The Resume

(December 17, 1873-June 26, 1939)
Born in Merton, England, United Kingdom
Birth name was Ford Herman Hueffer
Edited the journals 'The English Review' and 'The Transatlantic Review'
With Joseph Conrad wrote the novels 'The Inheritors' (1901) and 'Romance' (1903)
Wrote 'The Good Soldier' (1915), the four-volume 'Parade's End' (1924-28) and 'The Rash Act' (1933)

Why he might be annoying:

He kept providing different explanations for why he changed his last name. (Among them: to avoid having a Germanic name in the wake of WWI; because his publisher suggested his books would sell better if he had a name potential buyers knew how to pronounce; to put behind behind him a scandal that erupted when his estranged wife sued after he and his mistress presented themselves as 'Mr. and Mrs. Hueffer'; because he was tired of Ezra Pound calling him 'Forty Mad-dogs Hoofer.')
If the last explanation was the reason, he must have been really pissed when Osbert Sitwell started calling him 'Freud Madox Fraud.'
He liked to claim he was descended from German barons. (Actually, his German ancestors were printers and publishers.)
He had an affair with his wife's sister.
He fathered three daughters with various mistresses.
One of his lovers, painter Stella Bowen, said he had 'a genius for creating confusion and a nervous horror of dealing with the results.'

Why he might not be annoying:

At least there was no confusion on why he changed his middle name: it was to honor his grandfather, pre-Raphaelite painter Ford Madox Brown.
While serving in the army during World War I, he was gassed and suffered a severe concussion from a shelling.
As a magazine editor, he published the first short stories by Ernest Hemingway and D.H. Lawrence.
Ezra Pound said he was the only literary critic in England worth reading.
He wrote, 'Only two classes of books are of universal appeal: the very best and the very worst.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 57]
• Fear of Open Spaces - Agoraphobic
• I am an Adulterer
• I Converted to Catholicism
• I Died in 1939 (Ranked: 65)
• I Fathered Children Out of Wedlock
• Look at My Book Cover
• Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century [1998] (Ranked: 30)
• Modern Library's 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century [1998] (Ranked: 57)
• NPR's 100 Best Literary Characters of the 20th Century [Authors - 2002] (Ranked: 76)
• Profiles 36501-36750 (Ranked: 36623)
• Repetitive Names
• Served in World War I

Year In Review:

In 2023, Out of 8 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 15 Votes: 86.67% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 40.0% Annoying