Frank Harris' autobiography was too explicit

Frank Harris

It is the birthday of journalist, editor and publisher Frank Harris (1856), whose four-volume memoir My Life and Loves (1922) was banned for being too explicit. Born in Galway, Ireland, he was educated in Wales. He studied at the University of Kansas then returned to England. He was editor of several newspapers and magazines in London, including Saturday Review, for which H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw were contributors. He returned to the United States during World War I and edited magazines in New York. He became an American citizen in 1921. Harris went to Germany to publish his autobiography, which contained graphic description of his claimed sexual encounters. He wrote biographies of his friends Shaw and Oscar Wilde. He established Frank Harris Publishing Company in New York to distribute his books. A collection of his works is housed at Princeton University.