Father Cuthbert Dunne Collection on Oscar Wilde MS.1973.016
Rebecca Fenning Marschall
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
2023
2520 Cimarron Street
Los Angeles 90018
clark@humnet.ucla.edu
Contributing Institution:
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Title: Father Cuthbert Dunne Collection on Oscar Wilde
Creator:
Dunne, Cuthbert, Father, 1869-1950
source:
Croft-Cooke, Rupert, 1903-1980
Creator:
Burke, Edmund, Father
Identifier/Call Number: MS.1973.016
Physical Description:
1 box
(5 linear inches)
Date (inclusive): 1900-1957
Abstract: This collection contains Father Cuthbert Dunne's collection of papers related to the death of Oscar Wilde and consist of his
memoirs of officiating at Wilde's deathbed conversion, correspondence, and transcriptions of newspaper accounts.
Language of Material:
English
.
Provenance
Purchase, Zeitlin and Ver Brugge, May 1973 (from Christie's London auction, April 4, 1973, lot 239). Previously in the collection
of Rupert Croft-Cooke.
Additional notes and descriptions of this collection (both bookseller/auction descriptions as well as notes possibly dating
to Croft-Cooke's acquistion) are included in Box 1/Folder 1.
Biographical Note
Father Cuthbert Dunne, C.P. was an Irish Passionist priest born in Dublin, Ireland in 1869. In 1900, he was officiating at
St. Joseph's Church on Avenue Hoche in Paris, when Robert Ross came to request a priest to visit Oscar Wilde's bedside at
the Hotel d'Alsace. Father Dunne baptised Wilde, and adminstered the last rites before his death; he also later officiated
at Wilde's funeral. Dunne did not speak publicly about Wilde's death until 1945, when he finally responded to inaccurate portrayals
of Wilde in a pamphlet titled "The Pure of Heart" by Rev. Daniel A. Lord. Dunne died in Dublin November 4, 1950.
Sources Consulted:
* Rev. Edmund Burke, "Oscar Wilde: The Final Scene," The London Magazine (May 1961): pages 37-43.
* Materials within this collection.
Processing Information
This collection physically processed and described in January 2023 by Rebecca Fenning Marschall.
Scope and Contents
This collection contains Father Cuthbert Dunne's memoirs, letters, research files, and ephemera related to the death of Oscar
Wilde. A large portion of the collection consists of various drafts of Father Dunne's memoirs about attending to Wilde on
his deathbed, presumably much of it written between 1945-1950, when Dunne sought, after many years of silence, to correct
the publicly circulating stories about Wilde's conversion and death. In addition to letters from 1945-1950 to Daniel A. Lord,
Father Edmund Burke, C.P., and others, this collection includes correspondence and other materials dating to Wilde's illness
and death in 1900. Dunne kept calling cards from Robert Ross (one of which has the "sick-call" request for a priest to visit
Wilde's bedside written on the verso), and letters from Ross, Vyvyan Holland, and Father Joseph Brown of Stonyhurst College.
Before Dunne's death in November 1950, he gave most of his Wilde papers to colleague Father Edmund Burke. Several letters
from 1950-1957 from Burke's collection are also included here.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright has not been assigned to the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Clark Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, UCLA 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.
Conditions Governing Use
Collection is open for research.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Croft-Cooke, Rupert, 1903-1980
Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900
Holland, Vyvyan Beresford, 1886-1967
Father Cuthbert Dunne Papers Series 1
Scope and Contents
Manuscripts, letters, and other material written and collected by Father Cuthbert Dunne.
box 1, Folder 2
Draft letter to the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland on "The Pure of Heart"
1945
box 1, Folder 3
Death of Oscar Wilde. Letters [envelope]
Scope and Contents
Envelope labeled by Fr. Dunne with list of contents. Letters are now removed and described individually in folders 4-10.
box 1, Folder 4
Calling cards, hotel card, and letters from Robert Ross
1900
Scope and Contents
3 Robert Ross calling cards, one with a handwritten request on the back for a priest to visit Wilde's sickbed (the others
blank); Card of the Hotel d'Alsace with "Sebastian Melmoth" in Dunne's hand on the verso; Letter and postcard from Ross to
Dunne on Wilde's death and funeral.
box 1, Folder 5
Letters from Father Brown, Rector of Stonyhurst College
1900
box 1, Folder 6
Letter from Vyvyan Holland
1900 December 14
box 1, Folder 7
Letters to Father Dunne by D. Oswald Hunter-Blair
1905
box 1, Folder 8
Letter from Robert Ross
1901 January 25
box 1, Folder 9
Letter from Daniel A. Lord on "The Pure of Heart"
1945 June 23
box 1, Folder 10
Letters from F. O'Reilly, Catholic Truth Society of Ireland
1945-1946
box 1, Folder 11
Draft of letter to Daniel A. Lord
1945
box 1, Folder 12
Letters to Abbe Bernard Thorpe from Franciscans of Rouen on Oscar Wilde
1945-1946
Scope and Contents
Includes envelope annotated by Fr. Dunne.
box 1, Folder 13
"Oscar Wilde and the Franciscans" manuscript note
Scope and Contents
1 page manuscript by Fr. Dunne.
box 1, Folder 14
Letters from Fr. Dunne to Fr. Burke
1945-1950
Scope and Contents
Includes letters discussing his handing over his collection of Wilde papers to Burke. Also includes typewritten extracts from
Baptismal Register of St. Joseph's Church, Paris, that relate to Wilde's death.
box 1, Folder 15
Extracts and manuscript notes referring to Wilde, in Fr. Dunne's hand
box 1, Folder 16
Typescript of letter to Wilde from H. Sebastian Bowden, London Oratory
1898
Scope and Contents
No information given about original letter, or the transcriber of this copy.
box 1, Folder 17
Manuscript notes by Fr. Dunne with letter from Vera Coyle
1950
box 1, Folder 18
Death of Oscar Wilde: Press Cuttings and Extracts
Scope and Contents
Manuscript transcriptions by Fr. Dunne from articles about Wilde's death.
box 1, Folder 19
Drafts of unsent letters to Daniel A. Lord regarding "The Pure of Heart"
1945
Father Edmund Burke Papers Series 2
Scope and Contents
Letters and other material collected by Father Edmund Burke after the death of Father Dunne.
box 1, Folder 20
Letters from Fr. Burke to Fr. Dunne
1950
box 1, Folder 21
Letters from Gabriel Fallon
1957
box 1, Folder 22
Letters from Eoin Mahony
1955
box 1, Folder 23
Letters from Vyvyan Holland
1955
box 1, Folder 24
Letter from H. Montgomery Hyde
1955 February 24
