Educated at the Ruabon Grammar School in Wales, Harris ran away from school and traveled to America when he was 15. He later studied law at the University of Kansas. He returned to England in 1882 and became an editor of the London Evening News and, subsequently, the Fortnightly Review. He purchased the Saturday Review and in 1894 published his first work, Elder Conklin and Other Stories, which received critical acclaim. From 1907 to 1910 he was the owner/editor of Vanity Fair. Harris returned to America in 1916 and purchased Pearson's Magazine which he edited and in 1921 became an American citizen. The following year he published his controversial and best-known work, My Life and Loves. The book, an exaggerated account of his life and sexual exploits and conquests, was seized in Paris and banned in a number of countries at the time due to its pornographic content. Harris also wrote a number of biographies during his career. His other works include Bomb (1909), The Man Shakespeare and His Tragic Life Story (1909), Women of Shakespeare (1911), Great Days (1914), England or Germany (1915), Love in Youth (1916), Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions (1916), Contemporary Portraits (1919-1924), Mad Love (1920), Pantopia (1930), My Reminiscences as a Cowboy (1930) and Bernard Shaw (1931). |
