The George Eliot Fellowship wishes to make clear that we have no intention of renaming it as

• The Mary Ann Evans Fellowship
• The Mary Anne Evans Fellowship
• The Marian Evans Fellowship
• The Marian Evans Lewes Fellowship
• The Mrs John Cross Fellowship
• The Marian Cross Fellowship

We are grateful to Michael Harris for passing this essay by William Sharp to the Fellowship. It was first published by The Pall Mall Magazine in 1903 and was among the George Eliot papers of Michael’s wife Ruth who died earlier this year (2020). Ruth was a considerable expert on George Eliot and served on the Fellowship Council and as a Vice-President.

William Sharp was born in Paisley in 1855. He did not complete his degree at Glasgow University as he caught typhoid in 1872. He worked in a law office until ill health intervened in 1876 and he went to Australia, returning in 1878 to work in a London bank. He died in 1905 but during his life published 40 collections of poems and novels, and edited editions of poetry by Scott, Arnold, Swinburne and others, and worked with and argued with Yeats during the 1890s. He became a full time writer in 1891, having married his cousin Elizabeth Sharp in 1884.

This publication is out of print. We intend to do a new edition to bring it up to date. Meanwhile, Beverley Rilett has included it in her George Eliot Review website. Use the link above and type In A Community of Interest in the search box at the top right of the page to give you instant access.

A Community of Interest: The Story of the George Eliot Fellowship · George Eliot Review Online