Frank Harris

Born in Ireland in 1856, Frank Harris became a writer, editor, and journalist whose career took him across the United States and Britain. He edited major periodicals, mixed with many leading literary figures of his day, and built a reputation as a brilliant but combative presence in public life.

He wrote novels, short stories, criticism, and memoir, but he is best remembered for his autobiographical writing, especially My Life and Loves. That book made him notorious for its frank treatment of sex and society, and it helped fix his image as a daring, provocative man of letters.

Harris died in 1931. Today he remains an intriguing figure partly because of that blend of literary talent, self-mythmaking, and scandal: a writer who recorded his age in a voice that was never shy, quiet, or easy to ignore.