Title: Jesse Hill Ford Letter

Date/Date Range :   1976 June 18

Extent: 0.1 linear feet

Abstract:

This 1976 letter from Jesse Hill Ford to "Saint" Harold Seligman, Esq., includes information about his and his wife's time in the Caribbean, their schedule, and Mary Jane and Edward, the lawyer, Kohrs.

Call number: MS-2374

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

Collection removed from autographed copy of Ford's book The Raider (Boston, Toronto: Little Brown, c. 1975) and is property of the UT Special Collections Library.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Jesse Hill Ford Letter, MS-2374. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of a single folder.

Although born in Troy, Alabama, Jesse Hill Ford grew up in Nashville, TN. He received a B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1951 and while there was campus correspondent for the Nashville Tennessean. Ford continued to work as a journalist whilst completing his master's degree at the University of Florida in 1955. From 1955 to 1957 he worked as a public relations director for the Tennessee Medical Association and for the American Medical Association in Chicago, Illinois, but in 1957 his family moved to Humboldt, TN. Ford published his first novel, Mountains of Gilead (1961), followed by the television and stage scripts of his drama The Conversion of Buster Drumwright in 1964. In 1965 came The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones, a fictionalized account of the killing of a black undertaker who wanted to leave his wife for having an affair with a white policeman. He later dramatized this work for a movie version. Ford also taught as a visiting lecturer at several universities, including Memphis State (1969-71) and Vanderbilt (1987). Then, in 1975 he published The Raider , a historical novel set in West Tennessee before and during the Civil War. Later, Ford moved to Hollywood, rewriting screenplays. He finally returned to Nashville, TN, where he committed suicide due to failing health on June 1, 1996.

This 1976 letter from Jesse Hill Ford to "Saint" Harold Seligman, Esq., includes information about his and his wife's time in the Caribbean, their schedule, and Mary Jane and Edward, the lawyer, Kohrs, whom he met whilst working for the Tennessee Medical Association.

• Ford, Jesse Hill.
• Authors, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence.