Richard Ford (born February 16, 1944) is an American novelist and short story writer. He is most famous for the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land. He is also celebrated for his widely-anthologized collection of short stories Rock Springs. Image File history File links RichardFordbookcover. ... Image File history File links RichardFordbookcover. ... February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... This article is in need of attention. ... The Sportswriter is a 1986 novel by Richard Ford. ... Independence Day, a novel by Richard Ford, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1996. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Early life

Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi, the only son of a traveling salesman for Faultless Starch, a Kansas City company. When Ford was eight years old, his father had a major heart attack, and thereafter Ford spent as much time with his grandfather, a former prizefighter and hotel owner in Arkansas, as he did with his parents in Mississippi. Ford’s father died of a second heart attack in 1960. Nickname: Crossroads of the South, Jacktown Coordinates: Country United States State Mississippi County Hinds Founded 1822  - Mayor Frank Melton Area    - City  106. ... Acute myocardial infarction (AMI or MI), commonly known as a heart attack, is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. ... Official language(s) English Capital Little Rock Largest city Little Rock Area  Ranked 29th  - Total 53,179 sq mi (137,002 km²)  - Width 239 miles (385 km)  - Length 261 miles (420 km)  - % water 2. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ...

Ford received a B. A. from Michigan State University, where he also met Kristina Hensley, his future wife; the two married in 1968 and remain married to this day. Despite a mild dyslexia, Ford developed a serious interest in literature. He has stated in interviews that his dyslexia may in fact have helped him as a reader, as it forced him to approach books at a slow and thoughtful level. Bachelor of Arts (B.A., BA or A.B.), from the Latin Artium Baccalaureus is an undergraduate bachelors degree awarded for either a course or a program in the liberal arts or the sciences, or both. ... Michigan State University (MSU) is a public university in East Lansing, Michigan. ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... It has been suggested that Reading Difficulties and Dyslexia be merged into this article or section. ... Old book bindings at the Merton College library. ...

Later, Ford briefly attended law school but dropped out to pursue a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, which he received in 1970. A Master of Fine Arts (MFA) is a graduate degree in an area of applied or performing arts typically requiring two to three years of study beyond the bachelor level. ... The University of California, Irvine is a public research university primarily situated in suburban Irvine, California; a significant portion of the campus falls into the neighboring community of Newport Beach. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...

Later Life and Works

Ford published his first novel, A Piece of My Heart, the story of two unlikely drifters whose paths cross on an island in the Mississippi River, in 1976, and followed it with The Ultimate Good Luck in 1981. Despite good notices, the books sold little, and Ford retired from fiction writing to become a writer for the New York magazine Inside Sports. The Mississippi River, derived from the old Ojibwe word misi-ziibi meaning great river (gichi-ziibi big river at its headwaters), is the second-longest named river in North America, with a length of 2320 miles (3733 km) from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Nickname: Big Apple, Gotham, NYC, City That Never Sleeps, The Concrete Jungle, The City So Nice They Named It Twice Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs The Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island Settled 1676 Government  - Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area...

In 1982, however, the magazine folded, and when Sports Illustrated failed to hire Ford, he turned back to fiction writing with The Sportswriter, a novel about a failed novelist turned sportswriter who undergoes a spiritual crisis following the death of his son. The novel became Ford’s "breakout book", named one of Time magazine’s five best books of 1986 and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Ford followed the success immediately with the 1987 Rock Springs, a short story collection including some of his most popular stories, adding to his reputation as one of the finest writers of his generation. 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The first issue of Sports Illustrated, August 16, 1954, showing Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Mathews at bat in Milwaukee County Stadium. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to an American author. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Rock Springs may refer to: Rock Springs, Wyoming Rock Springs, Wisconsin Rock Springs, New Mexico This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Critics and those in the literary establishment associated the stories in Rock Springs with artists whose style has been described as Dirty realism. In the literary world this referred to a group of writers in the 1970s and 1980s that included Raymond Carver, Tobias Wolff—two writers Ford was closely acquainted with—Ann Beattie, and Jayne Anne Phillips among others. Dirty realism is a North American literary movement born in the 1970s-80s in which the narrative is stripped down to its fundamental features. ... Raymond Carver Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. ... Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff (born June 19, 1945, in Birmingham, Alabama) is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. ... Ann Beattie (born September 8, 1947) is an American short story writer and novelist. ... Jayne Anne Phillips (born July 1952) is an American novelist and short story writer who was born in the small town of Buckhannon, West Virginia. ...

However misleading it is to employ a label in considering an entire body of work, the term "dirty realism" is still applied to Ford and those writers who seem focused on the sadnesses and losses of the everyday lives of ordinary people. Those applying this label will often point out Carver's lower-middle class subjects or the protagonists Ford portrays in Rock Springs: characters isolated or marginalized in some way and who represent Henry David Thoreau's idea of living lives of "quiet desperation." By contrast, many of the characters in the "Frank Bascombe" series of novels (The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and The Lay of the Land), notably the protagonist himself, enjoy degrees of material affluence and cultural capital not normally associated with the "dirty realist" style. Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862; born David Henry Thoreau) was an American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic, and philosopher who is best known for Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to... The Sportswriter is a 1986 novel by Richard Ford. ... An Independence Day is an annual celebration commemorating the anniversary of a nations assumption of independent statehood, usually after ceasing to be a colony or part of another state. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Cultural capital (le capital culturel) is a sociological term used by Pierre Bourdieu. ...

