Boris Ford

Richard Boris Ford (born in India on 1 July 1917, died 19 May 1998), known as Boris Ford, was a literary critic, writer, editor and educationist.

Early life

Gresham's The son of an Indian Army officer, Brigadier G.N. Ford, and his Russian wife Ekaterina, Ford was a boy chorister at King's College, Cambridge and was educated at Gresham's School and Downing College, Cambridge. At Downing he studied under F.R. Leavis.

Career

After Cambridge, Ford joined the army, and from 1940 until the end of the Second World War was the officer commanding the Middle East School of Artistic Studies.

Later he worked at the United Nations Secretariat in its early years, was the BBC's head of schools broadcasting, was Education Secretary to the Cambridge University Press, edited important academic journals and anthologies (see sections below) and became Professor of Education at Sussex University and later at Bristol [http://www.dow.cam.ac.uk/dow_server/info/danl/D-News98.pdf#search=%22%22Boris%20Ford%22%20Downing%22 Obituary] by David Holbrook in the "College Record 1998" of Downing College, Cambridge (accessed 22 October 2007)] .

He was a follower of Leavis but had a stormy relationship with him and his wife Q. D.. At one point, Q. D. wrote to him "Mrs Leavis informs Mr Ford that he is no longer an acceptable visitor to her house. Any communications from him will not be answered."

Family

He was married twice. With his first wife, Noreen, he had two daughters and a son, and he was the step father of a daughter of his second wife, Inge.

Publications

* "Medieval Literature: Chaucer and the alliterative tradition: with an anthology of Medieval poems and drama", ed. Boris Ford (1982)
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: From Donne to Marvell" ed. Boris Ford ISBN 0-14-022266-9
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: Medieval Literature" ed. Boris Ford ISBN 0-14-022272-3
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: The Age of Chaucer" ed. Boris Ford ISBN 0-14-020290-0
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Vol. 2, The Age of Shakespeare", ed. Boris Ford ISBN 0-14-022265-0
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: From Dryden to Johnson", ed. Boris Ford ISBN 0-14-022267-7
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: From Blake to Byron" (Pelican, 1957). ISBN 0-14-020402-4.
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: From Dickens to Hardy" (Pelican, 1957). ISBN 0-14-022269-3.
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature, Vol. 7: James to Eliot", ed. Boris Ford (Penguin, 1990)
* "The New Pelican Guide to English Literature: Vol. 9: American Literature" ed. Boris Ford
* "The Cambridge Guide to the Arts in Britain, Vol 2: The Middle Ages" ed. Boris Ford (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
* "The Cambridge Guide to the Arts In Britain: The Seventeenth Century", ed. Boris Ford (Cambridge University Press)
* "The Cambridge Cultural History of Great Britain: Early Britain (1988) ed. Boris Ford
* "Romantics to Early Victorians", ed. Boris Ford (Cambridge University Press, 1990)
* "The Cambridge Cultural History of Great Britain, Volume 8", ed. Boris Ford (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
* "The Cambridge Cultural History of Great Britain, Volume 9, Modern Britain", ed. Boris Ford (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
* "Benjamin Britten's Poets" (1994)

Editor of Journals

* 1951-1968 Co-editor of "The Use of English" with David Holbrook, Denys Thompson, and Raymond O'Malley
* 1955-1986 Editor of "Universities Quarterly"
* Editor of the "Journal of Education"

References

* [http://www.sussex.ac.uk/press_office/bulletin/29may98/item6.html Obituary at Sussex University] official site

External links

* [http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/us/catalogue/email.asp?isbn=0521428890 Cambridge Cultural History of Great Britain] Cambridge University Press