Richard Ford: Difference between revisions

Ford received a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] degree from [[Michigan State University]]. Having enrolled to study hotel management, he switched to English. After graduating, he taught junior high school in [[Flint, Michigan]], and enlisted in the [[United States Marine Corps]] but was discharged after contracting [[hepatitis]]. At university he met Kristina Hensley, his future wife; and they married in 1968.<ref name="Guagliardo 2001, p.xiii"/>

Despite mild [[dyslexia]], Ford developed a serious interest in [[literature]]. He has stated in interviews that his dyslexia may have helped him as a reader, assince it forced him to read books slowly and thoughtfully.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/12/05/DI2006120500715.html |title=Ford on His Dyslexia, in Conversation with the ''Washington Post''; |work=Washingtonpost.com |date= 2006-12-14|access-date=2011-08-18}}</ref>

Ford briefly attended law school but quit and participated with the creative writing program at the [[University of California, Irvine]], to pursue a [[Master of Fine Arts]] degree, which he received in 1970. Ford chose this course simply because "they admitted me. I remember getting the application for [[Iowa Writers' Workshop|Iowa]], and thinking they'd never have let me in. I'm sure I was right about that, too. But, typical of me, I didn't know who was teaching at Irvine. I didn't know it was important to know such things. I wasn't the most curious of young men, even though I give myself credit for not letting that deter me." Actually, [[Oakley Hall]] and [[E. L. Doctorow]] were teaching there, and Ford has acknowledged that they influenced him.<ref name="Ploughshares profile">This citation is now only available in its {{cite web |url=https://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=4087 |title=Profile in the journal ''Ploughshares'' |publisher=Pshares.org |date=2010-07-08 |access-date=2011-08-18 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022042059/https://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=4087 |archive-date=2009-10-22 }} via the [[Web Archive]]. It was originally cited here: {{cite web| url=http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=4087 |title=Profile in the journal ''Ploughshares'' |publisher=Pshares.org |date=2010-07-08 |access-date=2011-08-18}}</ref> In 1971, he was selected for a three-year appointment in the [[University of Michigan]] Society of Fellows.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://societyoffellows.umich.edu/alumni-fellows/ |title=Alumni Fellows &#124; Society of Fellows |publisher=Societyoffellows.umich.edu |access-date=2011-08-18}}</ref>

Ford's 1990 novel ''[[Wildlife (novel)|Wildlife]]'', a story of a [[Montana]] golf professional turned firefighter, met with mixed reviews and middling sales, but by the end of the 1990s Ford was increasingly sought after as an editor and contributor to various projects. Ford edited the 1990 ''[[The Best American Series|The Best American Short Stories]]'', the 1992 ''[[Granta]] Book of the American Short Story'', the Fall 1996 "fiction issue" of ''[[Ploughshares]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pshares.org/issues/fall-1996|title=Fall 1996 – Ploughshares|website=www.pshares.org}}</ref> and the 1998 ''Granta Book of the American Long Story''. In the latter volume's "Introduction," Ford stipulated that he preferred the designation "long story" instead of the term "novella." For the publishing project [[Library of America]], Ford edited a two-volume edition of the selected works of the Mississippi writer [[Eudora Welty]], which was published during 1998.

During 1995, Ford published the novel ''[[Independence Day (Ford novel)|Independence Day]]'', a sequel to ''The Sportswriter'', featuring the continued story of its protagonist, Frank Bascombe. Reviews were positive, and the novel became the first to win both the [[PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction]]<ref name="Penfaulkner.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.penfaulkner.org/affWinners02.htm |title=PEN/Faulkner Foundation list of winners |publisher=Penfaulkner.org |access-date=2011-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080421203435/http://www.penfaulkner.org/affWinners02.htm |archive-date=2008-04-21 }}</ref> and the [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]].<ref name="Pulitzer Prize citation">{{cite web|url=http://www.pulitzer.org/works/1996,Fiction |title=Pulitzer Prize citation |publisher=Pulitzer.org |access-date=2011-08-18}}</ref> During the same year, Ford was chosen as winner of the [[Rea Award for the Short Story]], for outstanding achievement for that genre.<ref name="Rea Award citation">{{cite web |url=http://www.reaaward.org/Ford/Ford.html |title=Rea Award citation |publisher=Reaaward.org |access-date=2011-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727204934/http://www.reaaward.org/Ford/Ford.html |archive-date=2011-07-27 }}</ref> He ended the 1990s with a well-received collection of short stories, ''Women With Men'', published during 1997. The ''Paris Review'' termed him a "master" of the short story genre.<ref name="parisreview"/>

