What an achievement! It is a major work. The letters taken together with the excellent introductory sections - so balanced and judicious and informative - what emerges is an amazing picture of William Sharp the man and the writer which explores just how fascinating a figure he is. Clearly a major reassessment is due and this book could make it happen.
—Andrew Hook, Emeritus Bradley Professor of English and American Literature, Glasgow University
The three volumes
of the Sharp/Macleod letters edited by William F. Halloran mark a major
intervention in our understanding of Sharp, shedding light on his life,
on his literary networks, and on Macleod’s literary development.
Through decades of research and his detailed editorial apparatus
(including lengthy introductions to each year of Sharp’s life), Halloran
not only contextualises the surviving letters but unlocks and
interprets many otherwise opaque details within them, such as Sharp’s
coded references to his muse and the inspiration for Macleod, the writer
Edith Wingate Rinder. As such, these volumes provide the most detailed
portrait available on Sharp, his networks and movements, and how Fiona
Macleod came to be.
—Michael Shaw, University of Stirling, "Moulding A Persona: The Life and Letters of William Sharp and Fiona Macleod," Studies in Scottish Literature, Vol. 47: Iss. 1, 178–181.
The three volumes
of William Sharp’s letters are "meticulously and fully annotated,
handsomely produced and illustrated. For each "Chapter” of letters
(delineated by years or parts of years), Halloran writes a biographical
essay, drawing
on the letters and their notes and the memoir of Sharp by his wife, to
write in effect a new and compelling, if narrowly sourced, biography of
Sharp. Halloran includes biographical readings of works by Sharp and
Macleod and the narratives move along smartly
and lucidly, helping to give the letters their context and to flesh out
Sharp and his times. Any student of late Victorian England will benefit
from immersion in Sharp’s life and letters.
—Terry L. Meyers, The College of William and Mary, Nineteenth-Century Prose, Volume 49, Number 1, Spring 2022.
Sharp wrote "I feel another self within me now more than ever; it is as if I were possessed by a spirit who must speak out". This three-volume collection brings together Sharp’s own correspondence – a fascinating trove in its own right, by a Victorian man of letters who was on intimate terms with writers including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Walter Pater, and George Meredith – and the Fiona Macleod letters, which bring to life Sharp’s intriguing "second self".
With an introduction and detailed notes by William F. Halloran, this richly rewarding collection offers a wonderful insight into the literary landscape of the time, while also investigating a strange and underappreciated phenomenon of late-nineteenth-century English literature. It is essential for scholars of the period, and it is an illuminating read for anyone interested in authorship and identity.
The Life and Letters of William Sharp and "Fiona Macleod". Volume 1: 1855-1894
William F. Halloran | November 2018
710 | 18 colour illustrations | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783745005
ISBN Hardback: 9781783745012
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783745029
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783745036
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783745043
ISBN Hardback: 9781783745012
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783745029
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783745036
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783745043
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783746606
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0142
Categories: BIC: BJ (Diaries, letters and journals), DS (Literature: history and criticism), DSK (Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers), DSC (Literary studies: poetry and poets), 3JH (c. 1800 to c. 1900); BISAC: BIO007000 (BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary Figures), BIO025000 (BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Editors, Journalists, Publishers), HIS015060 (HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901)), LCO011000 (LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Letters); OCLC Number: 1105780601.
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Acknowledgements
IntroductionChapter One: 1855–1881
Chapter Two: 1882–1884Chapter Three: 1885–1886
Chapter Four: 1887–1888
Chapter Five: 1889
Chapter Six: 1890
Chapter Seven: 1891
Chapter Eight: 1892a
Chapter Nine: 1892b
Chapter Ten: 1893
Chapter Eleven: 1894
Notes
Appendix
List of Illustrations
© 2018 William F. Halloran

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William F. Halloran, The Life and Letters of William Sharp and "Fiona Macleod". Volume 1: 1855-1894. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0142
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