Richard Ford - 1944
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Houston High School in Houston, Mississippi
I. Biography
Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi, on February 14, 1944, where he lived until he graduated from high school. In 1962, he left for Michigan so that he could attend Michigan State University and major in hotel management, but he later changed his major to literature. He did a little writing in college, but he had never dreamed that one day he would have a career in writing. He then transferred to Washington University, and after just one semester there, he quit law school in 1968.
Ford married his girlfriend Kristin Hensley, and later that year they moved to California so he could study writing at the University of California. There, he received his M.F.A. in 1970. In 1972, he was offered a teaching fellowship at the University of Michigan for writers trying to complete a work in progress. His first novel, A Piece of My Heart, was published in 1976. The book was well received and nominated for the Ernest Hemingway Award for best novel.
II. Literary Works
Long Fiction
A Piece of My Heart (1976) – The book shows an obvious promise, but it also exhibits all the characteristic voices of southern fiction.
The Ultimate Good Luck (1981) – A Vietnam veteran, Harry Quinn, travels to Mexico to rescue his girlfriend's brother from prison.
The Sports Writer (1986) – The book is told by a father that is mourning the loss of one of his children.
Wildlife (1990) – Told by a sixteen-year-old boy whose mother has had an affair while his father is fighting a forest fire on the coast.
Independence Day (1990) – A realtor is reaching out to his troubled teen while trying to reunite with his wife.
Short Fiction
Rock Springs (1987) – It is a book composed of ten tales. It is about a male protagonist whose life is defined by misfortune.
III. Richard Ford on the Web
http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/ford_richard/http://www.SHS.Starkville.K12.MS.US/mswm/MSWritersAndMusicians/writers/Ford.html
IV. Sources
Abbott, Dorothy, ed. An Anthology of Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1985. Master Plots Complete 1999 This essay was submitted by the students of Beverly Doss, a teacher of Houston High School in Houston, Mississippi.