The Life and Letters of William Sharp and Fiona Macleod

<p class=ql-align-justify>William Sharp (1855-1905) conducted one of the most audacious literary deceptions of his or any time. Sharp was a Scottish poet novelist biographer and editor who in 1893 began to write critically and commercially successful books under the name Fiona Macleod. This was far more than just a pseudonym: he corresponded as Macleod enlisting his sister to provide the handwriting and address and for more than a decade Fiona Macleod duped not only the general public but such literary luminaries as William Butler Yeats and in America E. C. Stedman. </p><p class=ql-align-justify><br></p><p class=ql-align-justify>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. </p><p><br></p><p>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.</p>