Ford

Ford Madox Ford was a noted British author, poet, and editor. Born Ford Madox Hueffer in Merton, Surrey, England, in 1873, Ford was educated at the University College School and wrote his first book, a children's fairy tale called The Brown Owl, when he was seventeen. He traveled widely throughout Germany and France and was strongly influenced by writers he met along the way. His first major work of fiction was The Fifth Queen Trilogy, based on the life of Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII. In 1908, Ford launched the English Review, a literary journal that attracted such notable contributors as H.G. Wells and Henry James. However, scandal in his personal and professional life forced him to sell the journal after only one year. In 1915, Ford published The Good Soldier, which is recognized both as his best novel and as one of the masterpieces of the twentieth century. He served as a lieutenant during World War I in France and decided to remain in Paris after the war, where he founded another literary journal, the Transatlantic Review, which published works by such talented writers as Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, and James Joyce. He also published a four-part saga called Parade's End, which is often thought to be his most ambitious work. He spent the remainder of his life living in Paris, Provence, and the United States. Ford died in 1939.