Frank Harris (writer)

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Frank Harris photographed by Alvin Langdon Coburn
Frank Harris

Frank Harris (actually James Thomas Harris ; born February 14, 1856 in Galway , Ireland , † August 27, 1931 in Nice ) was an Irish-English author , publicist , editor and editor .

Life

Frank Harris was born in Ireland to Welsh parents. At the age of twelve he was sent by his parents to the traditional Ruabon Grammar School , a country school in Denbighshire , in Wales . He won a scholarship to Cambridge University but used the £ 10 to emigrate to the United States in late 1869. After jobs in Texas, New York and Chicago, he studied law at the University of Kansas , where he was naturalized. He went back to England and reported on the Russo-Ottoman War . In 1878 he married the wealthy Florence Ruth Adams, who died the following year.

Harris became known as the editor and owner of a number of London newspapers and magazines, including the Evening News (from 1883), the Fortnightly Review (1886-1894) and the Saturday Review , which he bought in 1894 and sold again in 1898. The latter was an influential Tory newspaper and the high point of his career, with regular contributions from HG Wells and George Bernard Shaw . 1907-1909 he was the owner of Vanity Fair , later Hearth and Home with Hugh Kingsmill as assistant (1911/12). 1912/13 he was the editor of Modern Society , which ended for him with a prison sentence for defamation, which he had to serve Brixton from February 3, 1914 until he apologized. He had insulted William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, 7th Earl Fitzwilliam , whom he described as "one of the untouchables of the upper class" and "cunning dog" in a series of articles.

At the beginning of the First World War , Harris stayed in Paris, witnessed the establishment of the military administration, attacks on German businesses and the closure of banks. He returned to New York shortly thereafter and was editor of the US edition of Pearson's Magazine from 1916 to 1922 . In the 1920s he founded the Frank Harris Publishing Company in New York to market his work there.

Harris was married three times. He died impoverished in Nice of a heart attack in 1931 . His estate is stored in Princeton and the Harvard University Library.

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Harris wrote short stories and novels , of which The Bomb (via the Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886) was recognized and is still available; two books on Shakespeare ; a five-volume series of biographical sketches ( Contemporary Portraits ); and biographies of his friends Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw . His works as a playwright were largely unsuccessful; only one of his plays was performed, Mr and Mrs Daventry (1900), based on an idea by Oscar Wilde.

In 1915, before the USA entered the First World War , he stood in England or Germany -? on the side of the German Empire for which he was described in the press of Lord Northcliffe as a traitor . In it he describes the decadence and snobbery of the British nobility , which he contrasts with Bismarck's social legislation and the economic efficiency of Prussia . The cause of his rejection was what he considered to be the shameful Second Boer War .

Harris is best known for his autobiography Mein Leben und Lieben ( My Life and Loves 1922–1927), which was published in four volumes and with a complicated edition history during his lifetime. My Life and Loves would be the first "completely honest" autobiography; she describes Harris' travels and experiences, but especially his amorous adventures, with an openness that immediately put the book on the list of pornographic books. It was banned in the United States and England for many years.

In 1954, over 20 years after his death, an alleged fifth volume was published; In 1960 the publisher admitted that this volume was largely "recreated" by himself. In 1960 a five-volume biography was published again; the editor, John F. Gallagher, explained that the fifth volume was Harris' additions and additions to the original version.

Passages from My Life and Love and from Vanity Fair reports about his adventures as a cowboy provided the template for the Hollywood Western Cowboy (1958, directed by Delmer Daves), in which Harris is portrayed by Jack Lemmon (alongside Glenn Ford as Tom Reese ) .

Works

  • The bomb. , Feral House 1908, ISBN 0-92291537-7
    • German: Die Bombe (Üs: Antonina Vallentin), E. Laubsche Verlagshandlung. Berlin 1927
  • England or Germany -? . Wilmarth Press. New York. 1915
  • Oscar Wilde - His Life and Confessions. 1916. IndyPublishing ISBN 1-404323-46-5
    • German: Oscar Wilde: Eine Lebenbeichte (Üs: Toni Noah), S. Fischer Berlin. 1923
  • New preface to: Oscar Wilde "Eine Lebensbeichte" , Globus Verlag Berlin 1928
  • Shakespeare the human being and his tragic life story (Üs: Antonina Vallentin), S. Fischer Berlin. 1928
  • Unpath'd Waters , Bernh. Tauchnitz Leipzig 1929
  • My Reminiscences as a Cowboy . Charles Bonuses: New York. 1930. (First published as The Odyssey of the Great Trail . Series in Vanity Fair 1908,)
    • in the UK as On the Trail . 1930
  • Bernard Shaw - An unauthorized biography based on first hand information , The Albatross. Hamburg. 1932
  • Scenes from the life of a cowboy , Velhagen & Klasing. Bielefeld. 1932
  • The Short Stories of Frank Harris, a Selection (edited by Elmer Gertz). Southern Illinois Univ. Press. 1975

Autobiography

  • My Life And Loves (1st volume, published in Germany in English)
  • My Life: Volume Two (released in England and France)
  • My Life: Volume Three (released in France)
  • My Life: Volume Four (released in France)
  • My Life: Volume Three (contains Vol. 3 + 4, published in the USA)
  • My Life: Volume Four (allegedly released in the US)
  • My Life and Loves. Prometheus 2000, ISBN 1-57392774-0

(Selected volumes of the autobiography :)

    • My Life (New York 1925)
    • German: Mein Leben (S. Fischer Berlin 1926) (based on "My Life And Loves" and "Volume Two")
    • German: years of maturity (S. Fischer Berlin 1930) (covers the years 1890 - 1900)
    • German: My life and love , Stephenson. Flensburg. 1965-66 (vol. 1-3)

Web links

Commons : Frank Harris  - collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ^ NYT , February 4, 1914
  2. ^ AI Tobin / Elmer Gertz: Frank Harris: A Study in Black And White (Ardent Media 1931, p. 366)
  3. ^ What Frank Harris did NOT Say ( English ) Odd Books. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Harris, Frank
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish-English author and editor
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Galway
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1931
Place of death Nice