Fergus County Democrat., 1906-01-23

the brilliant EngIlSn crltlc anu essay
list who died in Ceylon a short time
ago was also Fiona Macleod" the
supposedly feminine critic writer re-
garding whose real identity there has
been so much speculation during the
last few years.
The announcement that Sharp was
Fiona Macleod" was made immedl-
ately after the writer's death by Rlch-
ard Whiteing, author of mo. 5, John
Street." and Sharp's intimate friend,
and it made something of sensation
in England.
Before this, of course, male writer's
have used a feminine name, though
their number is small when compared
with that of the women who nave
adopted masculine pesudonyms. Keats,
it will be remembered published sew
eral poems as Lucy Vaughn Lloys;"
Shelly and Thomas Hogg wrote
small volume called "Posthumous
Fragments of Margaret Nicholson"
and, needless to recall, Swineburn's
recently republished novel, Loves
Cross Currents" was originally cred
tied to Mrs. Horace Manners"
But William Sharp's is the only in
stance on record of a male authors
writing at the same time under his
own name and a feminine pseudonym
and making a greater reputation un-
der the assumed appellation than with
that which really belonged to him.
That this was Sharp's case there is no
question For instance, on turning to
Chambers Cyclopedia of English Lit
erature we find only six lines of biog-
raphy under the name of William
Sharp" but no less than tWenty-four
attached to that of Fiona Macleod" ;"
ct might be explained that biograph-
ical details regarding the "authoress"
they We're desiredD
Sharp began writing as Fiona Mac
leod about ten years ago. AT that time
he had won only what might be de-
scribed as ''tolerable" reputation
under his own name. He had written
a scholarly life Of Browning, publish
ed critical works on Heine and Shel,
ley and done other work of good quail
ity. But hardly had the first of Fl
,e, ,,ol
than their odd beauty and mystical
glamour made their supposed author
ess recognized as a new figure in the
literature of her time.
She was, in fact, regarded by many
literature students as the greatest Gel
tic writer since Ossian Macpherson.
| From the first, however, it was believ-
ed that Fiona Macleod was pseu-
donym, and all sorts of wild guesses
We're made as to the true identity o.
the author. Fiona Macleod" wa
said to be a daughter of DR.. Norman
Macleod.
w. B. Yates was credited with he
| NoIh. oIle Was llouSHl " ne al
thur Spmons, Maud Come and Nora
| Hopper The guesses got warmer,
however, when some of them ASSERTED
that the mysterious authoress wa
Mrs William Sharp, or a relative Q
William Sharp.
At this point letter appeared in tn
Athenaeum which Fiona Macleod S
publishers, who We're quite distinc
from Sharps publishers, declared tha
: they had received from the author
= ess" herself.
\ In this Fiona Macleod declare
1 tcation with this or that man or VIC
i herself much annoyed at her 'ident
s man of letters" and continued:
;, give you authority to say definitel
e that Fiona Macleod is not any of thos
: with whom she has been inentifie,
e that she writes only under the name (
! Fiona Macleod, that the name is hi
own, and that all she asks is the cou
I tesy both of good breeding and
= sommon sense"
:. OF course, in writing this lette
g Sharp simply lied. He believed, hoy
t, ever, that he was justified in tn
IL course, and it must be admitted th
n he sinned in good company. Sir Wa
It ter Scott denied categorically that
Y. was the author of "Waverly," Cha
e lotte Bronte denied point blank
If Thackery that she had written ia
v Eyre" and more recently Lauren
a Housmann made no bones of contr
re dieting fatty the rumor that correo
t, ly connected his name with AN En-
lishwoman's Love Letters
ID But. unlike these authors, Sha
S, kept his pseudonymity up to the tir
I'd of his death.