William Sharp-"Fiona Macleod"
1855-1905
Flavia Alaya
Harvard
University Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1970
Copyright
1970 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Distributed in Great Britain by Oxford University Press, London
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 75-113183
SBN 674-95345-2
Printed in the United States of America
To my parents
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION ~ Time, Place, Perspective
1. THE CHANGELING ~ First Years
2. CLIMATE AND LANDSCAPE ~ Early Work
3. LONDON ~ The City as Countertype
4. NORTH AND SOUTH ~ The First Italian journey
5. THE PROMISED LAND ~ Zion and the American Eden
6. ITALY AGAIN ~ The Second Self
7. WOMAN ~ An Unexplored Country
8. THE NEW COSMOPOLITANISM ~ The Celtic Never-Never Land
9. THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE MIND ~ Toward the Illimitable
10. CONCLUSION ~ Apart from Time and Country
APPENDIX
Selected Bibliography of Sharp's Works
Index
Illustrations
Frontispiece
William Sharp, 1896; from an etching by William Strang
Courtesy of C. McGregor-Craig
Following page 130
Manuscript notes for "The Comedy of Woman"
Courtesy of Noel Sharp
William Sharp, 1903
Photo by Alexander Nelson Hood, Duke of Bronte
Elizabeth Sharp
Photo by T. & R. Annan, Glasgow
William Sharp in his study
Courtesy of Noel Sharp
Castello di Maniace, Sicily
Photo by Alexander Nelson Hood, Duke of Bronte
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My first thanks must go to Professor Jerome Buckley of Harvard University, who first supported my proposal to do a critical biography of William Sharp, and to Professors Carl Woodring and John Rosenberg of Columbia University, who patiently read and criticized the manuscript in its early stages, extending to me both their wide knowledge and their gratifying encouragement.
Further and special thanks are due Noel F. Sharp, whose recollections and insight into his uncle's career were infinitely more valuable than be himself would ever give them credit for being.
Many others assisted me at every stage of research. Mr. James Ritchie of the National Library of Scotland advised me of the Library's Sharp and Geddes collections and opened them to my use. His gracious help, and that of other members of the Library's staff, made a pleasure of my work in Edinburgh. In addition, Elizabeth G. Jack of the Glasgow University Library searched the university records for information on Sharp's student years; the reference librarians at Butler Library, Columbia University, helped me to locate and obtain rare editions of Sharp's works; and New York University helped finance my trip to Scotland to complete my research.
Others who will protest their inclusion in this reckoning nevertheless deserve my gratitude. Chief among them is Professor Amy Charles of the University of North Carolina who, when she might have been doing her own research, generously gave time to help me with mine; thanks also to Mrs. Nancy Clemente, of Harvard University Press, who patiently and wisely guided author and manuscript through publication.
And last thanks to those ever-increasing members of my household, who learned to know even better than I the trials of living with a dual personality, and who bore them with a grace that could only come of loving.