Merlin Holland on Rosebud
MERLIN HOLLAND’S GUEST APPEARANCE ON ROSEBUD Merlin Holland is the grandson of the great poet, playwright and paragon of late Victorian decadence, Oscar Wilde. Merlin’s story, and that of his…
Launching Yellow Nineties 2.0
Launching Yellow Nineties 2.0: A Symposium & CelebrationToronto Metropolitan University’s Centre for Digital Humanities —Virtual Symposium— Thursday, April 18th from 9:30am – 5:00pm EST Launching Yellow Nineties 2.0: A Symposium &…
Oscar Wilde Archive
The Oscar Wilde Blog — Archive A big thank you to kind users for their private comments about recent posts. To answer a common question raised: yes, all previous blog…
The Rops Vignette
Not Everyone’s Kettle of Fish Oscar Wilde’s symbolist play Salome is notable for its licentious artwork by Aubrey Beardsley. But Beardsley’s infamous illustrations appeared only when the English edition of…
Numa Patlagean
Clay bust of Oscar Wilde, 1914. Numa Patlagean (1888—1961). Oscar Wilde’s modeling career has been under discussion recently. I refer, of course, to the art of sculpture, a subject that…
Some Common Prisoner
Oscar Wilde Visits Two U.S. Prisons —Updated from its original posting in 2015— State penitentiaries are not generally considered tourist destinations. Yet in a curious twist in Oscar Wilde’s conventional…
Oscar’s Oyster Supper
Tea or Coffee, Mr Wilde? (Give Me The Wine List) Eating oysters in Connecticut is a big thing; and when in Hartford, CT, there was only one place to go:…
Turn of the Crank
Oscar Wilde on Machines The irresistible force of the industrial revolution meets the immovable objection of the aesthetic movement. The reasons for Oscar Wilde’s much-heralded lecture tour of America seemed…
Wilde House Fundraiser
Wilde Sunflowers – original painting by Gerard Byrne, Signed.Oil & acrylic border on canvas. Bespoke tray frame. FUNDRAISER EXTENDED INTO THE NEW YEAR —A Chance To Own This Original Painting—…
Gossip II
The Oscar Wilde World of Gossip (American Edition)by Neil Titley (Dan Shepelavy, Vanessa Heron, Editors)Universal Exports of North America. (Philadelphia), 2023. In case it was missing. Here is the link…
Wilde Sunflowers
Wilde Sunflowers – original painting by Gerard Byrne, Signed.Oil & acrylic border on canvas. Bespoke tray frame. —A Chance To Own This Original Painting— VISIT RESTORATION PROJECT RAFFLE The Oscar…
The Spectator
Max Beerbohm Having begun a personal resurgence of interest in Max Beerbohm (exhibition, article) it would be remiss not to also allude to the special role he had with regard…
Celebrating Max
Max Beerbohm: The Price of Celebrity Exhibition at the New York Public LibraryThrough January 28, 2024 Celebrity became an international industry in the late nineteenth century, and the English artist,…
First Impression
—A Large Signet Ring On His Little Finger— When Oscar Wilde arrived in America, at the beginning of 1882, the press came out to meet him on his ship the…
Oscariana in Dublin
Oscariana: A Wilde Dublin Festival https://oscariana.ie/ In its inaugural year, Oscariana is a celebration of the birth of one of Ireland’s greatest sons. Join the good folks at Wilde’s childhood…
The Sarony Case
Napoleon Sarony’s contribution to the photographs of Oscar Wilde was not primarily technical. Instead, he drew upon his artistic background to create the mise en scène of the image; and…
Summer Schedule
You will have seen my earlier post about Wilde’s lecture in Narragansett Pier. Perhaps we should place that visit into the wider context of Wilde’s Summer schedule of 1882 and…
Wilde at the Pier
You may recall my discovery back in 2018 of a lecture that Oscar Wilde gave at the seaside town of Narragansett Pier. In that earlier blog post I reported how…
The Gilded Gentleman
—A Podcast Interview with John Cooper— Whitman and Wilde Part 2: Oscar Wilde in New York, 1882 The Gilded Gentleman is a history podcast hosted by Carl Raymond in New…
