Eight years have passed since I graduated from college. At eight years’ last, I have finally found a suitable subject for my first biography: an inventor and industrialist, an orator and husband, a true American original, Henry Ford.

Henry Ford was born Henry Ford on July 30, 1863 in the area of Detroit, Michigan. Perhaps tomorrow I will learn something more as I continue my already fulfilling research.

Henry Ford made some interesting statements. It seems that Mr. Ford once said, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.” I think Henry Ford and I would have gotten along well together!

I found a second Ford quote this morning: “It is all one to me if a man comes from Sing Sing or Harvard. We hire a man, not his history.” I am glad to learn that my Harvard education would not have precluded my employment by the Ford Motor Company had I chosen such an occupation over the more noble one of history! (Note: fix wording of this witticism before including it in Preface).

My research has revealed that Ford told the Chicago Tribune in 1916, “We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.” It looks as if I will need to write a thorough defense of my endeavor in my biography’s introduction.

I took a break from my reading this afternoon and ran twenty laps around the library. I returned to my studies to find the following Henry Ford quote: “Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy you don’t need it, if you are sick you shouldn’t take it.” Perhaps Henry was right. I will spend more time on research.

Today saw a notable development in my research of Henry Ford. It seems that Mr. Ford is well remembered for his assertion that “History is more or less bunk.” Mr. Ford stated this belief repeatedly throughout his lifetime, and more than five times in a speech he delivered on August 16, 1920. Surely Mr. Ford would not have objected to the publication of his very own biography! I shall continue my rewarding research. Ford said, “working together is success.” Perhaps I should consider a coauthor for my book.

A peculiar Henry Ford statement from 1926: “I know I have said that ’working together is success,’ but nothing is more pretentious and silly than to author a book with another person. If I am to read a book‹any book‹I want it to be written by a single author.” That certainly settles the coauthorship question. The definitive biography of Henry Ford shall be written only by Ronald Hastings.

I have found it difficult to keep a positive attitude about my studies. Clearly, Henry Ford’s rejection of history included a profound hatred of biographies. Quoth Mr. Ford in 1929: “I loathe biographies.” (Emphasis mine). I am wondering if I should ignore certain quotes.

“Don’t ignore any quotes,” Ford said in conclusion to a speech that he gave to the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies in 1921. Very well. Lack of exercise has made me restless. Perhaps I shall eat some fish. “Fish is for idiots,” said Henry Ford according to the Chicago Tribune article from 1916. All right, chicken then. “No. Not chicken,” Ford told the Tribune. Then I shall make myself a burger. “Hamburgers are more or less bunk,” Ford continued. I will return to my studies.

Today I found the most disheartening Ford statement yet, this one from 1932: “Anyone who writes a biography of me should be killed. I hereby give permissionŠIf someone ever writes a biography of me, I hereby give permission for any American to find that person and shoot him multiple times in the head. Biographers are more or less bunk.” Can he do that? I shall give it another week.

Here is something of interest: Henry Ford kept in his house a little sign that read, “If you chop your own wood it will warm you twice.” That’s cute. The biography shall be written after all. Then I will shoot myself in the head.

--Ronald Hastings.