Now Comes Theodora (Daniel Ford)

Now Comes Theodora

In theory, this was my first novel, but by the time I wrote it, I'd quite lost track of how many novels I had begun and abandoned. Usually they involved the life and loves of an upwardly striving, first generation American whose first name was usually Stephen, in a tribute to Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Gradually, however, I moved away from the young artist's obsession with himself, and the further I went, the friendlier the reception I got from editors and literary agents. By 1963 my hero was a photographer named Boris, who oddly had no last name..

I was living in a trailer on the outskirts of a college town, but I housed Boris in a Quonset hut, which I peopled with a band of peaceniks and dropouts rather similar to those I drank with on Saturday nights. (About the same time, to my amusement, I find that Joseph McElroy was borrowing some elements of my life to decorate one of his literary characters.)

It all worked out just as it was supposed to. An agent named Mavis McIntosh agreed to show Now Comes Theodora around, and an editor named Ellin Roberts agreed to buy it for publication by Doubleday & Co. I took the very handsome advance and with it bought a ticket to Saigon, an adventure that gave me the grist for Incident at Muc Wa. So wasn't that a great way to make my literary debut?

What the reviewers said

"Mr. Ford has the perception to separate the attitudes of the day from the students who strike them, creating a richly colorful novel rather than a series of dialogues." Martin Levin, New York Times

"Mr. Ford presents his characters in the best possible light--he likes them--and then lets them go ahead and do exactly what they want to do, or have to do. It is impossible not to keep on watching them, simply because they are so human and so young and selfish and opinionated and anxious.... The clear-sighted, unangry Mr. Ford will undoubtedly write another novel, which means we all have something to look forward to." The New Yorker

"... an effervescent eye-opener giving one an insight of today's frightened and rebellious younger generation." Lucille Goodyear in Arizona Republic

Publishing history

Now Comes Theodora was published in hardcover by Doubleday & Co. in 1965, as an Avon paperback in 1966 and again in 1972, and republished by the Authors Guild Back in Print program as a quality paperback in 2000.

Buy the paperback

The Authors Guild edition is available from most major retailers at the list price of $18.95, including Amazon.com in the United States (also Britain and Amazon's other international stores) - from Barnes & Noble - and from the Book Depository (free shipping worldwide).

But here's an even better deal: I'll send you an autographed copy for $18.95, with free shipping in the U.S. PayPal will roll your credit card, and I will sign and mail the book.

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Novels: Incident at Muc Wa | The High Country Illuminator | Remains | Now Comes Theodora | Michael's War

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