William Sharp: A Memoir

Elizabeth A. Sharp, 1856 -1932
William Sharp: A Memoir
New York: Duffield, 1912.
PR 5356 .S4 1912, 2 v.

Elizabeth Sharp was an important journalist and editor in her own right. After the secret identity of Fiona Macleod became public with her husband’s death in 1905, she compiled William Sharp: A Memoir. The work provides both personal insights and a large number of primary materials, including diaries and correspondence.

There is evidence that Sharp told Yeats in 1897 that he was writing the poems and stories signed Fiona Macleod. Yeats continued to believe there was a woman named Fiona Macleod who inspired Sharp to write the works he published under her name. After Sharp died in 1905, Yeats felt free to go to Elizabeth Sharp and ask for more details about the circumstances behind the dual authorship.