ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Ford Madox Ford’s position in the literary canon in relation to publishing history. It focuses mostly on publishers and their role in shaping the literary canon up to 1950, there are many other ways to ‘do book history’ in relation to Ford studies. Ford was in demand not for his own work, but for writing introductions to other writers’ works reprinted in prominent series of reprints. Ford’s constant changing of publishers, the fact there was no collected edition of his work published during his lifetime, and his exclusion from prominent series of classics all had a significant impact on his canonicity. Ford explicitly linked his project to find a stable publisher and his ambition to have his books marketed as ‘classics.’ While university instructors could easily select books by Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, or James Joyce for their courses, Ford’s work presented more of an economic challenge because no cheap edition was available.
