Worthington Chauncey Ford : Scholar and Adventurer

Worthington Chauncey Ford (1858-1941) was descended from a long line of intellectuals, including Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony, President Charles Chauncey of Harvard College, and the eminent lexicographer Noah Webster, so it was not surprising that he chose a career dedicated to historical investigation and learning. A pioneer in the acquisition of American historical documents, Ford was also the most prolific historian-editor in American history, publishing over 260 articles, essays, and books in his lengthy career. A college dropout, he became one of the nation's most distinguished historians and was elected president of the American Historical Association in 1917.Ford's significance as a major figure in American historical scholarship has been too long neglected. His achievements are now examined in this illuminating biography. Louis Leonard Tucker begins by describing how Ford's parents inspired his love of books and passion for American history. He then traces Ford's early career to his appointment to a positionas in the Department of State, where he launched an ambitious plan to publish and disseminate the agency's vast and significant holdings of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historical manuscripts. Tucker describes Ford's subsequent successful tenures at the Boston Public Library and Library of Congress, and his twenty-year career as the de facto director of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He also recounts the sensational and tragic fratricide-suicide of Ford's noted two brothers: Paul, one of America's outstanding historian-novelists, and Malcolm, the nation's leading track star of the 1880s.An invaluable reference for historians, documentary editors, librarians, archivists, and researchers, this sprightly, well-crafted recounts the considerable contributions of the "Prince of Editors."