Daniel Ford (born 1931 in Arlington, Massachusetts) is an American
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
, novelist, and
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
. The son of Patrick and Anne Ford, he attended public schools in
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
and
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...
, graduating in 1950 from
Brewster Academy
)
, established =
, type = Independent boarding school
, gender = Co-educational
, head_name = Head of School
, head = Kristy Kerin
, chair_label = Chair of Trustees
, chair = R C Ballentine Esq
, city = ...
in
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
Wolfeboro is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,416 at the 2020 census. A resort area situated beside Lake Winnipesaukee, Wolfeboro includes the village of Wolfeboro Falls.
History
The town was granted ...
. He was educated at the
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...
(A.B. Political Science 1954), the
University of Manchester
, mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity
, established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
(Fulbright Scholar, Modern European History 1954–55), and
King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...
(M.A. War Studies 2010).
Ford served in the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
at
Fort Bragg
Fort Bragg is a military installation of the United States Army in North Carolina, and is one of the largest military installations in the world by population, with around 54,000 military personnel. The military reservation is located within Cum ...
and in
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Overseas Weekly in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, Germany, he became a free-lance writer in
Durham, New Hampshire
Durham is a town in Strafford County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 15,490 at the 2020 census, up from 14,638 at the 2010 census.United States Census BureauU.S. Census website 2010 Census figures. Retrieved March 23, 2011. D ...
. He received a Stern Fund Magazine Writers' Award (1964) for his dispatches from
South Vietnam
South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...
, published in ''
The Nation
''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...
to work with Japanese accounts of the air war in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
; and an Aviation - Space Writers' Association Award of Excellence (1992) for his history of the
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
. He is best known for his Flying Tigers research and for the Vietnam novel that became the Burt Lancaster film ''
Go Tell the Spartans
''Go Tell the Spartans'' is a 1978 American war film directed by Ted Post and starring Burt Lancaster. The film is based on Daniel Ford's 1967 novel ''Incident at Muc Wa'' about U.S. Army military advisors during the early part of the Vietnam ...
''.
Ford is a resident scholar at the University of New Hampshire. He writes for ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', ''Michigan War Studies Review'', and ''Air&Space/Smithsonian'' magazine; maintains the Warbird's Forum, Piper Cub Forum, and Reading Proust websites; and blogs on Daniel Ford's Blog. He soloed in a J-3
Piper Cub
The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...
at the age of 68 and flew as a sport pilot until he turned 80.
Non-fiction
* ''Looking Back From Ninety: The Depression, the War, and the Good Life That Followed'' (2021)
* ''Cowboy: The Interpreter Who Became a Soldier, a Warlord, and One More Casualty of Our War in Vietnam'' (2018)
* Editor: ''The Greater America: An Epic Journey Through a Vibrant New Country'' (1907, revised 2017)
* ''Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and His American Volunteers, 1941-1942'' (1991, 2nd edition 2007, 3rd edition 2016; translated into Chinese)
* ''Poland's Daughter: How I Met Basia, Hitchhiked to Italy, and Learned About Love, War, and Exile'' (2013)
* ''A Vision So Noble: John Boyd, the OODA Loop, and America's War on Terror'' (2010)
* Editor: ''The Lady and the Tigers: Remembering the Flying Tigers of World War II'', by Olga Greenlaw (1943, revised 2002)
* ''The Only War We've Got: Early Days in South Vietnam'' (2001)
* ''Glen Edwards: The Diary of a Bomber Pilot'' (1998)
* The Country Northward (1976, 2010)
Novels
*''Michael's War: A Story of the Irish Republican Army'' (2003, 2015)
*''Remains: A Story of the Flying Tigers'' (2000, 2013)
*''The High Country Illuminator: A Tale of Light and Darkness and the Ski Bums of Avalon'' (1971, 2013)
*''Incident at Muc Wa: A Story of the Vietnam War'' (1967; translated into Dutch; filmed as ''
Go Tell the Spartans
''Go Tell the Spartans'' is a 1978 American war film directed by Ted Post and starring Burt Lancaster. The film is based on Daniel Ford's 1967 novel ''Incident at Muc Wa'' about U.S. Army military advisors during the early part of the Vietnam ...
'', 1976; 2012)
*''Now Comes Theodora'' (1965, 2000)