A welcome from in-coming Chair,
​Seamus O'Malley

I’m sure I speak for Fordians everywhere when I declare my deep appreciation for the leadership shown by Sara Haslam this last decade. Sara’s ambitious aims have kept Ford an exciting area for readers and researchers. Her tenure as chair saw several international conferences, the release of the Carcanet Parade’s End editions, and the launch of our new journal Last Post. But these impressive achievements, and some more which will soon bear fruit, cannot convey just how welcoming and warm Sara’s leadership has proven. For me it was a pleasure to work with Sara and Laura Colombino on the Routledge Research Companion.  A volume like that would not be possible without the Ford Society and Sara’s leadership; its publication suggests some of the exciting futures for the Ford world, as new readers and scholars continue to discover Ford’s work.

Recent lockdowns have made Ford’s Republic of Letters an even more vital imaginative space. While we struggle to keep our distance from Covid, the plagues of hate and xenophobia feel even more viral. The Ford of the 1930s would commiserate. His pleas for healthier living habits, and his critiques of toxic politics, resonate today. And while we dwell in troubled times, we can also imagine what is newly possible.  Ford’s creativity in response to a world war, and buildup for another, supply us with the necessary creativity, humor and critical distance needed to ensure our cultural health.

I am excited to step in as Chair and can only hope to approach the success of my predecessors.  Exciting imminent developments, as well as the old pleasures of reading and talking about Ford Madox Ford, are just a few of the things that I would love to share with newcomers, so please help me spread the word that Ford continues to be a necessary addition to anyone’s isolation from, or engagement with, our world.  

​— Seamus O'Malley
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About the society

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Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) is a major figure in twentieth-century literature and culture. The author of over eighty books and the editor of two groundbreaking periodicals, the English Review (1908–10) and the transatlantic review (1924), he is best known as the writer of two exemplary modernist works: The Good Soldier (1915) and Parade’s End (1924–8).

The Ford Madox Ford Society was founded in 1997 to reflect the striking resurgence of interest in Ford’s life and works. Honorary Members include Julian Barnes, A. S. Byatt, Rupert Edwards, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Mary Gordon, Samuel Hynes, Alan Judd, Bill Nighy, Sergio Perosa, Michael Schmidt, The Hon. Oliver Soskice, Christian Steinhagen, Tom Stoppard, John Sutherland, and Susanna White.

We organise an active programme of events, with annual meetings in European or American locations. We have held major conferences in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the U.S.A and have inaugurated a series of Ford Lectures. Speakers have included A. S. Byatt, Nicholas Delbanco, Alan Judd, Hermione Lee, Martin Stannard, Colm Tóibín, and Zinovy Zinik. 

Between 2002 and 2016, the Society produced fifteen volumes of the series International Ford Madox Ford Studies, ranging over such themes as Ford and modernity, Englishness, history, literary networks, the visual arts, Ford as editor and his connections with both France and the United States, as well as collections devoted to The Good Soldier and the Parade’s End tetralogy. A full list of titles is included in each issue of our newly published Last Post: A Literary Journal from the Ford Madox Ford Society and via our website.

The planned two issues each year of Last Post have replaced the annual volume and will be sent to all current members of the Ford Madox Ford Society. Our members also receive updates about Society news and events, conferences and recent publications.

If you are an admirer, a reader, a scholar, or a student of Ford or related subjects (modernism, the First World War, pre-war literature and culture), then this Society would like to hear from you, and welcomes your participation in its activities.

Click here to find out more about how and why to join the Ford Society.

You can also contact the executive committee, read more about Ford's life, see a full list of his books and consult our comprehensive bibliography of critical writing on Ford.
Registered Charity No. 1084040
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