Description
This finding aid describes confirmed or
probable forgeries of Oscar Wilde's work and correspondence, in addition to describing
materials about Wilde forgeries, dating primarily from the 1920s.
Background
Oscar Wilde was born Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde in Dublin, Ireland, October 16,
1854. He attended Trinity College and Magdalen College, Oxford, winning the Newdigate prize
in 1878 for the poem Ravenna. He subsequently established himself in London
society as a champion of the new Aesthetic movement, advocating "art for art's sake," and
publishing reviews and his Poems (1881). After being satirized (and made
famous) as Bunthorne, the fleshly aesthetic poet in Gilbert and Sullivan's
Patience, he made a year-long lecture tour of the United States, speaking
on literature and the decorative arts. After his return to London, he married Constance
Lloyd in 1884; they had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan Holland. In 1891 he met and began a love
affair with the handsome but temperamental poet, Lord Alfred Douglas.
Restrictions
Copyright has not been assigned to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. All requests
for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the
Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the William Andrews Clark
Memorial Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.