William Sharp (poet)

' William Sharp (12 September 1855 – 12 December 1905) was a Scottish poet, and a writer of literary biography in particular, who from 1893 wrote also as Fiona MacLeod''', a pseudonym kept almost secret during his lifetime. He also edited the poetry of Ossian, Walter Scott, Matthew Arnold, Algernon Charles Swinburne and Eugene Lee-Hamilton.

Life
Sharp was born in Paisley, Scotland, and educated at Glasgow Academy and the University of Glasgow, which he attended 1871-1872 without completing a degree. In 1872 he contracted typhoid. During 1874-5 he worked in a Glasgow law office. His health broke down in 1876 and he was sent on a voyage to Australia. In 1878 he took a position in a bank in London.

He was introduced to Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Sir Noel Paton, and joined the Rossetti literary group; which included Hall Caine, Philip Bourke Marston and Swinburne. He married his cousin Elizabeth in 1884, and devoted himself to writing full time from 1891, travelling widely.

Also about this time, he developed an intensely romantic but perhaps asexual attachment to Edith Wingate Rinder, another writer of the consciously Celtic Edinburgh circle surrounding Patrick Geddes and "The Evergreen." It was to Rinder ("EWR") he attributed the inspiration for his writings as Fiona MacLeod thereafter, and to whom he dedicated his first MacLeod novel ("Pharais") in 1894. Sharp had a complex and ambivalent relationship with W.B. Yeats during the 1890s, as a central tension in the Celtic Revival. Yeats initially found MacLeod acceptable and Sharp not, and later fathomed their identity. Sharp found the dual personality an increasing strain.

On occasions when it was necessary for "Fiona MacLeod" to write to someone unaware of the dual identity, Sharp would dictate the text to his sister (Mary Beatrice Sharp), whose handwriting would then be passed off as Fiona's manuscript. During his MacLeod period, Sharp was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

He died (and is buried) at Castello di Maniace, Sicily. In 1910, Elizabeth Sharp published a biographical memoir attempting to explain the creative necessity behind the deception, and edited a complete edition of his works.

Poetry

 * The Human Inheritance, The New Hope, Motherhood and other poems (1882)
 * Sopistra and other poems (1884);
 * Earth's Voices (1884) poems
 * Romantic Ballads and Poems of Phantasy (1888)
 * Sospiri di Roma (1891) poems
 * From the Hills of Dream: threnodies, songs and Later poems (1901) as FM
 * Selected Writings of William Sharp (selected and arranged by Elizabeth A. Sharp [Mrs. William Sharp]). New York: Duffield & Co., 1912. Volume 1. Poems
 * as Fiona MacLeod
 * The Hour of Beauty: Songs and poems. Portland, ME: Thomas B. Mosher, 1907.

Plays

 * The House of Usna: A drama. Portland, ME: Thomas B. Mosher, 1903.

Novels

 * Sport of chance (1888) novel
 * Pharais (1894) novel as FM
 * The Gipsy Christ and Other Tales (1895)
 * Mountain Lovers (1895) novel as FM
 * The Laughter of Peterkin (1895) as FM
 * Ecce puella and Other Prose Imaginings (1896)
 * as Fiona MacLeod

Short fiction

 * as Fiona MacLeod
 * The Sin-Eater, and other tales and episodes. Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1895
 * Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1971.
 * The Washer of the Ford, and other legendary moralities. Edinburgh: P. Geddes; Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1896.
 * The Laughter of Peterkin: A retelling of old tales of the Celtic wonderworld (illustrated by Sunderland Rollinson). London: Archibald Constable, 1897.
 * Re-Issue of the Shorter Stories of Fiona Macleod : rearranged with additional tales. Edinburgh: Patrick Geddes, 1897; London: David Nutt, 1903.
 * The Hills of Ruel, and other stories. London: W. Heinemann, 1921; New York: Duffield, 1921.

Non-fiction

 * Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Record and Study (1882)
 * Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1887)
 * Life of Heinrich Heine (1888)
 * Life of Robert Browning (1889)
 * Life of Joseph Severn (1892)
 * Fair Women in Painting and Poetry (1896)
 * Lyra Celtica: An Anthology of Representative Celtic Poetry (1896)
 * Literary Geography (1904)
 * The Progress of Art in the Nineteenth century (1902)
 * as Fiona MacLeod
 * By Sundown Shores: Studies in spiritual history. Portland, ME: Thomas B. Mosher, 1902.
 * The Winged Destiny: Studies in the spiritual History of the Gael (1904) as FM and dedicated to Dr John Goodchild
 * Where the Forest Murmurs: Nature essays. London: C̀ountry life / New York: Scribner's, 1906.
 * At the Turn of the Year: Essays and nature thoughts. Edinburgh: T.N. Foulis, 1913.

Collected Editions

 * The Writings of "Fiona MacLeod". (se;ected and arranged by Elizabeth A. Sharp). New York: Duffield, 1909. w
 * Selected Writings of William Sharp (selected and arranged by Elizabeth A. Sharp [Mrs. William Sharp]). New York: Duffield & Co., 1912.

Edited

 * Sonnets of this century (1886) editor
 * Sea-Music: An Anthology of Poems (1887)
 * American Sonnets (1889)
 * The Children of Tomorrow (1889)
 * A Fellowe and his Wife (1892)
 * Flower o' the Vine (1892)
 * Pagan Review (1892)
 * Vistas (1894);
 * By Sundown Shores (1900) as FM
 * The Divine Adventure (1900) as FM
 * Iona (1900) as FM


 * The House of Usna (1903) play as FM
 * The Immortal Hour (1908) play as FM