The Ford Madox Ford Society held its 2006 conference at the Birmingham and Midland Institute on 14-15 September, in conjunction with the University of Birmingham. The conference topic was ‘Ford Madox Ford: Literary Networks and Cultural Transitions’, and a variety of papers were presented on Ford’s connections with a number of his contemporaries (including Wyndham Lewis, Dorothy Richardson, William Carlos Williams and James Joyce) and on some key concepts concerning the rise of modernist literature. The Annual Ford Madox Ford Lecture was given by Zinovy Zinik, who recollected brilliantly his first encounter with Ford’s work in Soviet Moscow during the 1960s; and a fascinating Keynote Address, delivered by Professor David Trotter, discussed some of Ford’s pre-First World War connections, particularly with Lewis and Joyce. The conference participants had a rather brief opportunity to visit some of the city’s art collections, which include works by Ford Madox Brown, and enjoyed a wonderful conference meal at Café Ikon in the heart of Birmingham’s city centre.
The proceedings of the conference will be edited by Andrzej Gasiorek and Daniel Moore and published in Ford Madox Ford: Literary Networks and Cultural Transitions (2008), volume 7 of International Ford Madox Ford Studies.
Daniel Moore
University of Birmingham