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William Sharp was born in Paisley in 1855 and educated at Glasgow, though he did not graduate. He began work as a lawyer's clerk but left the position to travel to Australia for the good of his health in 1876. On returning, he settled for a time in London but had already developed a desire to write. There he met with the encouragement of members of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and published his first verse collections. Travelling was also now in his blood, and he left Britain again in 1890, to return only rarely. He journeyed to North America and also travelled in Italy, where he invented Fiona MacLeod, the lady poet imbued with all the romance of the Celtic Twilight. Though her background was well-documented, the fact that she and Sharp were the same person was a well-concealed secret until after his death. Sharp went on to write not only poetry but also novels under both names, and corresponded under both names with other luminaries of the Celtic movement, including Yeats. He died in Sicily in 1905. William Bell Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1811 of an artistic family: his father was an engraver and his elder brother became a painter. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and also had some teaching in art in Edinburgh and London, after which he assisted his father in his work. He also enjoyed writing, and had some poetry published before leaving for London to make his living as an artist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1842. He soon accepted an appointment in Newcastle-upon-Tyne as the organiser of art schools in the north-east, a post he held from 1844 to 1864, during which time he was able to undertake private commissions and devote part of his time to poetry, in which he touched on mystical and philosophical subjects. He returned to London in 1864 and divided the rest of his life between there and Perthshire, where he had friends: he was part of a considerable literary and artistic circle in Chelsea which included Rossetti and Swinburne. He died in 1890.
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