Barber, Margaret Fairless (1869–1901)

British mystic and nature writer. Name variations: (pseudonym) Michael Fairless. Born Margaret Fairless Barber, May 7, 1869, in Castle Hill, Rastrick, Yorkshire, England; died Aug 24, 1901, in Mock Bridge, Henfield, England; youngest of 3 daughters of Fairless (lawyer) and Maria (Musgrave) Barber; sister of A.M. Haggard, writer; educated at Torquay and London, and a children's hospital near London; never married; no children.

As a nurse, was the "Fighting Sister" in the London slum of Jago, known for breaking up street fights and fending off violent patients (1886–91); during a philanthropic venture to London (1899), grew suddenly ill, was taken in by the Dowson family, and never left; turned to art, of which her greatest success was a crucifix for a London church; took up writing, publishing Brother Hilarius in a magazine under the name Michael Fairless (1901), then dictated the last chapter of The Roadmender as she lay dying. The publication of The Roadmender (1902), a meditative exploration of the road to heaven, created an instant clamor for information about its mystical author; already admired for a tract about the Black Death, she remained unidentified, until her sister, A.M. Haggard, revealed her true identity (1913); later works published include The Child King (1902), Grey Brethren (1905) and The Complete Works of Michael Fairless (1931).

See also Palmer, William Scott (M.E. Dowson) and A.M. Haggard, Michael Fairless: Her Life and Writing (1913).