Although his 1990 novel Wildlife, a story of a Montana golf pro turned firefighter, met with only mixed reviews and middling sales, by the end of the 1980's, Ford's reputation was solid. He was increasingly sought after as an editor and contributor to various projects. Ford edited the 1990 Best American Short Stories and the 1992 Granta Book of the American Short Story. More recently, he edited for the Library of America its two volume edition devoted to fellow Mississippi writer Eudora Welty. MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... Various species of deer are commonly seen wildlife across the Americas and Eurasia. ... Official language(s) English Capital Helena Largest city Billings Area  Ranked 4th  - Total 147,165 sq mi (381,156 km²)  - Width 255 miles (410 km)  - Length 630 miles (1,015 km)  - % water 1  - Latitude 44°26N to 49°N  - Longitude 104°2W to 116°2W Population  Ranked... Greg Norman on the 18th tee at St Andrews. ... It has been suggested that Firefighter Assist and Search Team be merged into this article or section. ... The Best American series is an annually-published collection of books, published by Houghton Mifflin, each of which features a different genre or theme. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Granta 37, published September 1991 Granta is a literary magazine which publishes new writing — fiction, personal history, reportage and investigative journalism — four times a year. ... Volumes in the Library of America series The Library of America (LoA) is a nonprofit publisher of classic American literature. ... Eudora Welty (b. ...

In 1995, Ford’s career reached its high point to date with the release of Independence Day, a sequel to The Sportswriter featuring the continued story of its protagonist, Frank Bascombe. Reviews were positive, and the novel became the first ever to win both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Ford’s recent works include the short story collections Women with Men (1997) and A Multitude of Sins (2002). The Lay of the Land (2006) continues (and according to Ford ends) the series of novels featuring Frank Bascombe. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Independence Day, a novel by Richard Ford, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1996. ... The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction has been awarded since 1948 for distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ...

Ford lived for many years in the French Quarter and then in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, where his wife Kristina was the executive director of the city planning commission. He now lives in Maine. French Quarter: upper Chartres street looking down towards Jackson Square and the spires of St. ... The Garden District is a residential area of New Orleans, Louisiana. ... Nickname: Location in the State of Louisiana and the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Louisiana Parish Orleans Founded 1718 Government  - Mayor Ray Nagin (D) Area  - City  350. ... Official language(s) de jure: none de facto: English & French Capital Baton Rouge Largest city Baton Rouge [1] Area  Ranked 31st  - Total 51,885 sq mi (134,382 km²)  - Width 130 miles (210 km)  - Length 379 miles (610 km)  - % water 16  - Latitude 29°N to 33°N  - Longitude 89°W... Official language(s) None (English de facto; French is also an administrative language) Capital Augusta Largest city Portland Area  Ranked 39th  - Total 33,414 sq mi (86,542 km²)  - Width 210 miles (338 km)  - Length 320 miles (515 km)  - % water 13. ...

Quotes

"Elephants feel the fatal footfalls of poachers a hundred miles off. Cats exit the room when oysters are opened. On and on, and on and on. The unseen exists and has properties." - The Lay of the Land

"Never tell anyone you know how she or he feels unless you happen to be, just at that second, stabbing yourself with the very same knife in the very same place in the very same heart she or he is stabbing. Because if you're not, then you don't know how anybody feels." - 'The Lay of the Land'

Bibliography

• (1976) A Piece of My Heart - novel
• (1981) The Ultimate Good Luck - novel
• (1986) The Sportswriter - novel
• (1987) Rock Springs - short stories
• (1990) Wildlife - novel
• (1995) Independence Day - novel
• (1997) Women with Men: Three Stories - 3 "long" stories
• (2002) A Multitude of Sins - short stories
• (2004) Vintage Ford - short stories
• (2006) The Lay of the Land - novel

1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Sportswriter is a 1986 novel by Richard Ford. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Independence Day, a novel by Richard Ford, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1996. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

External links

Work

• How Was it to be Dead?, The New Yorker (2007)

The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ...

Profiles

• Bibliography, University of Mississippi
• Profile, Ploughshares

The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. ... Ploughshares is an American literary journal published quarterly by Emerson College. ...

Interviews

• Interview (1996), Salon.com
• Interview (2002), IdentityTheory.com
• Interview (2006), The New Yorker
• Interview (2006), Nerve.com
• Interview (2006), California Literary Review
• Interview and book reading video streams (2006), University of Pennsylvania
• Interview (2007), IdentityTheory.com
• Interview (2007), The Bat Segundo Show #90

Screenshot of Salon. ... The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ... Nerve is an American online magazine dedicated to sex, relationships and culture. ... This article is about the private university in Philadelphia. ...

Reviews

• Review of A Multitude Of Sins, LauraHird.com