Ford lived for many years in [[New Orleans]] in the [[French Quarter]], on lower [[Bourbon Street]], and then in the [[Garden District, New Orleans|Garden District]] of the same city, where his wife, Kristina, was the executive director of the city planning commission. For a while Ford and his wife resided in [[East Boothbay, Maine]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2006/12/04/another_time_another_place/ |title=''Boston Globe'' profile |publisher=Boston.com |date=2006-12-04 |access-date=2011-08-18 |first=David |last=Mehegan}}</ref> As of 2023, Ford lives in [[Billings, Montana]] where he bought a house.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://billingsgazette.com/entertainment/richard-ford-on-the-natural-attrition-of-getting-old/article_397933d4-71cb-11ed-9d81-e3c8c89a7971.html | title=Richard Ford on 'The natural attrition of getting old' | date=December 2022 }}</ref> During the intervening years, Ford lived in other locations, usually in the United States, as he pursued a [[peripatetic school|peripatetic]] teaching career.

He obtained a teaching appointment at [[Bowdoin College]] during 2005 but kept the job for only one semester.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/1bowdoincampus/001553.shtml |title=News of Bowdoin College appointment |publisher=Bowdoin.edu |date=2004-10-13 |access-date=2011-08-18}}</ref> During 2008 Ford was an adjunct professor of the [[Oscar Wilde Centre]] with the School of English at [[Trinity College, Dublin]], Ireland, teaching in the Masters programme in creative writing.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/staff/prof-richard-ford.php |title=Oscar Wilde Centre: Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland |publisher=Tcd.ie |date=2010-12-22 |access-date=2011-08-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607042420/http://www.tcd.ie/OWC/staff/prof-richard-ford.php |archive-date=2011-06-07 }}</ref> Starting December 29, 2010, Ford assumed the job of senior fiction professor at the [[University of Mississippi]] during the autumn of 2011, replacing [[Barry Hannah]], who died during March 2010. During the autumn of 2012, he became the Emmanuel Roman and Barrie Sardoff Roman Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Writing at the [[Columbia University School of the Arts]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://arts.columbia.edu/richard-ford-pulitzer-prize-winner-joins-columbia-faculty |title=Richard Ford, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Joins Columbia Faculty &#124; Columbia University School of the Arts |publisher=Arts.columbia.edu |access-date=2014-01-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212024658/http://arts.columbia.edu/richard-ford-pulitzer-prize-winner-joins-columbia-faculty |archive-date=2013-12-12 }}</ref>

As the new century commenced, he published another story collection, ''A Multitude of Sins'' (2002), followed by the novels ''The Lay Of The Land,'' —the third in his Bascombe series— in 2006, and ''[[Canada (novel)|Canada]]'', published during May 2012.<ref>{{cite web | title = Canada (novel) | publisher = www.harpercollins.com |url=http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Canada-Richard-Ford?isbn=9780061692048&HCHP=TB_Canada}}</ref> According to Ford, ''The Lay Of The Land'' completed his series of Bascombe novels, but ''Canada'' was a stand-alone novel.

