Edsel Ford (poet)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edsel Ford (1928–1970) was a poet who lived most of his life in Arkansas. By coincidence he had the same name as Henry Ford's son.

1 Life
2 Poetry
3 Awards
4 Works (incomplete)
5 Reference
6 External link

[edit] Life

Ford was born on a farm in Eva, Alabama (and was named after the doctor who delivered him) but grew up mostly near Avoca, Arkansas, attending high school in Rogers. He began writing early and published his first poem in the Kansas City Star at the age of 14. After receiving a degree in journalism from the University of Arkansas (1952), being drafted into the Army (during which service he contributed to the "Pup Tent Poets" column of Stars and Stripes), and working for a few years as a clerk for Phillips Petroleum, he went back to his family's farm as a full-time writer. His poems appeared in a wide variety of publications, among the best-known of which were the Saturday Review, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, Ladies' Home Journal, and McCall's. He also reviewed books for the Tulsa World and wrote a column for the Ozarks Mountaineer. In 1962 he moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he shared a house with his close friend, the artist Hank Spruce.

He died of a brain tumor at the age of 41.

[edit] Poetry

As a high-school senior, Ford cited Shakespeare, Longfellow, and Millay as his favorite writers. His mature poetry was mostly in meter and rhyme, especially sonnets. Many of its subjects were drawn from rural Arkansas. It often featured striking phrases such as "old corn-cribs/ Lean upon the muscle of the air."

[edit] Awards

Ford received the 1966 Alice Fay di Castagnola Award^[1] of the Poetry Society of America for his work in progress A Landscape for Dante. He also received a Distinguished Alumni Citation from the University of Arkansas (1966) and the Devins Memorial Award, which included the publication of his volume Looking for Shiloh by the University of Missouri Press.

[edit] Works (incomplete)

Two Poets (in collaboration with Carl Selph, 1951)
The Stallion's Nest (1952)
This Was My War (Army poems, 1955)
The Manchild from Sunday Creek (1956)
One Leg Short from Climbing Hills (humorous writings for tourists, illustrated by his sister Imogene Hinesly, 1959)
A Thicket of Sky (1961)
Love Is the House It Lives In (1965)
Looking for Shiloh (1968)
Raspberries Run Deep (compilation, 1975)