The secret life of Henry Ford

by John Côté Dahlinger

Book Overview

The personal life of Ford is revealed in this biography by a man who claims to be Henry's illegitimate son by one of his secretaries. Much of the information about the woman's relationship with Ford... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672523779
• ISBN13: 9780672523779
• Release Date: January 1978
• Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Believable. Great Story!

I found this book very intriguing and believable. I'm sure the Ford family tried to suppress this information, so as not to tarnish the image of Henry Ford. I wondered what happened to John Cote Dahlinger? I did some research and with the help of Alice Pepper, Detroit Free Press, was able to obtain this information on 10/15/2007. Headline: MAN WHO SAID HE WAS SON OF HENRY FORD I DIES OF CANCER Byline: PATRICIA MONTEMURRI, DETROIT FREE PRESS, 11/22/1984 John Cote Dahlinger, who six years ago co-authored a book in which he claimed to be the illegitimate son of Ford Motor Co. founder Henry Ford I, has died in a Saginaw hospital of cancer at age 61. Mr. Dahlinger, who lived in Lexington on Lake Huron, died Friday at St. Mary's hospital. In "The Secret Life of Henry Ford," Mr. Dahlinger wrote that his mother, the late Evangeline Cote Dahlinger, Henry Ford's personal secretary, was also the auto pioneer's mistress. MR. Dahlinger had operated nightclubs in the Detroit area for many years. His family's former estate is a mile upstream from Henry Ford's Fair Lane mansion, now located on the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus. Ford, Mr. Dahlinger had said, built the mansion, which was occupied by Evangeline Dahlinger and her husband, Raymond. Ford had showered him and his parents with expensive gifts, Mr. Dahlinger wrote. Both Raymond and Evangeline Dahlinger had worked for Ford in the early days of the Ford Motor Co. Evangeline began work as a secretary for one of Ford's design consultants for the Model T, and later was Ford's personal secretary, handling correspondence for Ford's wife, Clara, and overseeing the development of Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. Her husband, who died in 1969, worked as a bodyguard for Ford and later managed the Ford Farms in Dearborn. MR. Dahlinger had said in his book, co-authored by celebrity biographer Frances Spatz Leighton, that as a boy he had played with Henry Ford's four grandchildren. In his book, Mr. Dahlinger said his mother would never discuss his parentage, but he said her diaries and her close relationship with Ford convinced him that Ford was his father. His mother seemed obsessed with Ford, despite their 30-year age difference, wrote Mr.Dahlinger. "She kept track of everything he was doing day by day in her diaries. She seems to have destroyed some of her diaries as she grew older and more discreet," he wrote. "Even so, I found enough of the little books secreted around the house, painstakingly written by hand (partly in French) to get a good picture of their relationship." After the death of his mother in 1979, Mr. Dahlinger sold the Dahlinger estate. In an interview in 1978, Mr. Dahlinger said he wrote the book to put his parents "back into history." Most Ford biographies include brief references to Raymond Dahlinger as the manager of the Ford Farms. One Ford family biographer, David Lewis, named Evangeline Dahlinger as one of the 10 people who had the most influe