I take this opportunity of expressing to many friends on both sides of the Atlantic my appreciation of their courtesy in placing letters at my disposal; also for permission accorded to me by Mr. Robert Ross for the use of letters from Oscar Wilde, and by Mr. Charles Baxter, for letters from Robert Louis Stevenson. Through the kindness of Mrs. Sturgis I have included among the illustrations a portrait of her father George Meredith (dated 1898). I am indebted to Miss Pater for the photograph of her brother Walter Pater; and to Mr. W. M. Rossetti for that of his brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Of the four portraits of William Sharp, herein reproduced, the earliest was taken about the time of the publication of his first volume of poems. The pastel by the Norwegian painter, Charles Ross, was executed in Rome in 1891, two years before Pharais was written; and the etching by our friend, Mr. William Strang A.R.A., who has kindly sanctioned my use of it, dates to 1896, in which year were published The Washer of the Ford, Green Fire, and From the Hills of Dream. The final portrait of my husband was taken in Sicily in 1903 by the Hon. Alexander Nelson Hood (Duke of Bronte), who also has permitted me to reproduce his photograph of Il Castello di Maniace, Bronte—on the inland shoulder of Etna—close to which, on a sloping hillside, in the little woodland burial ground, and within sound of rushing waters, stands the Iona cross erected to the memory of William Sharp and “Fiona Macleod.”

[CONTENTS]

PAGE
PART I: William Sharp[1]
Chapter I:Childhood[3]
Chapter II:Australia[17]
Chapter III:Early Days in London[35]
Chapter IV:The Death of Rossetti[58]
Chapter V:First Visit to Italy[78]
Chapter VI:Sonnets of This Century[104]
Chapter VII:The Sport of Chance
Shelley		[121]
Chapter VIII:Romantic Ballads
The Children of To-Morrow		[135]
Chapter IX:First Visit to America[149]
Chapter X:Browning
The Joseph Severn Memoirs		[158]
Chapter XI:Rome
Sospiri di Roma		[173]
Chapter XII:Walt Whitman
The Pagan Review		[192]
Chapter XIII:Algiers
Vistas		[208]
PART II: Fiona Macleod[219]
Chapter XIV:The Pseudonym
Pharais		[221]
Chapter XV:The Mountain Lovers
The Sin Eater		[242]
Chapter XVI:The Sin Eater[256]
Chapter XVII:Runes of the Sorrows of Women
Green Fire		[266]
Chapter XVIII:From the Hills of Dream
The Laughter of Peterkin		[279]
Chapter XIX:Wives in Exile
Silence Farm		[292]
Chapter XX:The Dominion of Dreams[304]
Chapter XXI:The Divine Adventure
Celtic		[314]
Chapter XXII:Provence
Maniace		[328]
Chapter XXIII:Lismore
Taormina		[344]
Chapter XXIV:Winter in Athens
Greek Backgrounds		[367]
Chapter XXV:The Winged Destiny
Literary Geography		[381]
Chapter XXVI:1905[395]
Chapter XXVII:Conclusion[421]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

William Sharp (1896), after an etching by William Strang, A. R. A.[Frontispiece]
Facing Page
Dante Gabriel Rossetti[58]
William Sharp (1883), after photograph taken in Rome[78]
Walter Pater, after a photograph by Frederick Hollyer[104]
William Sharp (1891), after a pastel drawing by Charles Ross[180]
Fac-Simile of an Autograph Poem by William Sharp[216]
Fac-Simile of an Autograph “Fiona Macleod” Poem by William Sharp[244]
Il Castello di Maniace, Bronte, Sicily, after a photograph by the Hon. Alex. Nelson Hood[332]
William Sharp (1903), after a photograph by the Hon. Alex. Nelson Hood (Duke of Bronte)[358]
George Meredith, after a photograph by Frederick Hollyer[368]
Mrs. William Sharp (1909), after a photograph by T. Craig-Annan[414]