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Frank Harris Minor Bibliography

This page contains a list of books which may be of some interest to the student of Harris, as a supplement to the main bibliography. Wherever possible I have included my own comments about their content. My principal source for this list is Tobin and Gertz' biography of Harris, supplemented by my own researches. (Three loud cheers also to Simon Bowles and Catherine Tonge for their generous endeavours).

Warning: some books I haven't yet read may be wrongly classified.

Biographical

  • Modern Men and Mummers by Hesketh Pearson. George Allen & Unwin. London. 1921.

    The portrait of Harris here was written while Pearson was still under Harris' influence, and is of little interest except for some extracts from letters which by their boastfulness rather spoil the impression of Harris' genius Pearson was attempting to give his reader.

  • Bernard Shaw, His Life and Personality, by Hesketh Pearson. Collins. London. 1942.

    Pearson had by now decided, largely due to the influence of Lord Alfred Douglas, that Harris was an utter scoundrel, and - disproportionately - devoted an entire chapter of his biography of Shaw to tell us so.

  • The Life of Oscar Wilde, by Hesketh Pearson. Methuen. London. 1946.

    Pearson's treatment of Harris in his biography of Wilde is altogether milder than in that of Shaw. Perhaps exposure to the atrocities of war had helped to put his feelings about Harris into perspective?

  • Hesketh Pearson by Himself, by Hesketh Pearson. London. 1964.

    By the time he came to write his autobiography Pearson's view of Harris had mellowed to an affectionate winking at his vices. "We were treated" he recalled, "to hair-raising episodes in his life as a cowboy on the Mexican border, but probably it all boiled down to the fact that he had once milked a cow".

  • Pilloried!, by Sewell Stokes. Appleton. New York. 1929. Contains chapter entitled "The Mystery of Frank Harris".

    Stokes was with (his brother?) Leslie Stokes the author of an early play about Oscar Wilde in which Frank Harris appears as a character.

  • London's Latin Quarters, by Kenneth Hare. John Lane. London. 1926. Valuable data on Hearth and Home period.
  • Prejudices. Third Series., by H. L. Mencken. Knopf. New York. 1922.
  • The Verdict of Bridlegoose, by Llewellyn Powys. Harcourt Brace. New York. 1926.
  • The Autobiography of Frank Tarbeaux, by Donald Henderson Clarke. Vanguard Press. New York. 1930.
  • Tarboe, by Gilbert Parker. Harper. New York. 1927.

    This ghastly sanctimonious abomination of a novel was apparently based on the life of Frank Tarbeaux, who was according to Tobin and Gertz a friend of Harris - which tenuous connection led them to include the book in their bibliography even though it has nothing to do with Harris: indeed it has no merit of any kind whatsoever.

  • A Solitary Parade, by Frederick L. Hackenburg. Thistle Press. New. York. 1929.
  • Set Down in Malice, by Gerald Cumberland. Brentano's. New York. 1919.

    Includes a chapter devoted to Harris which is also printed in Daughters of Eve, a pamphlet published by Pearson's 25c Library. Cumberland wrote as a fan of Harris but not one altogether blind to his faults. His memoir features several meetings with the great man over dinner, including a notable one where a 'Beautiful Lady' was present, probably Enid Bagnold and another shortly after Harris had quarelled and come to blows with a 'well-known...littérateur', presumably Lord Alfred Douglas.

  • Written in Friendship, by Gerald Cumberland. Brentano's. New York. 1924.
  • The Nineteen Hundreds, by Horace Wyndham. Seltzer. New York. 1923. Reportedly important for Candid Friend period.
  • Up the Years from Bloomsbury, by George Arliss. Little, Brown. Boston. 1928. Contains an account of Mr and Mrs Daventry, together with a portrait of Arliss as the Irish servant in that play.
  • Our Changing Human Nature, by Samuel D. Schmalhausen. Macaulay. New York. 1929.
  • Men and Women of the Time. Fifteenth Edition. Routledge. London. 1899. Contains some biographical data.
  • The Story of My Life, by Sir Harry H. Johnston. Bobbs-Merrill. Indianapolis. 1923. Contains a few reportedly important references.
  • Glimpses of the Great, by George Sylvester Viereck. Duckworth. London. 1930. Contains an article about Harris.
  • Living Authors: A Book of Biographies. H. W. Wilson Co. New York. 1931.
  • After Puritanism, by Hugh Kingsmill. Duckworth. London. 1929.

