals The English Review and The Transatlantic Review were important in the development of early 20th-century English and American literature. Ford is now remembered for his novels The Good Soldier (1915), the Parade's End tetralogy (1924–1928) and The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906–1908). The Good Soldier is 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", and The Guardian′s "1000 novels everyone must read". Early life Ford was born in Wimbledon in Surrey to Catherine Madox Brown and Francis Hueffer, the eldest of three; his brother was Oliver Madox Hueffer and his sister was Juliet Hueffer, the wife of David Soskice and mother of Frank Soskice. Ford's father, who became music critic for The Times, was German and his mother English. His paternal grandfather Johann Hermann Hüffer was first to publish Westphalian poet and author Annette von Droste-Hülshoff. He was named after his maternal grandfather, the Pre-Raphaelite painter Ford Madox Brown, whose biography he would eventually write. His mother's older half-sister was Lucy Madox Brown, the wife of William Michael Rossetti and mother of Olivia Rossetti Agresti. In 1889, after the death of their father, Ford and Oliver went to live with their grandfather in London. Ford attended the University College School in London, but never studied at university. 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." Personal life In 1894, Ford eloped with his school girlfriend Elsie Martindale. The couple were married in Gloucester and moved to Bonnington in Kent. In 1901, they moved to Winchelsea. They had two daughters, Christina (born 1897) and Katharine (born 1900). Ford's neighbours in Winchelsea included the authors Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, W. H. Hudson, Henry James in nearby Rye, and H. G. Wells.In 1904, Ford suffered an agoraphobic breakdown due to financial and marital problems. He went to Germany to spend time with family there and undergo treatments.In 1909, Ford left his wife and set up home with English writer Isobel Violet Hunt, with whom he published the literary magazine The 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.Ford used the name of Ford Madox Hueffer, but changed it to Ford Madox Ford after World War I in 1919, partly to fulfil the terms of a small legacy, 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".Between 1918 and 1927, he lived with Stella Bowen, an Australian artist 20 years his junior. In 1920, Ford and Bowen had a daughter, Julia Madox Ford.In the summer of 1927, The New York Times reported 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.In the early 1930s, Ford established a relationship with Janice Biala, a Polish-born artist from New York, who illustrated several of Ford's later books. This relationship lasted until the late 1930s. Ford spent the last years of his life teaching at Olivet College in Olivet, Michigan, US. He was taken ill in Honfleur, France, in June 1939 and died shortly afterward in Deauville at the age of 65. Literary life One of Ford's most famous works is the novel The Good Soldier (1915). Set just before World War I, The Good Soldier chronicles the tragic expatriate lives of two "perfect couples", one British and one American, using intricate flashbacks. In the "Dedicatory Letter to Stella Ford" that prefaces the novel, Ford reports that a friend pronounced The Good Soldier "the finest French novel in the English language!” Ford pronounced himself a "Tory mad about historic continuity" and believed the novelist's function was to serve as the historian of his own time. However, he was dismissive of the Conservative Party, referring to it as "the Stupid Party."Ford was involved in British war propaganda after the beginning of World War I. He worked for the War Propaganda Bureau, managed by C. F. G. Masterman, along with Arnold Bennett, G. K. Chesterton, John Galsworthy, Hilaire Belloc and Gilbert Murray. Ford wrote two propaganda books for Masterman; When Blood is Their Argument: An Analysis of Prussian Culture (1915), with the help of Richard Aldington, and Between 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 the Welsh Regiment of the British Army on 30 July 1915. He was sent to France. Ford's combat experiences and his previous propaganda activities inspired his tetralogy Parade's End (1924–1928), set in England and on the Western Front before, during and after World War I. Ford wrote dozens of novels as well as essays, poetry, memoirs and literary criticism. He collaborated with Joseph Conrad on three novels, The Inheritors (1901), Romance (1903) and The Nature of a Crime (1924, although written much earlier). During the three to five years after this direct collaboration, Ford's best known achievement was The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906–1908), historical novels based on the life of Catherine Howard, which Conrad termed, at the time, "the swan song of historical romance." Ford's poem Antwerp (1915) was praised by T. S. Eliot as "the only good poem I have met with on the subject of the war".Ford's novel Ladies Whose Bright Eyes (1911, extensively revised in 1935) is a Time travel novel, like Twain's classic A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, only dramatising the difficulties, not the rewards, of such idealised situations. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Ford took the side of the left Republican 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." His opinion of Mussolini and Hitler was likewise negative, and he offered to sign a manifesto against Nazism. Promotion of literature In 1908, Ford founded The English Review. Ford published works by Thomas Hardy, H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Henry.... Discover the Ford Madox Ford popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ford Madox Ford books.

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  • The Poetry of Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    The Poetry of Ford Madox Ford

    Ford Madox Ford

    Ford Madox Ford was born Ford Hermann Hueffer on 17th December 1873 in Wimbledon, London, England.Today he is best known for one book, ‘The Good Soldier’, which is regularly held t...

  • Critical Essays of Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    Critical Essays of Ford Madox Ford

    Ford Madox Ford

    As an editor at the English Review, Ford Madox Ford worked with and often offered aid to writers such as D. H. Lawrence, Ezra Pound, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, e. e. cummings, and...

  • Delphi Collected Works of Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    Delphi Collected Works of Ford Madox Ford

    Ford Madox Ford

    In recent times Ford Madox Ford has become one of the neglected figures of modernist literature, although he was a leading writer of his time, producing innovative novels, whilst p...

  • Essential Novelists - Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    Essential Novelists - Ford Madox Ford

    Ford Madox Ford & August Nemo

    Welcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most ...

  • Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    Ford Madox Ford

    Max Saunders

    A critical biography of the great modernist editor and novelist. Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) lived among several of the most important artists and writers of his time. Raised ...

  • The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    The Routledge Research Companion to Ford Madox Ford

    Sara Haslam, Laura Colombino & Seamus O'Malley

    Taking account of Ford Madox Ford’s entire literary output, this companion brings together prominent Ford specialists to offer an overview of existing Ford scholarship and to sugge...

  • Works of Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    Works of Ford Madox Ford

    Ford Madox Ford

    7 works of Ford Madox Ford English novelist, poet, critic and editor (18731939) This ebook presents a collection of 7 works of Ford Madox Ford. A dynamic table of contents allows y...

  • Works of Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    Works of Ford Madox Ford

    Madox Ford Ford

    This collection was designed for optimal navigation on iPad and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, making it easier to access individual books. This collection...

  • An Introduction to Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    An Introduction to Ford Madox Ford

    Ashley Chantler & Rob Hawkes

    For students and readers new to the work of Ford Madox Ford, this volume provides a comprehensive introduction to one of the most complex, important and fascinating authors. Bringi...

  • Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    Ford Madox Ford

    R. W. Lid

    This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voi...

  • The Collected Works of Ford Madox Ford synopsis, comments

    The Collected Works of Ford Madox Ford

    Madox Ford Ford & Joseph Conrad

    This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works the Œuvre of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook easytoread and easytonavigate: The ...

  • The Eater of Darkness synopsis, comments

    The Eater of Darkness

    Robert M. Coates

    Considered by many to be one of the most unique, avantgarde works published by the Lost Generation, The Eater of Darkness is hailed as the first Dada novel published by an American...

  • The Fifth Queen synopsis, comments

    The Fifth Queen

    Ford Madox Ford

    Ford Madox Ford’s novel about the doomed Katharine Howard, fifth queen of Henry VIII, is a neglected masterpiece.Kat Howardintelligent, beautiful, naively outspoken, and passionate...