Reviews, Essays, & others
at Troynovant;
listing of Contributor: Wilfred R. Franson
  

To keep these sequences handier, from the main Contributors A-Z index we've separated out the extended Franson family and some other stalwarts.  * denotes contributors' collaboration.

Where the entry is for a review, the creator of the reviewed work — writer, editor, director, lead actor — is named in the right-hand column. For alternate sequences, see Book reviews by Author, or Book reviews by Title, our Recent updates, or others listed in the General Contents; below is by Contributor and Title.
  

Many of these automobile-related articles and memoirs by W. R. Franson previously appeared in his Franson's Motor News, or as renamed, Car History Magazine; or as "Car Stories" (a syndicated newspaper column).

He was a member of the Early Ford V-8 Club of America and the Society of Automotive Historians.
  

  
[Near Harlech Castle, on the coast of Gwynedd, Wales.]

King Richard II:

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground,
And tell sad stories of the death of kings —
How some have been deposed, some slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed ...

William Shakespeare
Richard II, 3.2.142-143 & 151-154

  
The first two lines I quote from Richard II are among my father's favorites in all Shakespeare. A lifelong automobile fan and historian, he applied them lovingly to the classic automobile marques: Packard, Pierce-Arrow, and so on; he spent many years recalling, researching, & writing car histories. Of all the cars he owned in his lifetime, his favorite was his everyday car in 1930s Chicago, his 1932 Ford V8 convertible.

My wonderful father introduced me to science fiction; and to authors who have remained lifelong literary beacons, including Mark Twain and Henry David Thoreau; Winston S. Churchill; James Thurber and the early New Yorker crew; H. L. Mencken and the texture of our common language. He taught me respect for the men and women who do the day's work, from sorting the mail to ensuring America's rockets are properly maintained; and for all who defend our country.

He seemed always to have time for me. We spent many hours together on backyard projects: among my favorites were building fish ponds. He introduced me to the forests of the American Northwest, to Western cities and the seacoast, to the deserts of the American Southwest. The best man I've ever known. — RWF