Life
1855-1931 [James Thomas Harris; b. 1855 by his own account, var. 1856];
son of naval officer; b. 14 Feb., prob. b. in Galway; ‘a Welsh Celt’,
in his own account; living in Kerry at 2; mother died when he was 4; moved
to Kingstown [Dun Laoghaire], and later in Galway and Belfast, with his
brother Vernon; brielfy united with brs. and sisters in Carrifgerdus at
10; ed. Royal Grammar School, Armagh and an English grammar school; ran
away to US at 14; worked as bootblack, hotel clerk, and cowpuncher; attended
Kansas State Univ.; travelled continent; studied at Heidelberg; settled
London; ed. Evening News, 1882-86; ed. Fortnightly Review
1886-94; m. Mary Edith Clayton, widow, 1887; eloped with Helen O’Hara,
1894; later married; ed. Saturday Review, 1894-98; published Shaw,
Beerbohm, and Wells; his extrovert arrogance made him enemies; his later
editorships were with less prestigious papers in England and America from
1910, incl. Hearth and Home, 1911-12; Modern Society, 1913-14;
imprisoned for contempt of court, release in 1914, travelled to US; ed.
Pearson’s Magazine, 1916-22; iss. Contemporary Portraits
(1915 & edns.), incl. sketches of John Tyndall, Jim Larkin, H.
L. Mencken & Ernest Haeckel; View of Truth, 1927-28; a novel,
The Bomb, set in Chicago (1908); a successful play, Mr. &
Mrs. Daventry (1900; publ. 1956) [from the scenario sold twice over
by Wilde]; psycho-analytical approach in The Man Shakespeare (1909);
issued lives of Wilde (1916) and Shaw (1931); issued Contemporary Portraits
(1915-20); My Life and Loves, 4. vols. (1922-27), the first
volume appearing with plates of ‘pretty, naked girls’ - as he
recalls in the preface to the second - epitomizes his fight against Victorian
prudery [err. 5 vols. 1923-27 DIB]; lived at Nice for some years before
his death; d. 26 Aug.; there is a biography by Kingsmill, one time employee
(1932); Oscar Wilde re-issued 1938, at behest of Harris’s widow,
in an edition revised by with a ‘Preface’ by him defending Harris
against the charges of Robert Harborough Sherard who attacked his biography
as an ‘imposture’ although Shaw discovers the same thing that
he objects to said in a biography of his own; the definitive edition was
produced by J. F. Gallagher, using the manuscript of the fifth vol. and
Harris’s annotated copies of My Life and Loves at the Humanities
Research Centre, University of Texas. DNB DIB DIW KUN OCEL SUTH G20
DUB OCIL
[ top ]
Works
Elder Conkin and Other Stories (London 1894);Montes the Matador
(London: Grant Richards 1900), 254pp. [stories]; The Man Shakespeare:
His Tragic Life Story (London 1909), and Do. [Rev. Edn.] ([London:
]Frank Palmer 1911), 425pp.; Shakespeare and His Loves (London
1910); The Women of Shakespeare (London 1911); Unpath’d
Waters (London 1913); Great Days (London 1914); The
Yellow Ticket and Other Stories (London 1914); England or Germany
(NY 1915); Contemporary Portraits (London 1915), Do. [2nd ser.]
(NY 1919); Do. [3rd ser.] (NY 1920), and Do. [4th ser.] (NY 1923);
Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (NY [priv.]: 1916); Do.
[rep. edn.] (NY: 1918); Do., other edns. 1920; 1930; 1938 [rev.
edn. with preface by G. B. Shaw]; Youth in Love (NY 1916);My
Life and Loves, 4 vols. (1922-27); Do., [add. 5th vol.] (Paris
1958); My Life and Loves, ed. with intro. by J. F. Gallagher, 5
vols. in 1 (NY: Grove Press; London: W H Allen 1964) 983pp. [2nd &
3rd impressions in Oct., Dec. 1964]; Undream’d of Shores (NY
1924); Latest Contemporary Portraits (NY 1927); My Reminiscences
as a Cowboy (NY 1930); Pantopia (NY 1930); Confessional
(NY 1930); Bernard Shaw: Frank Harris on Bernard Shaw: An Unauthorised
Biography based on First-hand Information, with a Postscript by Mr Shaw
(London: Gollancz 1931), 408pp.; Joan La Romée (1926), a
play. . Plays include Mr and Mrs Daventry (1899-1900); Joan la
Romée (NY& London 1926).
Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (NY [priv.]: 1916); Do. [rep. edn.] (NY: 1918); and Do., (1920), incl. ‘My Memories of Oscar Wilde by George Bernard Shaw’ [rep. as appendix]; Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (NY [Garden City]: Crown Publ. Co. 1930); Do. [rev. edn.], with introduction by Shaw [accounting for changes] (London: Constable 1938); Oscar Wilde (Michigan State UP 1959), and Do. [rep. of 1959 edn.] Robinson Publ. Co. 1992); 384pp.; Do., [rep. edn.], with a preface by Merlin Wilde (London [q. pub.] 1997).
