SOURCE: "The Story of Ford Madox Ford," in The New York Times Book Review, September 17, 1950, pp. 1, 22.

Gordon was an American author and educator whose works include The Good Soldier: A Key to the Novels of Ford Madox Ford (1963). In the following excerpt from a review of Parade's End, Gordon contends that the work is best understood from a historical distance.

Ford's work—the body of it—may be compared to a huge stone cast into a pond; only the water which is displaced by its presence will have intimate contact with the stone, but the tiniest ripple will in time carry its impact to the shore. Ford was the best craftsman of his day; we are only now beginning to realize how widespread and pervasive such a literary influence can be.

The wielder of this powerful influence was born in London in 1873 (he died in 1939), the grandson of...