Many Times Tried
In-Person Event in Haddonfield, New JerseyJune 23, 2023 | 6-8 PM History Is Not Always a Straight Line The reading will examine Oscar Wilde’s sonnet known as The New Remorse,…
Born Too Late
Paternal Grandfather and Grandson Here are two portraits from the Wilde family album: one of Oscar’s son Vyvyan Holland (left), and one of Oscar’s father, Sir William Wilde. I showcase…
Correspondence
Little Oscar and the Art of the Illustrated Letter Have you noticed how most of Victorian life appears to correspond? Everyone seems to know everyone else, and one thing usually…
Men of Letters
The Destiny of Two of Wilde’s Friends Names like A.A. Milne and Z.Z. Top are not just at the opposite ends of the 20th century’s cultural and chronological spectrum, they are…
Patti in Cincinnati
On February 20, 1882 Wilde was in Cincinnati but not to lecture. It was a stopover on his way to Louisville, KY where he lectured on the following night. Wilde…
Louvre Online
The Louvre has recently digitized 482,000 works of art, but, of course, there’s only one Oscar Wilde. Here he is in that sole image from the Louvre collection, in a…
St. Patrick’s Day, 1882
A Pride I Cannot Properly Acknowledge On St. Patrick’s Day 1882, during his lecture tour of north America, Oscar Wilde happened to be in St. Paul, Minnesota. He had lectured…
Double Take
—Another Photo Mystery— You have probably seen both of these photographs on separate occasions over the years, and, if you’re like me, thought you had been looking at the same…
Oscar Wilde in Sharon Springs
Oscar Wilde in Sharon Springs, 1882—2022 One could be forgiven for thinking that an article entitled Oscar Wilde in Sharon Springs is about Oscar Wilde in Sharon Springs, meaning his…
Carroll Beckwith
A NEW CHARACTER IN THE WILDE STORY —by John Cooper and Erik Ryding— Sarony photograph #19 must have been a favorite of Wilde’s as it is almost certainly the one…
Beardsley 150
Aubrey Beardsley sesquicentennial While Beardsley’s brief career was cut short aged 25 by his death from tuberculosis, he made an impact as a brilliant and daring innovator who often caused…
Sharon Springs, NY
My research into Oscar Wilde’s 1882 lecture tour of North America has often found me in his large, and daunting, footsteps. It began over 20 years ago with a guided…
The Wildean
COMPLEMENTARY ARTICLES IN THE CURRENT ISSUE OF THE WILDEAN —A Publication of the Oscar Wilde Society— During the less furtive period of his post-prison exile, many young men passed fleetingly…
L’Île d’Amour
Beg, Steal, and Borrow on Love Island During July 1899 while in retreat from a sweltering Paris, Oscar Wilde spent some time at a small hotel called L’Ecu on L’Île…
Broken Brothers
Oscar Wilde and Thomas Langrell Harris —A Guest Blog by Matthew Sturgis— In February of 1900, Oscar Wilde wrote to his young friend and admirer, Louis Wilkinson, lamenting, ‘I am…
Something To Declare
A New Earliest Example of Wilde’s ALLEGED Remark: I have nothing to declare except my genius? In my latest post I referenced the godfather of Oscar Wilde researchers, Stuart Mason,…
Rediscovered II
You may recall the rediscovered photograph of Oscar Wilde (similar to the one above) that I featured in this post — where it was effectively published for the first time…
Interview With Natalie Barney
Oscar Wilde first met Natalie Barney when she was a little girl playing on the beach with her mother in 1882.1 But in this story we are going to fast…
An Impromptu Lecture
WILDE LETTER REVEALS IMPROMPTU ARRANGEMENTS A previously unpublished autograph letter signed (ALS) by Oscar Wilde appeared a little while ago at auction in North Carolina. Aided by the letter’s evident authenticity and…
First English
EARLY TRANSLATIONS OF OSCAR WILDE’S SALOMÉ Wilde’s play Salomé was published in the 1890s in two languages, and the bane of each was a lordly limitation. First was the original…
Wilde’s Prison Interview?
