He was a firm believer in traditional Catholicism and was a member of the Advisory Committee of the International Commission of English in the Liturgy.

Although both of his parents envisioned high aspirations to fit a namesake that joined both sides of the family, an older Harrison wrote in his memoir that he "would have none of it.

[2] Walter Harrison Sr. often took the boys to London for royal pageants and parades, popular in their time and giving way to vast crowds in Trafalgar Square.

[2] At the age of seven, Harrison continued his early education at the Brighton and Hove Boys' Preparatory School: Crescent House.

For most of World War I, he was based in Lucknow, India as a Second Lieutenant in the Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey).

He wrote to his parents nearly every day and noted the everyday aspects of life from training exercises and drills, to pickup sports matches, to sightseeing excursions.

He kept careful track of whether or not he received mail in reply and often reminded his parents that their letter writing frequency was not quite up to par.

At first, Harrison recorded these thoughts in marbled composition books, but later on he favored the Canadian Line Daily journal.

[3] Harrison started his career in 1924 as a reader at King's College London and held this position until his work was interrupted by the Second World War.

[2] His daughter attended Queen's Medical School and Harrison grew accustomed to his position as a member of the faculty (Letters to Rice).

Harrison did not want to feel as if he was jumping ship on Queen's and its faculty and students who had never caused him grief or driven him to conflict (Letters to Rice).

After this term, Harrison celebrated his official retirement, which happened to coincide with the 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare (News and Information).

During his own studies, Harrison noticed that while there were notable books that centered on and analyzed Shakespeare, there was "nothing cheap, popular and portable.

In reviews, it was held up as successfully providing valuable academic content in simple, engaging and easy to understand language.

It was to fill the role of a textbook of sorts, and, according to an education orientated reviewer, succeeded as a worthy "pedagogical autobiography.

[12] Harrison's original goal, as he states in the introduction, was to answer a question that his graduate assistant had earnestly asked as the pair were walking through Angell Hall at the University of Michigan.

After pursuing various lines of inquiry with professors in all areas of the department, Harrison realized that no one had a ready and genuine answer to his graduate assistant's question.