Henry Justice Ford

[harestrc]

Hello,
I've written to Andrew but I'd like to put out a general message to anyone who may be able to help.  I am writing a book on the Victorian/Edwardian illustrator Henry Justice Ford.  Many of you may know of him as the principal illustrator of Andrew Lang's beloved Fairy Books: the Yellow, Crimson, Grey, Blue, and so forth.  In the course of my research, I discovered that Henry J. Ford was also a member of J. M. Barrie's Allahakabarrie cricket team that would meet at Black Lake Cottage.  Thereafter, I found that several biographers of Barrie, including Andrew, have mentioned that in response to Peter Llewelyn Davies' question as to how his mother and father first met, it was HJ Ford who wrote to him in 1938 about their meeting at a dinner party in 1889.  So, it does seem as if HJ Ford was in and out of the family's lives for a number of decades.  If anyone knows anything about Ford I would be most grateful.  He is a bit of an enigma, as so few letters written by him have survived and there have been no biographies written about him, and so I'm asking for help in discovering more.  Perhaps the Barrie connection?  And in particular, I can't seem to find any trace of that Ford letter to Peter in the Yale Llewelyn Davies Collection. Of course, my hope is that someone somewhere knows of a treasure trove of letters or diaries or notebooks -- I'd even be thrilled with a note to the milkman!

Carolyn

[sp613]

Hello Carolyn,

A very delayed response to your query but I wonder how you are getting on with HJ Ford. I have some information that might interest you.

Best,
SP