Was Oscar Wilde Interviewed While In prison? The artist Banksy has recently demonstrated that deliverance from Reading Gaol remains a popular concept. But, as you might imagine, Oscar Wilde’s real life liberation…
Cloak of Mystery
In charting the cultural rehabilitation of Oscar Wilde in my article Finding Oscar, I alluded to the first appearances of him as character on screen. I made reference to the…
Rediscovered
A Rediscovered Photograph of Oscar Wilde In my last article I alluded to how that erstwhile sinner, Oscar Wilde, had achieved the exalted air of sainthood. Unfortunately, for collectors of…
A Saint With A Past
During his visits to America in the early 1880s, Oscar Wilde was merely a controversial figure. His fall from grace was more than a decade hence; or, to employ his…
Destroyed By Fire
In my now completed itinerary of Oscar Wilde’s lecture tour of across North America in 1882, you will find logged more than one hundred hotels or houses where Oscar stayed while lecturing,…
One By One
In a recent post I highlighted the difference between an illustration and a photograph of Oscar Wilde in the same pose—the result being that the photograph was the more authentic. But…
False Bottom
Here we see an illustration from Frank Leslie’s newspaper showing Oscar Wilde in a pose reminiscent of those taken by Napoleon Sarony. Scholars were never quite sure whether the caption…
Sarony 3A
New Sarony Photograph Identified A rarely seen image of Oscar Wilde has recently been added to the series of photographs taken by Napoleon Sarony on January 5th, 1882. Its rarity is evidenced…
The Rest Is History
There is a pleasing symmetry in the idea of the flamboyant Napoleon Sarony photographing Oscar Wilde because they were both specialists in posing—albeit from opposing ends of the camera. So…
Web Site Upgrade
Apologies for the hiatus from writing articles for this blog while I took time out to attend to two parallel projects. First is my historical archive which was in need of an…
Bridgeton, NJ
ANOTHER DISCOVERED LECTURE In verifying Oscar Wilde’s tour of America, one occasionally comes across previously unrecorded lectures, such as the ones at the seaside resort of Narragansett Pier, RI, a second talk given…
I Can Wait (Revisited)
Oscar Wilde’s After-Dinner Rebuke to his Press Critics It is pleasing to see that recent Wilde studies continue to highlight the emergent nature of Oscar’s American experience, during which time he…
Making (Up) Oscar Wilde
“Making Oscar Wilde” by Michèle MendelssohnOxford University Press (2018) —Reviewed by: John Cooper— One of the most noteworthy contributions to the recent surge in Wildean material has been Michèle Mendelssohn’s treatise Making…
Mountain Lion
Oscar Wilde in the Catskills After traveling across the vast expanses of the American south for more than a month, lecturing in 18 cities, Wilde returned to New York for…
Narragansett Pier
—A Newly Discovered Lecture— In verifying Oscar Wilde’s 1882 lecture tour of North America, it was prudent to begin with the four published itineraries1. Unfortunately, none of those chronologies agreed…
Celebrating Wilde, and Howe
I don’t suppose many people in America have given a talk about Oscar Wilde in a place where Oscar Wilde also gave a talk. It is a feat more easily…
Back To The Wall
In a recent post I noted how Oscar Wilde and Sarah Bernhardt had stood in precisely the same place against the same background when having their photographs taken by Napoleon Sarony.…
The 16th Green
Today is the birthday of a famous Irishman and, lest I insult your knowledge, I should quickly add that I do not refer to the young chap above—Wildeans need no reminding that Oscar…
The Happy Prince—(2018)
‘The Happy Prince’ Opens in America You could be forgiven for thinking that a blog about Oscar Wilde might not be the most objective forum for reviewing a film about…
The Green Hour
A Diversion on Absinthe It was time for the press screening of The Happy Prince, Rupert Everett’s new bio-pic of Oscar Wilde’s post-prison depression, to be shown at the headquarters of…
Twenty-seven
Oscar Wilde was 27 years of age when left England for America on board the S.S. Arizona. By the time he reached New York eight days later he was 26—this…
Your Slim Gilt Sole
Boot-camp Here are Oscar and Bosie in May 1893 at the studio of photographers Gillman & Co. of Oxford, whose establishment was at 107 St Aldate’s Street. That location today, to set a tone…
The Last Four
The Sarony Photographs It has long been assumed that all of the 1882 photographs of Oscar Wilde by Napoleon Sarony were taken during the same visit to his studio. Indeed,…
Same Difference
Here is an idle curiosity. When Oscar Wilde had this photograph taken by Napoleon Sarony in 1882, not only was he standing against the same wall that Sarah Bernhardt had…
Philadelphia Freedom
The Digital Collection of Oscar Wilde Documents at The Philadelphia Free Library Readers will recall my visit to the New York Antiquarian Book Fair a couple of years ago where I…
The Wilde West
My recent article about Stephen Fry as the young Oscar featured a video of Oscar Wilde as a character in a short-lived TV Western series. Surprisingly, it was not the first time…
