Editing Frank Harris

{{Short description|Irish-American writer (1855–1931)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
[[File:frankhar.JPG|thumb|Frank Harris by [[Alvin Langdon Coburn]].]]
'''Frank Harris''' (14 February 1856 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, [[short story writer]], journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day.

Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United States early in life, working in a variety of unskilled jobs before attending the [[University of Kansas]] to study law. After graduation, he quickly tired of his legal career and returned to Europe in 1882. He traveled in continental Europe before settling in London to pursue a career in journalism. In 1921, in his sixties, he became a US citizen. Though he attracted much attention during his life for his irascible, aggressive personality, editorship of famous periodicals, and friendship with the talented and famous, he is remembered mainly for his multiple-volume memoir ''[[My Life and Loves]]'', which was banned in countries around the world for its sexual explicitness.

==Biography==
===Early years===
Harris was born '''James Thomas Harris''' in 1855, in [[Galway]], Ireland, to Welsh parents. His father, Thomas Vernon Harris, was a naval officer from [[Fishguard]], Pembrokeshire, Wales.<ref>Ancestry.com – Passport Application Form and Welsh Censuses</ref> While living with his older brother he was, for a year or more, a pupil at [[The Royal School, Armagh]]. At the age of 12 he was sent to [[Wales]] to continue his education as a [[Boarding school|boarder]] at the [[Ruabon Grammar School]] in Denbighshire, a time he was to remember later in ''My Life and Loves''.  Harris was unhappy at the school and ran away within a year.

He emigrated to the United States in late 1869, arriving in New York City virtually penniless.<ref name=RevAve>"Frank Harris is Dead in France: Great Author Succumbs at 75; Had Just Completed a Biography of Shaw", ''The Revolutionary Age'' [New York], vol. 2, no. 40 (5 Sept.. 1931), pp. 1, 3.</ref> The 14-year-old took a series of odd jobs to support himself, working first as a [[shoeshiner|boot black]], a [[porter (carrier)|porter]], a general laborer, and a construction worker on the erection of the [[Brooklyn Bridge]].<ref name=RevAve /> Harris would later turn these early occupational experiences into art, incorporating tales from them into his book ''The Bomb.''<ref name=RevAve />

From New York Harris moved to the [[Midwestern United States|American Midwest]], settling in the country's second largest city, Chicago,<ref name=RevAve/> where he took a job as a hotel clerk and eventually a manager. Owing to Chicago's central place in the meat packing industry, Harris made the acquaintance of various cattlemen, who inspired him to leave the big city to take up work as a [[cowboy]].<ref name=RevAve/>  Eventually growing tired of life in the cattle industry, he enrolled at the [[University of Kansas]],<ref name=RevAve /> where he studied law and earned a degree, gaining admission to the Kansas state bar association.<ref name=RevAve/>

In 1878, in [[Brighton]], England, he married Florence Ruth Adams, who died the following year.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

===Return to Europe===
[[File:Frank Harris, Vanity Fair, 1913-11-12.jpg|left|thumb|Harris caricatured by OWL in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'', 1913]]
Harris was not cut out to be a lawyer and soon decided to turn his attention to literature. He moved to England in 1882, later traveling to various cities in Germany, [[Austria]], France, and [[Greece]] on his literary quest. He worked briefly as an American newspaper correspondent before settling down in England to seriously pursue the vocation of journalism.<ref name=RevAve/>

Harris first came to general notice as the editor of a series of London publications, including the ''[[Evening News (London)|Evening News]]'', the ''[[Fortnightly Review]]'' and the ''[[Saturday Review (London)|Saturday Review]]'', the last-named being the high point of his journalistic career, with [[H. G. Wells]] and [[George Bernard Shaw]] as regular contributors.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sheelanagigcomedienne.wordpress.com/tag/frank-harris-newspaper-editor/|title=Frank Harris newspaper editor {{!}} Jeanne Rathbone|access-date=6 June 2019}}</ref>

From 1908 to 1914 Harris concentrated on working as a novelist, authoring a series of popular books such as ''The Bomb,'' ''The Man Shakespeare,'' and ''The Yellow Ticket and Other Stories''.<ref name=RevAve/> With the advent of [[World War I]] in the summer of 1914, Harris decided to return to the United States.

