Since his sexual relationships were so much a part of Frank's life, it would seem fit to set aside a page for them. This is by no means a definitive list, but attempts to cover all those mentioned in My Life and Loves and Philippa Pullar's biography. At the moment there is little more than just a series of names, which I intend to (ahem) flesh out as I find the time.
(In drawing up such a list,… continue reading
Whether Frank Harris was ever really a cowboy or not, his stories of his supposed adventures on the trail have an emotional truth in their depictions of the arduousness of the cowboy life and its effects on the men who lived it. I don't know whose idea it first was to adapt them for the cinema, but Dalton Trumbo and Edmund H. North are credited with the screenplay for the film Cowboy, which was… continue reading
Fearless Frank, or, Tidbits From the Life of an Adventurer is a play based on Frank's life. It was written by Andrew Davies. The musical version has music by Dave Brown.
Andrew Davies on Fearless Frank
BBC Television Production
London Production
Broadway Production
Also see my review of the TV production.
Andrew Davies on Fearless Frank
Here's what Andrew Davies had to say about… continue reading
Links on this page are to the Amazon.com website, where you can buy these books online.
By and about Frank Harris
Phillipa Pullar's biography of Frank Harris (from Amazon.co.uk as it's not in print in the U.S.)
My Life and Loves. Harris' infamous, misleading and salacious biography.
Oscar Wilde, with My Recollections of Oscar Wilde by Bernard Shaw. Harris' unreliable but highly… continue reading
Inspired by Alasdair Gray's excellent Book of Prefaces, it is my intention to put as many as possible of Harris' prefaces and introductions online. Visit this page regularly for more of the same.
The Texts
Harris was vexed at Shaw's greater success as a playwright: in his tetchy introductions to Shakespeare and His Love and Joan La Romée he gave vent to his annoyance.
In Harris'… continue reading
The first two poems here were printed in Frank Harris in Black & White by Tobin and Gertz. Harris gave up writing poetry early in his life - a decision which was well-justified on this evidence. Tobin and Gertz describe the remainder of Harris' poetic output, printed, much later, in Pearson's, as 'doggerel'. The final poem here is an example of that category, taken from E M Root's Frank… continue reading
Here are collected some of my favourite quotes by and about Frank Harris.
"Casanova! My dear man, Casanova is not worthy to untie my bootstrings"
- Frank Harris, quoted by Tobin and Gertz
"Memoirs are a well-known form of fiction"
- Frank Harris, quoted by Hesketh Pearson.
"Sex is the gateway to life."
- Frank Harris
There was a young lady of Paris
Whom nothing could ever embarrass
Until… continue reading
There are few pages on the web with much relevant material. Web searches using engines such as Altavista are made harder by the ordinariness of Harris' name (but see my search tips for some advice on how to get round this).
Harris Sites
Eric Eldred's Eldritch Press site has a brief Harris page and texts of The Bomb and Montes the Matador.
Another page about Harris, this time from the… continue reading
Frank Harris was an infamous character of the late 19th and early 20th century. He made his name as a journalist and author, becoming a key figure of the literary and political scene. He was a friend of Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, and amongst many others he also knew H. G. Wells, Max Beerbohm, Winston Churchill, Aleister Crowley, George Moore and Arnold Bennett.
He was notably outspoken and… continue reading
I do not propose here to provide a full biography of Harris - for that I recommend Phillippa Pullar's exhaustive Frank Harris (1973). Instead I have taken what appear to me to be the key events of his life and set them out in the form of a timeline.
As an alternative, you can read one of Harris' own accounts of his life.
You may also want to examine the relationship between Harris and Wilde… continue reading