Introduction

This chapter aims to support the work of current and future generations of scholars by producing an essential Companion to survey, review and extend the critical bibliography related to Ford Madox Ford. One of the ‘clarifications’ of David Dow Harvey that Saunders offers in his later bibliography relates to Ford’s career as a short-story writer, and Porter, like Welty, states clearly her indebtedness to Ford. Nearly all the critical stories that emerge in Research Companion found either a beginning, or a thread to develop or complicate, in Harvey’s work. Considering them helps to make sense of the critical map because of the career-long thread they provide, regarding collaboration in particular, and, in a different way, because of the context they create for considering the range and reach of his literary output. This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the book.