From 1916 to 1922 he edited the U.S. edition of ''[[Pearson's Magazine]],'' a popular monthly which combined short story fiction with [[socialism|socialist]]-tinted features on contemporary news topics. One issue of the publication was banned from the mails by Postmaster General [[Albert S. Burleson]] during the period of American participation in the [[World War I|Great War]].<ref name=RevAve /> Despite this Harris managed to navigate the delicate situation which faced the left-wing press and to keep ''[[Pearson's Magazine]]'' functioning and solvent during the war years.

Harris became an American citizen in April 1921. In 1922 he travelled to Berlin to publish his best-known work, his autobiography ''My Life and Loves'' (published in four volumes, 1922–1927). It is notorious for its graphic descriptions of Harris' purported [[Human sexual activity|sexual encounters]] and for its exaggeration of the scope of his adventures and his role in history. Years later, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine reflected in its 21 March 1960 issue "Had he not been a thundering liar, Frank Harris would have been a great autobiographer&nbsp;... he had the crippling disqualification that he told the truth, as [[Max Beerbohm]] remarked, only 'when his invention flagged'." A fifth volume, supposedly taken from his notes but of doubtful provenance, was published in 1954, long after his death.<ref name=Vol5>James Campbell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zcp4GAk8SmIC&pg=PA146 ''Exiled in Paris Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Samuel Beckett and Others on the Left Bank''], pp. 143–147 Books.google.com</ref>

Harris also wrote short stories and novels, two books on [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], a series of biographical sketches in five volumes under the title ''Contemporary Portraits'' and biographies of his friends [[Oscar Wilde]] and [[George Bernard Shaw]]. His attempts at playwriting were less successful: only ''Mr. and Mrs. Daventry'' (1900) (which may have been based on an idea by [[Oscar Wilde]]<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Nathan |first=George Jean |date=May 1910 |title=The Morals of the Drama Ladies |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_smart-set_1910-05_31_1/page/146/mode/1up?view=theater |magazine=The Smart Set |location=p. 146 |access-date=20 June 2023}}</ref>) was produced on the stage.

===Death and legacy===
Married three times, Harris died at 9 Rue de la Buffa in [[Nice]] aged 75 on 26 August 1931, of a heart attack. He was subsequently buried at Cimetière Sainte-Marguerite, adjacent to the [[Russian Orthodox Cemetery, Nice|Cimetière Caucade]], in the same city.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mBfPCQAAQBAJ&dq=frank+harris+Cimeti%C3%A8re+Caucade&pg=PA77 ''French Riviera and its Artists'']</ref>

Just after his death a biography written by [[Hugh Kingsmill]] (pseudonym of Hugh Kingsmill Lunn) was published.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kingsmill|first=Hugh|title=Frank Harris|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77205|year=1932|publisher=Jonathan Cape|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.77205/page/n280 254]}}</ref>

==Works==
* ''Dulce Domum'' London: Kegan Paul, 1886). Reprinted Articles from the Saturday Review"
*''Elder Conklin: And Other Stories'' (1894)
*''Montes the Matador & Other Stories'' (London: Grant Richards, 1900)
*''[[The Bomb (Harris novel)|The Bomb]]'' (1908)
*''The Man Shakespeare and his Tragic Life Story'' (London: Frank Palmer, 1909)
*''Unpath'd Waters'' (1915). Stories.
*''The Yellow Ticket And Other Stories'' (London: Grant Richards, 1914)
*The Spectacle Maker (1913) basis for 1934 movie
*''The Veils of Isis, and Other Stories'' (1915)
* ''England or Germany?'' (1915)
*''Contemporary Portraits... in four vols'' (1915–1923)
*''Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions'' (1916)
*''[[My Life and Loves]]'' (1922–1927, 1931, 1954, 1963 (complete))
*''Undream'd of Shores'' (London, Grant Richards, 1924). Stories.
*''The Tom Cat: An Apologue'' (1928). Short story.
*''My Reminiscences as a Cowboy'' (1930)
*''Confessional'' (1930). Essays.
*''Pantopia: A Novel'' (1930)
*''Bernard Shaw'' (1931)
*''The Short Stories of Frank Harris, a Selection'' (1975). [[Elmer Gertz]], ed.

