Ford, Paul Leicester, 1865-1902

American author and historian.

American historian and novelist.

Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902) was an American author and historian known for his biographies of American founding fathers and for editing the works of Thomas Jefferson. He was killed in 1902 by his brother, Malcolm Webster Ford, in a murder-suicide related to a family dispute over money.

Author and historian.

American author and historian; brother of Worthington Chauncey Ford.

Paul Leicester Ford, historian and novelist, was born in Brooklyn, New York. Ford's first work, Webster Genealogy (1876), traced the family tree of Noah Webster, Ford's great-grandfather. In 1881 he edited and published an exchange of letters between Webster and George Washington, and the following year he published Websteriana, a bibliography of Webster's works. Although these early efforts were largely antiquarian, Ford's later projects were scholarly endeavors that focused on important figures of American history, including John Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. In between these major projects, Ford compiled dozens of minor bibliographies relating to early national American literature. He also edited and published an impressive number of obscure but significant historical documents, and two novels, The Honorable Peter Stirling, and Janice Meredith. [Source: Charles W. Carey, Jr., "Ford, Paul Leicester," American National Biography online]

Paul Leicester Ford was an historian and author. Born into a prominent New York family, he suffered a crippling accident as a child and was educated at home, where he had access to his father's extensive library of books and manuscripts. He began publishing books based on documents in his father's collections, including works on his great-grandfather, Noah Webster, and other notable Americans. As the editor of Library Journal, 1890-1893, he advocated open stacks, union catalogs, and inter-library loan services. He later wrote several best-selling novels, making him widely known and financially independent. He was shot and killed by his disinherited brother, Malcolm, in 1902.

Paul Leicester Ford (1862-1902) was born at Brooklyn, New York, the seventh child and third son of Gordon Lester Ford (1823-91) and Emily Ellsworth Fowler Ford (1826-93). On his mother's side he was a great grandson of Noah Webster. As a child Ford suffered a spinal injury which gravely stunted his growth. Born into a bookish family and surrounded by his father's vast library of Americana, he acquired at an early age a taste for learning and scholarship.

From his first publication, (1876) a Webster genealogy printed on his own printing press, Ford went on to edit or publish a large oeuvre of scholarly and bibliographical publications in the field of Americana including editions of the writings of John Dickinson and Thomas Jefferson, bibliographies of Hamilton and Jefferson, and biographical studies of Washington and Franklin. Many of his works were privately printed by the Historical Printing Club of Brooklyn which he formed in association with his brother, Worthington Chauncey Ford (1858-1941).

In his late `twenties Ford turned to fiction where he achieved considerable popularity as a novelist especially for his novel The Honorable Peter Stirling (1894) which dealt with the political morés in New York during the Cleveland era. Ford also wrote several plays one of which was produced on the stage.

For many years Ford was associated with Richard Rogers Bowker in the editing of The Library Journal. In 1900 he married Grace Kidder of a socially prominent Brooklyn family. His life was ended tragically when his brother Malcom, in a fit of insane jealousy, shot him dead in his study before taking his own life.