Moulding a Persona: The Life and Letters of William Sharp and Fiona Macleod

Abstract

First paragraph: Recognised in her time as the leader of Scotland’s Celtic Revival, Fiona Macleod—the heteronym of Paisley-born novelist, poet and critic, William Sharp (1855-1905)—was described by Hugh MacDiarmid as one of Scotland’s six greatest short story writers. After his death, Sharp’s friend and correspondent, W. B. Yeats, described him as “the most imaginative man ... I have ever known” (Halloran III: 397). Sharp’s work proved enigmatic, influential and popular, and in recent years his writings and life have been the subject of increased critical attention in both Scottish and Victorian studies. But researching and studying Sharp poses several challenges, not least the complicated persona of Macleod and the fact that before she died his wife, Elizabeth A. Sharp, burned a “mass”’ of his papers, and that in her memoir she refrained from telling the full story of Macleod or Sharp because “other people are so much involved” (III: 399).