Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years

Foreword

In order to view this proof accurately, the Overprint Preview Option must be checked in Acrobat Professional or Adobe Reader. Please contact your Customer Service Representative if you have questions about ἀnding the option. Job Name: -- /330792t [ FOREWORD) Sidney Olson's Young Henry Ford: A Picture History of the First Forty Years was a labor of love, which helps explain why it was so meticulously researched and beautifully written. Before becoming a student of Ford's early life, Olson was a Washington Post and Time-LifeFortune editor. In 1950 he joined Ford's institutional advertising agency, Kenyon & Eckhardt. Three years later, when promoting Ford's fiftieth anniversary celebration, he examined long-buried papers and photographs in the home of the late Henry and Clara Ford. Fascinated by the oldest of the documents and photos, he set out, as an avocation , to learn as much as possible about the Fords' formative years. In time, magnifying glass in hand, he began interviewing Henry's surviving friends and business associates. All too often, he laughingly told friends, he ran into the kind of oldster who pointed to the same "Mr. Cunningham" twice in the same picture. Doggedly persistent, Olson and his secretary, Pat Maroni, spent years squeezing out the last ounce of information we are ever likely to know about Ford's first forty years. Playing Cupid, Olson also introduced Pat to "the man you are going to marry"-Jacques Maroni, a bright young Ford executive. A sweet man, Olson was nonetheless a demanding boss. Working days on agency business, he often cleared his desk at 5 P.M. and wrote furiously until the wee hours, expecting his secretary to remain with him to the end. Olson's highly acclaimed mid-1950s institutional advertising campaign, "The American Road," elicited a handsome job offer from Ford's lead advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson. He was serving as vice-president of forward planning when Young Henry Ford was published in 1963, the centennial of the magnate's birth. Retiring at age sixty-five in 1973, Olson died in 1995 in Darien, Connecticut. His widow, Zembra, whom he married in 1937, survives. Olson wrote only one book, but what a book. Thanks to its 229 captioned photographs, interspersed by carefully crafted biographical narrative , Young Henry Ford clearly shows that its subject did not come out of "nowhere" to organize and build one of the world's greatest enterprises. It also suggests why Ford would retain the common touch that contributed to his folk heroism, while becoming an industrial superman and billionaire. Above all, the book illuminates the youthful inner workings of a man who would become one of the most enigmatic, paradoxical, controversial, colorful , and influential characters in American history. Wayne State University Press has a well-earned reputation for being the nation's leading publisher of automotive-history titles. In keeping with its reputation, and in recognition that the long-outof -print original edition of Young Henry Ford has become a collector's item, the Wayne Press is performing a laudable service by giving this charming book a new lease on life. David L. Lewis University of Michigan Business School February, 1997 x ...