Ford, Jesse Hill

Jesse Hill Ford was an American writer, perhaps best known for his novel The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones. Born in Alabama and raised in Tennessee, he was educated at Vanderbilt University and the University of Florida, taking time off to serve in the Korean War. Devoting himself to writing, he gained attention for his short stories and wrote several well-received novels; his realistic style and Southern settings evoked William Faulkner. His fiction elicited racial tension, and he and his family were targeted by their neighbors, culminating in the 1970 death of a young black man at Ford's hands; he was acquitted, but never fully recovered from the event. He also worked on several screenplays, mostly uncredited, due to debt incurred from the lengthy court case. He won several awards for his short stories, as well as a Fulbright scholarship and a Guggenheim fellowship.