Release date is 2026-05-22

Richard Tonsing, Carla Foust, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

"Michael Fairless" by William Scott Palmer and A. M. Haggard is a literary biography and critical study written in the early 20th century. It presents the life and spirit of Margaret Fairless Barber—who wrote as Michael Fairless—alongside a sensitive appraisal of her principal works, especially The Roadmender, The Gathering of Brother Hilarius, and The Grey Brethren. Expect a devotional, nature‑attuned portrait of a modern mystic whose compassion, artistic impulse, and final illness shaped prose that blends spiritual insight with everyday tenderness.

The opening of this volume explains why the authors set aside Fairless’s wish for anonymity and establishes an intimate, corrective aim against rumor. A. M. Haggard then sketches Fairless’s Yorkshire childhood, bookishness, quick wit, and deep affinity with animals; her brief nursing and modelling, parish and East End work, and later “adoption” into a congenial household where worsening illness drove her to create a crucifix and, from bed, to write. The narrative follows her move between London and Sussex, the composition of The Roadmender under severe pain, and her peaceful death after completing proofs of Brother Hilarius. W. Scott Palmer’s critical sections trace how The Roadmender grew from her sickroom vision of roads and rivers, read death as a compassionate companion, and framed charity through vivid vignettes (notably the organ‑grinder Gawdine), before noting the book’s remarkable public reception. He then outlines the purpose of Brother Hilarius as a humane parable for a young painter’s rigid conscience and briefly signals the pieces later gathered as The Grey Brethren. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: London: Duckworth & Co., 1913