    Kingsmill attempted to show various developments of and reactions to Puritanism from the 19th century onwards, illustrating his themes by potted biographies of four individuals: Frederic Farrar, the author of Eric, or Little by Little; the author Samuel Butler; Frank Harris; and the journalist W. T. Stead. The mixture of social history and biography is interesting but overall it does not work: individual lives only sporadically exemplify wider trends in society. The portrait of Harris is of note, being much more sympathetic than that in his full-length Frank Harris published only two years later.

  • Letters from Joseph Conrad, edited by Edward Garnett.
  • W. E. Henley: A Memoir, By Kenneth Williamson. Harold Shayler. London. 1930.
  • Peter Whiffle, by Carl Van Vechten.
  • Relations and Complications. Being the Recollections of H. H. The Dayang Muda of Sarawak. John Lane: The Bodley Head. London. 1929. Has several references but reportedly an entire chapter about Harris and Douglas was censored by the publisher.
  • Men and Memories, by William Rothenstein. Coward-McCann. New York. 1931.
  • Living My Life, by Emma Goldman. Knopf. New York. 1931.
  • The New Yorker Scrapbook. Doubleday Doran. Garden City. 1931. Contains "My Own Life (After Reading the Second Volume of Frank Harris's 'My Life')", by Ernest Hemingway.
  • The Beardsley Period, by Osbert Burdett.
  • The Eighteen Nineties, by Holbrook Jackson.
  • Bohemian Literary and Social Life in Paris, by Sisley Huddleston. 1928.

    Includes a couple of brief but favourable recollections of Harris the great talker.

  • Opinions, by Vincent O'Sullivan.

    O'Sullivan comes across as a terrible snob in this volume of memoirs, a chapter of which is given over to Harris. "His handwriting was incredibly common, the writing of a tax-collector".

  • A Long Way from Home, by Claude McKay.

    As a young poet, McKay was published by Harris in Pearson's. His gratitude for this helping hand to his career is evident in what he says about Harris in his autobiography. It is also particularly interesting for the light it throws on Harris' attitude to race.

  • Memories of a Misspent Youth, by Grant Richards. Heinemann. London. 1932.

    Richards was one of Harris' publishers. Here, in recounting his early life, he gives just a glimpse of Harris as prodigious talker, writer and editor.

  • Between Two Worlds, by John Middleton Murry

    Murry was for a while a disciple of Harris in London before the First World War. His autobiography contains an intriguing allegation of plagiarism against Harris.

  • Looking Back, by Norman Douglas.

    Contains a short but very entertaining and insightful portrait of Harris.

  • A Portrait of Max, by S. N. Behrman.

    This biography of Max Beerbohm summarises his relationship with Harris very nicely.

  • Adventures of a Gadabout, by George. W. Houghton. 1936.

    A light-hearted memoir of life in the South of France and elsewhere, with a sympathetic chapter on Harris as he was circa 1927.

About Harris' Work

  • My Betters, by George W. Bishop. Heinemann. London. 1957.

    Bishop was a friend of Shaw's; in this memoir he throws a little light on the strange story of the posthumous publication of Harris' biography of Shaw and Shaw's own part in it.

  • Gollancz. The Story of a Publishing House, 1928-1978., by Sheila Hodges.

    Includes some unique material relating to the publication of the Shaw biography from the point of view of Victor Gollancz.

  • Critical Essays, by Osbert Burdett. Holt. New York. 1926. Has a chapter on Harris' writings.
  • Letters on Contemporary American Authors, by Martin MacCollough [Pseudonym of Samuel W. Tait]. Four Seas Company. Boston. 1919.
  • The Making of an Editor, by Mrs. W. L. Courtney. Macmillan. London. 1930. Reportedly the best history of Harris' Fortnightly Review days.

Parodies and Caricatures

  • A Christmas Garland by Max Beerbohm. Heinemann. London. 1912.

    Contains a hilarious parody of The Man Shakespeare, 'Shakespeare and Christmas'. Max was fond of Harris and drew several excellent caricatures [1, 2, 3, 4] of him.

  • On My Way, by Art Young. Liveright. New York. 1928. Contains cartoon of Harris and some pages of text.
  • Caricatures of Twenty-Five Gentlemen, by Max Beerbohm. London. 1896. Includes a caricature of Harris.
  • Karikaturas, by Dr. Ricardo M. Aleman. Habana. Imprenta "La Prueba". 1930. Contains two caricatures of Harris.

Miscellaneous

  • White Meat, a novel by Jack Woodford. Panurge Press. New York. 1931. Reportedly 'traces influences of Harris on intelligent young girl'.
  • The Kingdom of Towers, by Allan Dowling. Vinal. New York. 1928. The poem called "Another Open Secret" is reportedly written in Harris' honour.

 

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