Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Funabout Fords
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
This collection of correspondence consists chiefly of letters from English author Ford Madox Ford to his literary agent, James B. Pinker. The letters discuss Ford's writings, especially his novels, and include his frequent requests for advances. Although the bulk of the letters in the collection are addressed to Pinker (303 letters), there are also four pieces of correspondence with Macmillan Publishing Company vice president Harold Strong Latham, as well as some other correspondents. In the early part of the correspondence, there are a few references to Joseph Conrad. The letters date from 1901 to 1931, with the bulk of the materials dating from 1901 to 1910. In general, the correspondence relates almost entirely to Ford's writing and the publication of his novels, and includes progress reports, discussion of sale negotiations and terms of contracts, frequent requests for advances, and the sending of manuscripts, correcting of proofs, etc. There is very little regarding Ford's personal life. The collection also includes one piece of ephemera, a printed one-page list of one-act plays by J.J. Bell, May 1930 (housed at the end of Box 4). Items consist of: Walter T. Boodle letter to James Brand Pinker, 1911 July 3 (FMF 1) Esther E. Bowen, secretary to Ford Madox Ford, letter to J.B. Pinker & Co., 1925 April 30 (FMF 2) County Bank, Ashford, telegram to James Brand Pinker, 1906 August 7 (FMF 3) Ford Madox Ford letters to Harold Strong Latham, 1921 August 14 and 1921 September 27 (FMF 4-5) Ford Madox Ford letter to Mr. Liverwright, Boni & Liverwright, 1922 July 6 (FMF 6) Hewitt Hanson Howland letter to James Brand Pinker, 1913 October 27 (FMF 7) Violet Hunt letter to James Brand Pinker, 1919 February 26 (FMF 8) Harold Strong Latham letters to Ford Madox Ford, 1921-1922 (FMF 9-12) James Brand Pinker letter to Ford Madox Ford, 1907 June 1 (FMF 13) Ford Madox Ford letters to James Brand Pinker, 1901-1933 (from 1922 onwards, the letters are addressed to J.B. Pinker & Sons (FMF 14-316) Some of the letters are in Ford's handwriting, but many are written or typewritten by a secretary and signed by Ford. Most of the letters for 1901-1915 are undated. A few quotations from the letters (as well as some from items not in the collection) were published by Paul Alexander Bartlett in the Saturday Review of Literature, August 2, 1941, pp. 3, 4, 14.
mssFMF 1-316