In April 2013, Ford read from a new Frank Bascombe story without revealing to the audience whether it was part of a longer work.<ref>{{cite web| last=Liu |first=Lowen |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/04/30/richard_ford_s_new_frank_bascombe_story_shows_the_damage_done_by_hurricane.html |title=Richard Ford's New Frank Bascombe Story Shows the Damage Done by Hurricane Sandy |work=Slate.com |date=2013-04-30 |access-date=2014-01-10}}</ref> By 2014, it was confirmed that the story was to appear in the book ''Let Me Be Frank With You'', published during November of that year.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7900fd24-5858-11e4-b331-00144feab7de.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7900fd24-5858-11e4-b331-00144feab7de.html |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Frank and me: Richard Ford on his Bascombe novels|work=Financial Times|date=24 October 2014|access-date=2 August 2015}}</ref> The latter work consists of four interconnected novellas (or "long stories"), all narrated by Frank Bascombe.<ref name="lyceumagency.com">[http://www.lyceumagency.com/richard+ford.aspx Richard Ford] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220055249/http://www.lyceumagency.com/richard+ford.aspx |date=2015-12-20 }}, Lyceum Agency, 2014</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/living-frank-bascombe-interview-richard-ford|title=Living with Frank Bascombe: An Interview with Richard Ford|first=Deborah|last=Treisman|magazine=The New Yorker |date=November 5, 2014|via=www.newyorker.com}}</ref> ''Let Me Be Frank With You'' was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. It did not win the prize, but the selection committee praised the book for its "unflinching series of narratives, set in the aftermath of [[Hurricane Sandy]], insightfully portraying a society in decline."<ref name="pulitzer.org">[http://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/richard-ford "The 2015 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Fiction"], The Pulitzer Prizes.</ref>

As in the preceding decade, Ford continued to assist with various editing projects. During 2007, he edited the ''New [[Granta]] Book of the American Short Story'', and in 2011 he edited ''Blue Collar, White Collar, No Collar: Stories of Work''. During May 2017, Ford published a memoir, ''Between Them: Remembering My Parents''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2017/05/02/526559954/for-richard-ford-memoir-is-a-chance-to-tell-the-unthinkable|title=For Richard Ford, Memoir Is A Chance To 'Tell The Unthinkable'|website=NPR.org}}</ref>

In 2018, ''Wildlife'' was adapted into a [[Wildlife (film)|film of the same name]] by director [[Paul Dano]] and screenwriter [[Zoe Kazan]]. It was released to widespread critical acclaim.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

Ford began publishing his short stories in the 1980s, which corresponded with an American renaissance in the short story that centered around [[Raymond Carver]] (1938–1988).<ref name=“granta”>{{cite web|url=https://granta.com/an-interview-with-richard-ford/|title=Granta interview with Tim Adams|publisher=Granta.com|date=25 October 2007}}</ref> So there was a tendency early on to associate Ford's stories in ''Rock Springs'' with [[Minimalism#Literary minimalism|Minimalismminimalism]] and its offshoot:, an aesthetic style known as ''[[Dirty realism]]'' that referred to Carver's lower-middle-class subjects or the protagonists Ford portrays in ''Rock Springs''. In retrospect, "dirtyDirty realism" and "minimalism" came to be associated with a long list of writers during the 1970s and 1980s, including [[Tobias Wolff]], [[Ann Beattie]], [[Frederick Barthelme]], [[Larry Brown (writer)|Larry Brown]], [[Jayne Anne Phillips]], and [[Gordon Lish]].<ref name=“granta”/>

However, many of the characters in the novels about Frank Bascombe (''The Sportswriter'', ''Independence Day'', ''The Lay of the Land'', ''Let Me Be Frank With You'', ''Be Mine''), notablyincluding the protagonist himself, enjoy degrees of material affluence and [[cultural capital]] not normally associated with dirty realism.

Ford's writing demonstrates "a meticulous concern for the nuances of language ... [and] the rhythms of phrases and sentences". FordHe has described his sense of language as "a source of pleasure in itself—- all of its corporeal qualities, its syncopations, moods, sounds, the way things look on the page". Besides this "devotion to language" is what he terms "the fabric of affection that holds people close enough together to survive.".<ref>Guagliardo 2001, p.vii.</ref>

Ford once sent [[Alice Hoffman]] a copy of one of her books with bullet holes in it after she angered him by unfavorably reviewing ''The Sportswriter''.<ref>{{cite newsmagazine|title=Richard Ford and Alice Hoffman 30 years later|url=http://ew.com/article/2016/03/23/richard-ford-alice-hoffman/|access-date=September 5 September, 2017|workmagazine=EW.comEntertainment Weekly|date=March 23 March, 2016}}</ref>

