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All the Frank Harris pages

What follows is Aleister Crowley's lightly disguised account of an infamous encounter between Frank Harris and Alfred Douglas at the Café Royale, taken from his novel Diary of a Drug Fiend, annotated with the actual identities of the characters - sourced from Crowley's own marginal notes in a copy of his book. The episode is recounted in the first person by the Crowley character, Peter Pendragon… continue reading
A review by Alphonso Gerald Newcomer (originally published in 1913) Several years ago Mr. Frank Harris, the London editor and dramatic critic, published a work on the "Man Shakespeare," in which he professed to read the inner history of Shakespeare from youth to decline by finding him thinly disguised in his dramas under a recurrent type-character, now, for example, as Orsino1, now as Hamlet2… continue reading
Summary: Whether Frank Harris was a racist depends on one's interpretation of the term. Harris' attitudes tended to be distorted by racial stereotyping but he was never a believer in the superiority of one 'race' over another. Harris lived and died before the Second World War - that bleak lesson in the evils of racist theory - when such ideas were much more mainstream than they are today: it… continue reading
(More Journalism). Frank Harris was the editor of Pearson's Magazine from October 1916 through to September 1922. From October 1922 to April 1925 he was contributing editor. (Thus far, I have only read 4 issues of Pearson's from Harris' early days as editor, so this assessment is provisional. I suspect that as time went on his interest flagged as it usually would, so later issues are probably of… continue reading
Rating: ***** A classic of humorous literature, "The Diary of a Nobody" follows the trials of a Victorian middle-class man, Charles Pooter, as he attempts to make his way in society despite the handicap of having no sense of his own ridiculousness. The chapter reproduced here includes a character, one Hardfur Huttle, who is apparently based on Frank Harris. Certainly his opinions and manner of… continue reading
This extract from John Johns, a distinctly unflattering portrayal of Frank Harris, also features a lightly disguised Oscar Wilde in the character of 'Horace'.   All through the summer, Johns, tired of making love, sought new sensations in old vintages, and he soon became renowned among his cup companions for his extraordinary capacity for ingurgitation. After a little practice and a strong… continue reading
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… continue reading
My thanks are extended to Edgar M. Ross for his permission to reproduce this copyrighted text. THE MAGIC GLASSES ONE raw November morning, I left my rooms near the British Museum and turned down Regent street. It was cold and misty: the air like shredded cotton-wool. Before I reached the Quadrant, the mist thickened to fog, with the colour of muddied water, and walking became difficult. As I… continue reading
Introduction Two books acquired recently, one new, one older, started me thinking about the different views of Harris that people have. Some are adulators, who take Harris at his own estimation, and believe that he was a great man brought low by jealous prudes; at the other extreme there are those who think he was a congenital liar and villain, a fraud, blackmailer and pornographer. The truth,… continue reading
My thanks are extended to Edgar M. Ross for his permission to reproduce this copyrighted text. INDIANS PURSUE ME My most dangerous experience on the trail came about this time, when I was too green to realize the position, and if I found my way out of the trail, it was more by good luck than anything else. I got up one morning before daybreak, threw some buffalo chips on the fire, swung the… continue reading