==Cultural references==
{{in popular culture|date=December 2018}}
In 1920, French writer and diplomat [[Paul Morand]] met an aged Frank Harris in [[Nice]] and borrowed much of his personality to create the character of O'Patah, a larger than life writer, publisher and Irish patriot, "the last of the Irish bards" in his short story ''La nuit de Portofino kulm'' (part of the famed collection of short stories ''Fermé la nuit'') published in 1923 by [[Gallimard]].

In 1922, [[Whittaker Chambers]] published a "blasphemous" and "sacrilegious" playlet called "A Play for Puppets" in ''The Morningside'', a Columbia University student magazine, based on Frank Harris' 1919 play ''Miracle of the Stigmata'', for which Chambers quit school to avoid expulsion. ("The greater part of it is so plainly sacrilegious that it cannot be reproduced.")<ref>{{cite news
| title = Columbia Subdues Editor and Playlet
| work = New York Herald
| url = https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045774/1922-11-07/ed-1/seq-24.pdf
| page = 24
| date = 7 November 1922
| access-date = 16 October 2018}}</ref>

In 1929, [[Cole Porter]]'s song "After All, I'm Only a Schoolgirl" references Harris and "My Life and Loves", in a tale about a girl who is learning about adult relationships from a private tutor.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter|url=https://archive.org/details/completelyricsof00port|url-access=registration|year=1992|publisher=Da Capo Press|location=Cambridge, Ma|page=[https://archive.org/details/completelyricsof00port/page/112 112]|isbn=9780306804830 }}</ref>

In 1936, Harris appeared as a character in the play ''[[Oscar Wilde (play)|Oscar Wilde]]'', by [[Leslie Stokes|Leslie]] & [[Sewell Stokes]], first produced at London's Gate Theatre Studio (1936) and later at the Fulton Theatre, New York, in 1938, in both cases starring [[Robert Morley]] in the title role.

In 1958, the feature film ''[[Cowboy (1958 film)|Cowboy]]'' is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel ''My Reminiscences as a Cowboy''. Harris is played by [[Jack Lemmon]].

In 1960, he is seen as a minor character in ''The Trials of Oscar Wilde'' played by [[Paul Rogers (actor)|Paul Rogers]]. Harris had specifically warned Wilde against prosecuting Queensberry for criminal libel, which led to his downfall.

In a 1972 episode of ''The Edwardians'', he was played by [[John Bennett (English actor)|John Bennett]].

[[Sherlock Holmes]] and Dr. Watson meet Harris in [[Nicholas Meyer]]'s 1976 novel ''[[The West End Horror]]''.  Watson comments on Harris' habit of always speaking very loudly.

A volume by Frank Harris held up the couch in "Six Big Boobies" (1985) episode of ''[['Allo 'Allo!]]''.

On television, Harris was played by [[Leonard Rossiter]] in a 1978 BBC Play of the Week: ''Fearless Frank, or, Tidbits From The Life Of An Adventurer''.

In 1980, a musical stage adaptation of ''Fearless Frank'' briefly ran on Broadway at the [[Latin Quarter (nightclub)|Princess Theatre]], with [[Niall Tóibín|Niall Toibin]] in the starring role. It had book and lyrics by [[Andrew Davies (writer)|Andrew Davies]], music by Dave Brown, and was directed by [[Robert Gillespie]]. The production ran for 13 previews and 12 performances.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fearless Frank (Broadway, Princess Theatre, 1980) {{!}} Playbill |url=https://www.playbill.com/production/fearless-frank-princess-theatre-vault-0000013391 |website=Playbill.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Rich |first=Frank |date=1980-06-16 |title=Theater: 'Fearless Frank,' Musical From Britain; The Editor's Tales |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1980/06/16/archives/theater-fearless-frank-musical-from-britain-the-editors-tales.html |access-date=2023-02-26 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Harris appears as a [[vampire]] in [[Kim Newman]]'s 1992 novel ''[[Anno Dracula (novel)|Anno Dracula]]'', as the mentor and vampire sire of one of the novel's main characters.