In 2004, Ford spat on [[Colson Whitehead]] when encountering him at a party two years after Whitehead published a negative review of ''A Multitude of Sins'' in ''The New York Times'',.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/03/books/the-end-of-the-affair.html | title=The End of the Affair (Published 2002) | work=The New York Times | date=3 March 3, 2002 | last1=Whitehead | first1=Colson }}</ref> resulting in speculation that the incident may have been racially motivated rather than a matter of critical differences.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://maudnewton.com/blog/richard-ford-nursing-grudge-for-two-years-after-negative-review-spits-on-colson-whitehead/|title=Richard Ford, pissed about negative review, spits on Colson Whitehead|date=Mar 15, 2004|access-date=Sep 26, 2019}}</ref> Thirteen years later, Ford remained unrepentant. Writing in [[Esquire (magazine)|''Esquire'']] in 2017, Ford declared that "as of today, I don't feel any different about Mr. Whitehead, or his review, or my response."<ref>{{cite news|first=Richard|last=Ford|title=Perilous Business: A novelist takes on his critics|url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/2017/6/1/a-novelist-takes-on-his-critics/|access-date=2 September 2020|work=Esquire|date=1 June 2017}}</ref>

* 1996 [[PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction|PEN/Faulkner Award]], for ''[[Independence Day (Ford novel)|Independence Day]]''<ref name="Penfaulkner.org"/>

* 2005 [[St. Louis Literary Award]] from the [[Saint Louis University]] Library Associates<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html|title=Saint Louis Literary Award – Saint Louis University|website=www.slu.edu|access-date=2016-07-25|archive-date=2016-08-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823003924/http://www.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award/ford |title=Richard Ford to Receive 2005 Saint Louis Literary Award |author=Saint Louis University Library Associates |access-date=July 25, 2016}}</ref>

* 2013 [[Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction|Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction]], for ''Canada''<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23573346/ford-egan-win-literary-medals |title=Ford, Egan Win Literary Medals |work=[[San Jose Mercury News]] |last=Italie |first=Hillel |date=June 30, 2013 |access-date=May 28, 2019 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304034850/http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23573346/ford-egan-win-literary-medals |url-status=dead }}</ref>

* 2015 [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]], finalist, for ''Let Me Be Frank with You'' <ref name="pulitzer.org"/>

==Selected bibliographyworks==

* ''[[The Sportswriter]]'' (1986)

* ''[[Be Mine (novel)|Be Mine]]'' (2023)<ref name="columbia" />

* ''The Essential Tales of [[Chekhov]]'' (1999)

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

* Elinor WalkerGuagliardo, Huey (ed.) ''Conversations with Richard Ford'' (New YorkJackson, NY;Mississippi: TwayneUniversity PublishersPress of Mississippi, 2000)2001. {{ISBN|0805716793978-1-57806-406-9}}

* Huey Guagliardo, Huey. ''Perspectives on Richard Ford: Redeemed by Affection''. (Jackson, MSMississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2000). {{ISBN|978-1-57806-234-8}}

* Armengol, Joseph M. Armengol, ''Richard Ford and the Fiction of Masculinities''. (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2010). {{ISBN|978-143311-086-3}}

* Ian McGuireDuffy, Brian. ''RichardMorality, FordIdentity and Narrative in the EndsFiction of RealismRichard Ford''. (IowaNew City, IAYork: University of Iowa PressRodopi, 2015)2008. {{ISBN|978-1-60938904202-343409-50}}

;===Work===

;===Profiles===

;===Interviews===

*[http://www.salon.com/weekly/interview960708.html Interview (1996)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000522061756/http://www.salon.com/weekly/interview960708.html |date=2000-05-22 }}, [[Salon.com]]

*[http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/060828on_onlineonly02 Interview (2006)] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130130003330/www.newyorker.com/online/content/articles/060828on_onlineonly02 |date=2013-01-30 }}, ''[[The New Yorker]]''

;===Archival collections ===