Detail from the first page of the manuscript of De Profundis. British Library.
The copyright status of Wilde’s letters is complex. Much of the material in the letters linked to here remains under copyright. Readers should exercise caution before reproducing any of the letters without seeking permission from the Estate of Oscar Wilde. I am grateful to Merlin Holland for permitting me to share this list. Last updated 17 Dec. 2024.
Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis’s The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde runs to 1,200 pages and contains thousands of letters, from Wilde’s lengthy prison letter to his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas (published as De Profundis), to the most minor telegram requesting seats at a play. Taken together it represents the autobiography Wilde never wrote, and is perhaps the best way to get to know the real Oscar Wilde.
The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, edited by Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis. Amazon.com.
It was published in 2000, however, and since that time more letters have come to light. Many have been documented in academic papers or cited in biographies. Others have been quoted in auction catalogues or printed in newspapers. And some still lie unconsulted in libraries and archives.
To make use of these uncollected letters, scholars must first know that they exist. To that end, I have compiled a list of all known uncollected letters of Oscar Wilde and made it available here.
For each letter I provide information on where it can be found, and whether (to my knowledge) it has been cited or printed by Wilde scholars.
The list is a work-in-progress and I add to it whenever I learn of an uncollected letter. It now contains more than two hundred letters. Please contact me if you know of any letters that I have missed.
At the bottom of the page is a list of notes on Holland & Hart-Davis, many of which are informed by letters that have resurfaced since the book was published.
Editorial notes:
Ideally, sources would provide each letter as a complete transcript and a complete set of facsimiles (photographs or scans of the original letter). In practice, transcripts are often partial and letters only quoted or described; facsimiles may be incomplete or absent. For each source, I note the level of information provided by that source. Transcripts and facsimiles are complete unless stated otherwise.
Wilde was not in the habit of dating his letters. Dates in square brackets are estimates. I have taken dates from the sources, unless my own research indicates a more appropriate date. In such cases I have explained my reasoning.
Because it is possible that some of the sources I link to in this article will eventually break, I have taken the precaution of archiving many of them using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Links marked ‘WBM’ are Wayback Machine links. Use these if the links marked ‘view source’ do not work. Note that Wayback Machine links may take longer to load. It was not possible to save all sources to the Wayback Machine, so some have been saved to the Internet Archive. These links are marked ‘Archive’.
Many of the sources, particularly those in historical auction catalogues, are hosted on HathiTrust and are only available in the USA. For the benefit of users outside of the USA, I provide alternative links to these sources. These links are marked ‘Archive’.
I could not have compiled this list without the assistance of other Wilde scholars who have informed me of previously undocumented letters. I am particularly indebted to Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist. You can view my acknowledgements for each letter by clicking on the ‘°’ after the date.
The Uncollected Letters of Oscar Wilde
To Mrs. Browning, n.d. [?1876–1878].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Sotheby’s sale (personal communication, 21 Mar. 2024). Declining an invitation [to dine?]. Dated according to the address (1 Merrion Square). Bloomsbury’s transcription states that Wilde hoped to renew his acquaintance ‘with you nicely’, though Sotheby’s reading of the last word as ‘nieces’ seems to be correct.
• Sotheby’s; English Literature and History; 19 Dec. 2000; lot 116 (description)
• Bloomsbury Auctions; Literature, Manuscripts & Modern Firsts; 23 Apr. 2009; lot 760; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [c. 1876].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 24 Oct. 2024). Requesting unmounted photographs of pictures by Edward Burne-Jones: ‘The Beguiling of Merlin’, ‘The Mirror of Venus’, ‘The Days of Creation’, and ‘Christ and Magdalen’. On Magdalen College stationery. As the Sotheby’s catalogue notes, Richard Ellmann refers to this letter in Oscar Wilde, Hamish Hamilton, p. 66. Ellmann’s source is Ivor L. Poole’s catalogue no. 429 (1951), item 415.
• Sotheby’s; English Literature and History; 13 Dec. 1990; p. 118; lot 169 (description; partial facsimile)
To James T. Fields, n.d. [?1877–1881].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 5 Jun. 2023). Content unknown. This letter is mentioned in an article in the short-lived 1892 art magazine The Mahogany Tree, which I have not been able to consult. The article is referred to by Curtis and Van Nimmen. Wilde’s letter must predate the April 1881 death of the American publisher, editor, and poet. Perhaps Wilde was seeking assistance with the American publication of his own or his mother’s poetry.
• Curtis, V. P. & Van Nimmen, J. (eds) (1995) F. Holland Day: Selected Texts and Bibliography, p. 111; view source (existence).
To Hugh Bryans, postmarked 27 May 1878. Noting that they will lunch at the New Travellers Club and not at the ‘Berkley’ [sic].
• Clark Library; W6721L B9151.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 38 (transcript).
To Bram Stoker, n.d. [1879–1880].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the American Art Association sale (personal communication, 8 Jan. 2024). Requesting a seat at the Lyceum Theatre. Dated according to the address (13 Salisbury Street).
• American Art Association; First Editions Including the Fine Collection of Rudyard Kipling Formed by Paul Hyde Bonner…; 24 Nov. 1926; lot 951; view source (transcript).
• Heritage Auctions; sale 6113; 3 Apr. 2014; lot 34149; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• International Autograph Auctions Europe S.L.; Autograph Letters, Documents & Photographs; 9 July 2016; lot 272; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To Mr Silter, n.d. [1879–1880]. Offering terms for working as travelling tutor to Silter’s son. Bloomsbury’s transcript has ‘As I have none other offer’; Sturgis has ‘As I have one other offer’. My reading of the disputed word is ‘some’.
