Ford was a superb letter-writer, and yet the vast majority of his c.3,000 known letters remains unavailable in published versions. The Society is delighted to announce a new project to address this significant gap in twentieth-century literary scholarship. Its General Editors are Sara Haslam and Max Saunders, and Oxford University Press will be publishing the volumes, which are organised as follows:
| Volume No. Volume 1: Volume 2: Volume 3: Volume 4: Volume 5: Volume 6: | Date Range to 1904 1904 – Aug 1914 Aug 1914 – Nov 1922 Nov 1922 – 1930 early 1930s later 1930s | Editors Dr Helen Chambers and Prof Sara Haslam Dr Lucinda Borkett-Jones and Prof Max Saunders Dr Paul Skinner Prof Laurence Davies Dr Barbara Cooke and Prof Martin Stannard Dr Barbara Cooke and Prof Martin Stannard |
The Collected Letters will be a major contribution to the study of the various milieux in which Ford was so influential: the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Fin de Siècle; the group of writers based on the Kent/Sussex coast at the turn of the century (James, Conrad, Stephen Crane, H. G. Wells); early modernism in Edwardian London; expatriate circles in 1920s Paris; the Riviera in the 20s and 30s; and New York in the same period. The edition will therefore make visible Ford’s massive contribution to the literature of the period, not only through his writing and editing, but also his reading and advising of aspiring writers.
Do please get in touch if you are aware of any Ford letters in private collections, or ask the owners to contact us.
We look forward to updating you as work progresses!
Sara.haslam@open.ac.uk
m.saunders@bham.ac.uk