My Life and Loves, 4 vols. (1922-27); Do., [5th vol.] (Paris 1958); J. F. Gallagher, ed. & intro., My Life and Loves, 5 vols. in 1 (NY: Grove Press; London: W H Allen 1964) 983pp. [2nd & 3rd impressions in Oct., Dec. 1964]. Note that Edn. of 1964 lists copyright Frank Harris 1925; Nellie Harris 1953; Arthur Leonard Ross, as exec. of the Frank Harris Estate, 1963, and acknowledges quotations from J. M. Keynes, The Economic Implications of Peace (1920) on pp.958-63. Contents: VOL I: My Life and Loves [10]; Life in an English Grammar School 23]; School Days in England 35]; The Great New World [64]; Life in Chicago [76]; The Great Fire of Chicago [93]; Back on the Trail [98]; Student Life and Love [110]; Some Study, More Love [124]; At the Age of Eighteen [137]; Hard Times and New Loves [151]; New Experiences: Emerson, Walt Whitman, Bret Harte [165]; Law Work and Sophy [179]; Europe and the Carlyles [193]; Afterword to the Story of My Life [212]. VOL. II: Forward [217]; Skobelef [226]; How I Came to Know Shakespeare and German Student Customs [234]; German Student Life and Pleasure [241]; Athens and the English Language [262]; Love in Athens, and "The Sacred Band" [272]; Holidays and Irish Virtue! [283]; How I Met Froude and Won a Place in London and Gave up Writing Poetry!’ [294]; First Love; Hutton, Escott, and the Evening News [310]; Lord Folkestone and the Evening News; Sir Charles Dilke’s Story and His Wife’s; Earl Cairns and Miss Fortescue [319];; London Life and Humor; Burnand and Marx [334]; Laura, Young Tennyson, Carlo Pellegrini, Paderewski, Mrs. Lynn Linton [342]; The Prince; General Dickson; English Gluttony; Sir Robert Fowler and Finch Hatton; Ernest Beckett and Mallock; The Pink ‘Un and Free Speech [352]; Charles Reade; Mary Anderson; Irving; Chamberlain; Hyndman and Burns [368]; The New Speaker Peel; Lord Randolph Churchill; Col. Burnaby; Wolseley; Graham; Gordon; Joke on Alfred Austin [384]; Memories of John Ruskin [397]; Matthew Arnold; Parnell; Oscar Wilde; The Morning Mail; Bottomley [408]; The Ebb and Flow of Passion! [426]; Boulanger; Rochefort; The Colonial Conference; Jan Hofmeyr; Alfred Deakin; And Cecil Rhodes; The Cardinals Manning and Newman [433]; Memories of Guy de Maupassant [443]; Robert Browning’s Funeral; Cecil Rhodes and Barnato; A Financial Duel; Actress and Prince at Monte Carlo [459]; Lord Randolph Churchill [471]; A Passionate Experience in Paris: A French Mistress [492]; The Foretaste of Death from 1920 Onward [500 ]. VOL. III: Foreword [517]; Mental Self-Discipline [525]; Heine [536]; Marriage and Politics [546]; Laura in the Last Phases [554]; Bismarck and Burton [561]; The Evening News [572]; My Pleasures: Driving, Food and Drink, Music and Science [580]; Tennyson and Thomson [591]; Friends [601]; Grace [612]; Parnell and Gladstone [621]; The Fortnightly Review [632]; Prize-Fighting [645]; Queen Victoria and Prince Edward 655]; Prince Edward [671]. VOL. IV: How I Began to Write [683]; The Saturday Review [701]; The Jameson Raid - Rhodes and Chamberlain [712]; African Adventures and Health [731]; Dark Beauties [741]; Barnato, Beit, and Hooley [750]; The South African War: Milner and Chamberlain; Kitchener and Roberts [761]; San Remo [774]; The Girls’ Confessions [785]; Celebrities of the Nineties [793]; Jesus, the Christ [804]; The End of the Century [813]; Sex and Self-Restraint [822]; The Prosecution of My Life [834]. VOL. V:
Volume V: Foreword [847]; numbered but untitled chapters [1 854]; [II 863]; [III 872]; [IV 882]; [V 889]; [VI 893]; [Can Personal Irnmortality Be Proven? [897]; [III 903]; [IX 908]; [X 913]; [XI Maurice Maeterlinck, Wells, Frederic Howe, and Sir John Gorst [917]; [XII]; Ellen Terry and Sarah Bernhardt; Lord Grey, Rochefort and Rudyard Kipling; Marcelin Berthelot [922]; [XIII 929]; [XIV 935].