Anatomy of a Cartoon
The Story of Oscar Wilde’s Infamous Curtain Call Take a closer look at the details of the above cartoon. It is one of the Fancy Portrait series from the long established…
Homophones
It’s debatable whether the name Ernest, used punningly by Wilde in his most famous play The Importance of Being Earnest, was chosen as a late Victorian code word for “gay”. One…
Quixote of the Queer
Textual Analysis for Students A verse parody appeared just three weeks after Oscar Wilde arrived in America. It was one many such newspaper items in 1882 that poked fun at Wilde…
Oscar Wilde’s Birthday Dinner
A Review of the Oscar Wilde Birthday Dinner, 2017 This Article First Appeared in Intentions,(New Series No. 105, Feb. 2018) Published by the Oscar Wilde Society http://oscarwildesociety.co.uk The twenty-sixth Oscar Wilde…
Primary Sources — Defined
In my recent article about Oscar Wilde’s cello coat, and throughout my online archive of Oscar Wilde In America, I often allude to Primary Sources. For ease of reference, below…
The Happy Prince
THE HAPPY PRINCE :: WORLD PREMIERE —Watch Sundance Live— The 2018 Sundance Film Festival gets underway today, January 18th, and making its world premiere is The Happy Prince written and directed by Rupert…
Cello Encore
More Of The Cello Mystery Solved —Corroborating Research— In a recent article I established the literary source for the cello coat worn by Oscar Wilde at the Grosvenor Gallery. However, I left…
Oscar Wilde’s Cello Coat
A Literary Mystery Solved —A Research Piece for Scholars— While there continues to be a welcome variety of approaches to Oscar Wilde’s life, many of the incidents in the Wilde…
The Canterville Ghost
The Canterville Ghost is a short story by Oscar Wilde which made its first appearance in America in The New-York Tribune on Sunday, March 27, 1887.1 Unfortunately, I was too young…
The Oscar Wilde Bar
There have been Oscar Wilde bars before now: in Berlin, San Diego, Chicago, and, I seem to recall, one previously in New York City. There is a Wilde Café in Minneapolis, and a bar…
The State of the Sunflowers
Oscar Wilde’s Reception in Kansas and the Sunflower Soirée. I recently gave a talk on the subject of Oscar Wilde and his relationship with sunflowers to the good people of the Maryland Agriculture Resource Council at their Sunflower Soirée,…
The New Jersey Turnpike
a runaway American dream When one thinks about New Jersey today—and as I live there one is forced to occasionally—it becomes quickly apparent that it clings to its endearment as…
Time: The Present
I live in terror of not being misunderstood —Arcane Allusions in The Importance of Being Earnest— If Oscar Wilde really did live in terror of not being misunderstood—as he wrote…
The Pictures of Dorian Gray
In the East Village of New York City there is a bar called Dorian Gray and this week I made my inaugural visit. It styles itself as Simple, Cheery, and Charming—which it is, and…
Purple Prose
—Book Review— Beautiful and Impossible Things: Selected Essays of Oscar Wilde Notting Hill Editions, UK (2015) | New York Review Books, US (2017)” …and over our heads will float the Blue…
“Earnest in Town”
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia With its marble columns and lobby posters of productions past, the Walnut Street Theatre is a venerable venue;…
Book Mark
Exhibition and Symposium Mark Samuels Lasner has long been recognized as an authority on the literature and art of the late Victorian era. He is also a collector, bibliographer, typographer, and…
Moral Equivalence
If I am to find Wildean relevance in topical US culture, there is a latter-day Nellie the Elephant in the room. And before proceeding, I should explain that twisted metaphor for the uninitiated.…
Vyvyan Holland
Declaring nothing apropos (except astonishment) I send some America footage I recently discovered of Oscar Wilde’s son Vyvyan Holland. It is in the form of a TV interview alongside Brian Reade,…
On This Day
O’Flahertie Will Get You Nowhere I recall learning the word polyonymous from this Word-a-Day web site—it means having many names. It resonates because I always suspected Oscar of being a confirmed and…
Wilde and Douglas (Kirk)
Oscar Wilde’s Christ-like Spartacus Moment When we think of the name Douglas in connection with Oscar Wilde we usually have in mind Oscar’s golden lover-Boy of that ilk—we do not necessarily conjure up…
Finding Oscar
John Cooper expands on comments he made as a member of a panel discussion at the Oscar Wilde Festival in Galway, Ireland, in September 2014, in which he appraised Wilde’s…
November 30
A Latent Account of Wilde Post Mortem Below is an excerpt from Current Literature—a journal of the Current Literature Publishing Co. (New York) which published monthly periodicals from 1888 to 1912. This account…
Wilde Fire
SAY IT AIN’T SO, ST. JOE. What a shame. The venue where Oscar Wilde lectured in St. Joseph, Missouri in April 1882, was destroyed by fire on Monday this week. No longer…
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