Harry Ford, a longtime editor of p try at Alfred A. Knopf, died of a heart attack late last week. He was 80.
Much admired by the many outstanding p ts he edited, Ford was considered to be one of the country's premier p try editors, as well as an authority on and devotee of fine bookmaking. He began his publishing career in 1945 at Reynal and Hitchcock, with a list that included p ts Richard Wilbur and Howard Moss. He joined Knopf in 1947, publishing such p ts as Randall Jarrell and W.D. Snodgrass. His interest in design and production continued and in 1959 he joined Atheneum Publishers as production design director. Nevertheless, he soon took over the p try list and began publishing W.S. Merwin, James Merrill, Mark Strand and many others. Ford rejoined Knopf in 1987, and, in addition to such p ts as Wallace Stevens and Langston Hughes, he published Amy Clampitt, Brad Leithauser, George Bradley, Jill Bialosky and many others. He received numerous awards, among them PEN American Center's eighth biennial Publisher Citation in 1986. In 1992 he received the P try Editors Award of the National P try Series, which now carries his name.