He is a character in the 1997 [[Tom Stoppard]] play ''[[The Invention of Love]]'', which deals with the life of [[A. E. Housman]] and the Oscar Wilde trials.

He appears as a close friend of [[Oscar Wilde]] in the award-winning play by [[Moisés Kaufman]]: ''[[Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde]]''.

He appears in the first episode of the 2001 miniseries ''[[The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells]]'', rejecting a story from Wells for being too long and too preposterous.

{{Anchor|Frank Edwards}}In the ITV series ''[[Mr Selfridge]]'' (2013), [[Samuel West]] plays a newspaper editor and publisher called Frank Edwards, a character based on Frank Harris.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Mr Selfridge'' production notes (Series 1) |url=http://www.itv.com/documents/pdf/Mr%20Selfridge%20Production%20Notes%20FINAL.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215202646/https://www.itv.com/documents/pdf/Mr%20Selfridge%20Production%20Notes%20FINAL.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 December 2019 |work=[[itv.com]] |publisher=[[ITV plc]] |access-date=22 October 2015 }}</ref>

In the crime comedy Pulp, [[Michael Caine]] plays a novelist who someone compares to Frank Harris, in which Caine glibly replies, "Frank was a novice."

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
<!-- ISSNs/ISBNs needed -->
* Hugh Kingsmill, ''Frank Harris.'' Jonathan Cape, 1932; revised Biografia, 1987, with an introduction by [[Michael Holroyd]]
* Philippa Pullar, ''Frank Harris.'' Hamish Hamilton, 1975.
* Robert Brainard Pearsall, ''Frank Harris.'' New York: Twayne Publishers, 1970.
* Stanley Weintraub (ed.), ''The Playwright and the Pirate, Bernard Shaw and Frank Harris: A Correspondence.'' Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982.
* Charles Chaplin, My Autobiography pages 242–244. Simon and Schuster, 1964
* Kate Stephens, ''Lies and Libels of Frank Harris,'' New York, Antigone Press, 1929.
* Elsa Gidlow, "Elsa, I Come With My Songs",1986: pages 271–2, 306–9, 83, 138–43, 145–6, 149-50

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
{{Commons category|Frank Harris}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1255| name=Frank Harris}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Frank Harris}}
* {{Librivox author |id=5242}}
* [http://www.oddbooks.com/harris/ Extensive website by Alfred Armstrong]
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/harris/harris.htm Extended bibliography at ibiblio.com]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051124144608/http://libweb.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/harris-frank.html Esar Levine's Harris collection at Princeton]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051201061236/http://www.redflame93.com/HarrisFrank.html Biographical sketch, Crowley diary quotes]
* {{IMDb name|364689}}
* [http://research.hrc.utexas.edu:8080/hrcxtf/view?docId=ead/00203.xml&query=frank%20harris&query-join=and Frank Harris Collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]]
*[http://etext.ku.edu/view?docId=ksrlead/ksrl.kc.harrisfrank.xml Frank Harris Collection] at the [http://spencer.lib.ku.edu/ Kenneth Spencer Research Library] at the [[University of Kansas]]
* {{Find a Grave|39467996}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Frank}}
[[Category:British erotica writers]]
[[Category:British male journalists]]
[[Category:1856 births]]
[[Category:1931 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Galway (city)]]
[[Category:British publishers (people)]]
[[Category:People educated at Ruabon Grammar School]]
[[Category:University of Kansas alumni]]
[[Category:American editors]]
[[Category:British emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]