Frank Harris (1855 -1931) was a British editor, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland and sent to a school in Wales, he ran away around the age of 13. As a young man he invented a card game he called Dirty Banshee. The art on the cards showed satyrs and goddesses coupling variously. He emigrated to America in 1869, and worked in a variety of unskilled jobs. In New York he worked as a boot black, a porter, a general laborer, and a construction worker on the erection of the Brooklyn Bridge. In Chicago he was hotel clerk and eventually the manager. In Chicago Harris made the acquaintance of various cattlemen, who inspired him to leave the big city to take up work as a cowboy. Eventually he enrolled at the University of Kansas where he studied law and earned a degree, gaining admission to the Kansas state bar association. He eventually became a US citizen there. After graduation he quickly tired of his legal career and returned to Europe in 1882. He travelled on continental Europe before settling in London to pursue a career in journalism. He attracted much attention during his life for his irascible, aggressive personality, editorship of famous periodicals, and friendship with the talented and famous. He was a friend of Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde, and amongst many others he also knew H. G. Wells, Max Beerbohm, Winston Churchill, Aleister Crowley, George Moore and Arnold Bennett. He is remembered mainly for his multiple-volume memoir My Life and Loves, which was banned in countries around the world for its sexual explicitness.

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