Content deleted Content added
→Controversies: added further context from a 2020 Financial Times interview Tags: Reverted Visual edit |
→Controversies: Added further critical analysis of Ford's depictions of race in his Frank Bascombe books. Tags: Reverted Visual edit |
||
Line 90:
In 2004, Ford spat on [[Colson Whitehead]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Award to author Richard Ford prompts calls of racism, other backlash for Paris Review |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2019/11/05/award-author-richard-ford-causes-backlash-paris-review/4170304002/ |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref> 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) | date=3 March 2002 }}</ref> resulting in speculation that the incident may have been racially motivated rather than a matter of critical differences.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Award to author Richard Ford prompts calls of racism, other backlash for Paris Review |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2019/11/05/award-author-richard-ford-causes-backlash-paris-review/4170304002/ |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}</ref><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> Before spitting on Whitehead, Ford referred to him as a "kid."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Armitstead |first=Claire |date=2017-06-14 |title=Richard Ford should swallow his pride over Colson Whitehead's bad review |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2017/jun/14/richard-ford-pride-colson-whitehead-bad-review |access-date=2023-08-20 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Thirteen years later, Ford remained unrepentant.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Liu |first=Max |date=2020-06-19 |title=Richard Ford: ‘Work. That’s what I do’ |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/646225d8-ac98-11ea-abfc-5d8dc4dd86f9 |access-date=2023-08-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=2019-11-05 |title=Richard Ford’s literary honour questioned by peers after history of aggressive behaviour |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/05/richard-ford-literary-honour-questioned-by-peers-paris-review-hadada-prize |access-date=2023-08-20 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> 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> Asked for a 2020 interview in the ''Financial Times'' about the controversy that arose, as a result of the spitting incident, over a literary award from the ''Paris Review,'' Ford said that the award was the magazine's call to make.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Liu |first=Max |date=2020-06-19 |title=Richard Ford: ‘Work. That’s what I do’ |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/646225d8-ac98-11ea-abfc-5d8dc4dd86f9 |access-date=2023-08-20}}</ref>
Several years before spitting on Whitehead, Ford divulged in a 1999 personal essay about race for the New York Times Magazine that he had referred to a Black critic by using the "n word" to dismiss the critic's opinion while consoling a friend in a letter written in the early 1980s.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ford |first=Richard |date=1999-06-06 |title=In The Same Boat |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/06/magazine/in-the-same-boat.html |access-date=2023-08-20 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> "In one instance, in response to a negative review of my friend's book written by a famous critic I'd been told was black, I wrote to my friend, 'Who'd have thought he was just a [n-word?]<nowiki>'''</nowiki> Ford recounted.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ford |first=Richard |date=1999-06-06 |title=In The Same Boat |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/06/magazine/in-the-same-boat.html |access-date=2023-08-20 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Some critics have attempted to understand representations of race in his work alongside this statement.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Haglund |first=David |date=2014-11-05 |title=The Old Normal |language=en-US |work=Slate |url=https://slate.com/culture/2014/11/richard-fords-let-me-be-frank-with-you-reviewed.html |access-date=2023-08-20 |issn=1091-2339}}</ref> Other critics have pointed to lines in Ford's novels such as "Obama was getting his little black booty spanked by Romney about fiscal stewardship" to call into question the author's views on race.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2014-11-02 |title=The Guys Who Just Watch (Published 2014) |language=en |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/03/arts/richard-fords-hero-returns-in-let-me-be-frank-with-you.html |access-date=2023-08-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Schaub |first=Michael |date=November 6, 2014 |title=Frankly, Bascombe's Return Has Some Problems |url=https://www.npr.org/2014/11/06/360189334/frankly-bascombes-return-has-some-problems |url-status=live |access-date=August 20, 2023 |website=NPR}}</ref>
==Awards and honors==
| |||