Richard Ford

Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day, The Lay of the Land and Let Me Be Frank with You as well as the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories.

Early life

Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the only son of Edna and Parker Carrol Ford. Parker was a traveling salesman for Faultless Starch, a Kansas City company. Of his mother, Ford has said, "Her ambition was to be, first, in love with my father and, second, to be a full-time mother." When Ford was eight years old, his father had a major heart attack, and thereafter Ford spent as much time with his grandfather, a former prizefighter and hotel owner in Little Rock, Arkansas, as he did with his parents in Mississippi. Ford's father died of a second heart attack in 1960.

Ford's grandfather had worked for the railroad. At the age of 19, before deciding to attend college, Ford began work on the Missouri Pacific train line as a locomotive engineer's assistant, learning the work on the job.

Richard Ford (disambiguation)

Richard Ford (born 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer.

Richard Ford may also refer to:

See also

Richard Ford (writer)

Richard Ford (1796–1858) was an English writer known for his travel books on Spain.

Life

Richard Ford was born in 1796. He was the eldest son of Benjamin Booth's daughter and heiress Marianne, who married Sir Richard Ford, an MP in 1789 and for many years chief police magistrate of London. Ford graduated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1817, and was afterward called to the bar, but never practiced. He spent four years traveling in Spain and in 1845 published his delightful Handbook for Travellers in Spain, in two volumes. A second edition (1847) was in one volume, and the material left out was published in Gatherings from Spain (1846). Ford also contributed important papers on Spanish art to the Quarterly Review and other periodicals. He wrote letterpress for several art works, notably the Tauromachia (1852) of Lake Price.

In 1855 Richard Ford also wrote "Andalucia, Ronda and Granada, Murcia, Valencia, and Catalonia; the portions best suited for the invalid".

Family