Paul Leicester Ford (March 23, 1865 - May 8, 1902)
Paul Leicester Ford (23 March 1865, New York, New York, USA - 8 May 1902, New York, New York, USA) was an American novelist and biographer, born in Brooklyn. He was the great-grandson (through his mother's family) of Noah Webster and the brother of the noted historian Worthington C. Ford. He wrote lives of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and others, edited the works of Thomas Jefferson, and wrote a number of novels, which had considerable success, including The Honorable Peter Stirling (1894), The Story of an Untold Love, Janice Meredith, Wanted a Matchmaker, and Wanted a Chaperon. He was murdered by his brother, Malcolm Webster Ford, at one time the most famous amateur athlete in the United States, who then committed suicide. Paul Leicester Ford was the consummate bookman of the late nineteenth century. During his brief life, he successfully contributed to the world of letters through printing, bibliography, editing, scholarship, and fiction. An exhibit on University of South Carolina represents part of a gift recently made to the University by Mrs. William R. Bailey of Camden in memory of her husband, William R. Bailey. Bailey was the grandson of Rosalie Ford Barr, one of Paul Ford's older sisters. Mrs. Barr was close to Ford throughout his life; she also provided him with his only formal schooling. Later in his life, she furnished him with a much needed retreat to complete one of his best-sellers. The collection contains almost forty books and pamphlets pertaining to Ford, including inscriptions, photos, and letters, and additional material by Noah Webster, Ford's great-grandfather, Emily E. Ford, his mother, Worthington C. Ford, his brother, and other authors.
( Read more... )An article in the Bookman declared that Ford was one of the great historians of the nineteenth century. Leaving behind a wife and small daughter, Ford's death was truly a loss to his family, friends, and American letters. Examining his short life and his numerous accomplishments, however, makes one readily accept his friend's assertion that Ford had "an almost superhuman capacity for work."
Source: http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/plford/plford.html
This is one of those books that mostly everyone recommended me to read; I have to admit that I delayed the reading since I’m not really a fantasy lover, and, I don’t know why, I also had the feeling that the romance in the story was not really the main theme, and so the other reason why I sometime read a fantasy novel, the romance, was excluded. But this last point is not true, there is a romance in the story, even if it’s on a Young Adult level, making this a Gay novel that I’d have no issue at all to recommend myself to a teenager reader. 
This is one of those books that mostly everyone recommended me to read; I have to admit that I delayed the reading since I’m not really a fantasy lover, and, I don’t know why, I also had the feeling that the romance in the story was not really the main theme, and so the other reason why I sometime read a fantasy novel, the romance, was excluded. But this last point is not true, there is a romance in the story, even if it’s on a Young Adult level, making this a Gay novel that I’d have no issue at all to recommend myself to a teenager reader. 
Deviations: Submission is like the 101 course about Gay BDSM Romance; when you are a newbie in the genre, and you are like testing the water, it’s very likely that you will stumble upon this series, or at least it was like that for me. I admit, I was not ready; I remember that I started to read the first book, this one, but I was not able to continue. Pain/pleasure games, 24/7 D/s relationships, flogging, gagging, and on and on, was really too much for me at the time. I realize now, more or less 5 years later, that indeed this series is way more “mild” than other novels I read after that. 
Deviations: Submission is like the 101 course about Gay BDSM Romance; when you are a newbie in the genre, and you are like testing the water, it’s very likely that you will stumble upon this series, or at least it was like that for me. I admit, I was not ready; I remember that I started to read the first book, this one, but I was not able to continue. Pain/pleasure games, 24/7 D/s relationships, flogging, gagging, and on and on, was really too much for me at the time. I realize now, more or less 5 years later, that indeed this series is way more “mild” than other novels I read after that. 
