SOURCE: "Richard Middleton: Ad Memoriam," in his Contemporary Portraits, Brentano's Publishers, 1920, pp. 159-77.

Harris was a highly controversial English editor, critic, and biographer whose fame as a critic rests primarily upon his five-volume Contemporary Portraits (1915-30), which contain essays marked by the author's characteristically vigorous style and patronizing tone. In the following excerpt, Harris recalls his impressions of Middleton.

It was in the autumn of 1907 that Edgar Jepson introduced me to Richard Middleton in the office of Vanity Fair. A big man and perfectly self-possessed, his burly figure, thick black beard and furrowed forehead made him look ten years older than he was: five and thirty, at least, I thought him till I caught the laughing, boyish gleam in his grey-blue eyes. He had assisted Jepson in the editing of the paper while I was in America, and on my return he helped me for some little time...