[ top ]
Criticism
Vincent Brome, Frank Harris, The Life and Loves of a Scoundrel
(NY 1939; 3rd imp. 1964), 246p., 11 ill.
Hugh Kingsmill, Frank Harris (Lehmann, Holiday Lib. 1949), 176pp.
E. Merrill Root, Frank Harris: A Biography (NY: Odyssey Press 1947), 324pp.
Vincent Brome, Frank Harris: The Life and Loves of a Scoundrel (NY 1959).
Robert Pearsall, Frank Harris (New York: Twayne 1970); Philippa Pullar, Frank Harris (1975).
John O’Donovan, Shaw and the Charlatan Genius (Dolmen
1965).
Stan Gèbler Davies, James Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist (London: David Poynter 1975), p.244.
Richard Kearney, ed., The Irish Mind, 1985, p.212f.
Merlin Holland, ‘Not unkind and not untrue’, in Times Literary Supplement (24 Oct. 1997), p.17
Andrew Holland, The Book of Himself: The Shakespeare Theory in Ulysses and its Significance in the Life of James Joyce’ [UU MA Diss., 2000].)
[ top ]
Notes
John Sutherland, The Longman Companion to Victorian Fiction
(Longmans 1988; rep. 1989), does not cite a birthplace; gives name
as James Thomas Harris, born son of Welsh seaman, ran away to USA at 14,
and drifted; Kansas State Univ., 1872; genius for journalism; London,
1883; ed. Fortnightly Review by 1886; m. Park Lane widow, and embarked
on career as socialist; eloped with Helen O’Hara, 1894, and later
married. Elder Conklin and Other Stories (1894), includes vivid
account of rough life in Kansas’, and gunslinging stories; bought
Saturday Review, 1894, and sold in 1898; failed at luxury hotels
on the Riviera; prison spell in later life; My Life (1922-26),
fascinating, scandalous and unreliable; Montes The Matador (1900),
second vol. of fiction, incl. an authentic tale of the corrida, and the
story of a young MP’s infatuation with a Russian nihilist. BL 4.
John F. Gallagher’s Preface [footnotes] to My Life and Loves [5 vols. in 1] (London: W. H. Allen, 1964) lists works by Harris: Elder Conkin and Other Stories (London 1894); The Man Shakespeare, His Tragic Life Story (London 1909); Shakespeare and His Loves (London 1910); The Women of Shakespeare (London 1911); Unpath’d Waters (London 1913); Great Days (London 1914); The Yellow Tickert and Other Stories (London 1914); England or Germany (NY 1915); Contemporary Portraits (London 1915); Youth in Love (NY 1916); Contemporary Portraits, 2nd ser. (NY 1919); Contemporary Portraits, 3rd ser. (NY 1920); Contemporary Portraits, 4th ser. (NY 1923); Undream’d of Shores (NY 1924); Latest Contemporary Portraits (NY 1927); My Reminiscences as a Cowboy (NY 1930); Confessional (NY 1930); Pantopia (NY 1930); Bernard Shaw (NY 1931). Plays include Mr and Mrs Daventry (1899-1900); Joan la Romée (NY&London 1926).
Berg Collection of New York Public Library holds works of Harris incl. The Bomb (NY: Kennerley 1909), [signed presentation copy], et al., all ex. collection of F. R. Little.
Oscar Wilde dedicated An Ideal Husband to Harris: ‘to
Frank Harris, a slight tribute to his power and distinction as an artist,
his chivalry and nobility as a friend’]. But note that Harris described
Sir William Wilde as a ‘pithecoid person of extraordinary sensuality
and cowardice’. (Oscar Wilde (Constable 1964); cited
in Victoria Glendenning, ‘Speranza’ (Times Literary Supplement,
16 May 1980; see Lady Wilde, infra). Note Juan Luis Borges use of Shaw’s
correspondence with Harris, rep. in Harris’s Shaw (see Shaw,
infra.)
J. F. Gallagher, My Life and Loves (London: W H Allen 1964): Journals edited by Harris in England and America after 1910 were Hearth and Home, 1911-12; Modern Society, 1913-14; Pearson’s, 1916-22; View of Truth, 1927-28.G. B. Shaw was dramatic critic on Saturday Review, under the editorship of Harris in 1895; Harris aimed at socialist premiership; made Saturday Review most brilliant weekly of its time; ruined reputation with later journalistic ventures; lives of Wilde (1916), Shaw (1931), and My Life (1925-30) ‘reveals delusions of greatness’ [DNB]; his Oscar Wilde condemned for supposed unfairness to Lord Alfred Douglas, while attacks also from defenders like Ross and Robert Sherard.
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)