The English author Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) is best known for his novels The Good Soldier and Parade's End. An outstanding editor, he published works by many significant writers of his era.

Ford Madox Ford was born Ford Madox Hueffer in Merton, England, on Dec. 17, 1873, the son of Dr. Francis Hueffer, a German, who was once music editor of the Times. His maternal grandfather, Ford Madox Brown, the painter, had been one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and an aunt was the wife of William Rossetti. In 1919 he changed his name from Hueffer to Ford, for reasons that were probably connected with his complicated marital affairs. He was educated in England, Germany, and especially France, and it is said that he first thought out his novels in French.

By the age of 22 Ford had written four books, including a fairy tale, The Brown Owl, written when...