• Bloomsbury Auctions; The Summer Book Sale; 20 Aug. 2015; lot 402; view source | Archive (apparently complete transcript; facsimile, pp. 2–3 of 3).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 760, n. 121 (partial transcript).
To Cissie Maxse, n.d. [1879]. Apologising that he has been too busy with his play [presumably Vera] to accompany Maxse on a visit to the National Gallery, and inviting her and her daughter Violet to tea. From 13 Salisbury Street. Wilde’s acquaintance with the Maxses must have been kept up, as he and Constance attended Violet’s wedding on 19 June 1894 (The Westminster Budget, 22 Jun. 1894, 16).
• British Library; RP 8388; view source (item listed in catalogue)
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 761, n. 5 (description), and p. 762, n. 12 (partial transcript).
To [Charles Godfrey] Leland, n.d. [autumn 1879]. An introduction to Lady Wilde. The letter is on the note paper of the St. Stephen’s Club, to which Wilde was elected in the spring of 1877. Since the letter concerns Lady Wilde’s desire to meet Leland, it was probably written in 1879 and not, as Maggs suggest, c. 1895. This has been confirmed by Donald Mead, whose note on the letter cites a response by Leland dated 4 October 1879. Lady Wilde relocated from Dublin to London in May 1879, and Leland left London for his native US the same year.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 454; Autumn 1924; p. 277; item 2243; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (partial transcript).
• Sotheby’s; sale N09920; 13 Dec. 2018; lot 307; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, p. 1 of 6).
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79–104 (transcript; facsimile, pp. 1–3 of 6).
To an unidentified correspondent, [c. Mar. 1879]. Apologising for his absence from the meeting of the Moore Centenary Committee.
• The Nation (Dublin, Ireland), 29 Mar. 1879, 13; view source (quotation).
To Henry Irving, n.d. [1879].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Anderson sale (personal communication, 24 Apr. 2024). Requesting seats for Lillie Langtry to see Hamlet.
• The Anderson Galleries; sale 1245; 8 Nov. 1916; lot 314; view source (quotation)
• Henry Irving Correspondence; ref. no. 8497; view source | WBM (description).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 758, n. 88 (citation).
To Dorothy Tennant, n.d. [30 Nov. 1879].I thank Stuart Eagles for informing me of the Berg letter (personal communication, 4 Jul. 2023). Informing her that John Ruskin had heard of her pictures of children and that he and Ruskin would visit to see them later that day. Tennant wrote about the visit in her diary on 1 Dec. 1879, a Monday. As the visit is supposed to have taken place on a Sunday, the diary entry presumably describes the events of the previous day. There is an undated letter from Ruskin to Wilde in the Berg Collection, NYPL, that refers to a repeat visit to ‘Dolly’ in September. As the November 1879 visit appears to have been Ruskin’s first, this implies that he and Wilde returned in 1880 or later.
• Waller, D. (2009) The Magnificent Mrs Tennant, p. 216, view source (description).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [?c. Dec. 1880]. An invitation to tea and to meet Helena Modjeska. So dated because several similar invitations dated to 1880 are extant.
• Forum Auctions; Fine Books, Western Manuscripts and Works on Paper; 06 Dec. 2017; lot 83; view source | Archive (transcript of fragment; facsimile, final page).
To George Lawrence, n.d. [?Dec. 1880].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May 2023). Inviting him to meet Helena Modjeska and complimenting him on his performance as Cassandra [in the Oxford Agamemnon]. Dated according to the address (Keats House) and the date of the staging of the Agamemnon.
• Sotheby’s; Catalogue of Valuable Printed Books etc; 25-27 Jul. 1927; p. 111, lot 723; view source (HathiTrust) (description).
To John McCullough, n.d. [c. 26 Apr. 1881]. Walsh claims that Wilde wrote to McCullough after seeing the American actor’s London debut as Virginius on 25 April 1881. The letter, if it ever existed, has not survived.
• Walsh, W. S. (1882) Pen Pictures of Modern Authors, p. 212; view source (quotation).
To [Andrew] Chatto, n.d. [c. May 1881].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May 2023). Asking him to publish a volume of poems. Dated according to the address (Keats House) and the fact that Wilde also wrote to the eventual publisher of his Poems, David Bogue, in May 1881 (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 110).
• Courville, E. H. (ed.), Autograph Prices Current, Vol. 1, 1914-1916; p. 177; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (description).
To Beatrice Faudel-Phillips, n.d. [Aug. 1880-Dec. 1881]. Humorous advice to a child.
• Mason, J. & Haley, M. (2021) Oscar Wilde: A Man for Our Times, p. 20 (quotation; facsimile of first and final pages of ?4).
To Mrs [?Minnie] Simpson, n.d. [c. Aug. 1880-c. Oct. 1881]. Inviting her to dine. Dated according to the address (Keats House). University Archives suggest that the recipient may have been M. C. M. (Mary Charlotte Mair) ‘Minnie’ Simpson, whom Wilde would later invite to write for The Woman’s World (see Holland & Hart-Davis, pp. 302–3).
• Christie’s; Printed Books; sale 6673; 18 Nov. 1994; lot 56; view source | WBM (transcript).
• University Archives; Outstanding Selection of Autographed Documents, Manuscripts, Photos, Books & Relics; 27 Mar. 2019; lot 260; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To Mrs Selwyn, n.d. [c. late Aug. 1880]. Informing her that he has telegraphed to Amboise about her letter, which he did not receive while there.
• Wright, T. (2016) Essay on an unpublished Wilde letter (containing a portrait of Mrs. A.S.), The Wildean, 49, 75-92; view source (subscription required) (transcript; facsimile).
To [Eleanor] Sickert, n.d. [late 1880-early 1881]. Accepting an invitation.
• Bonhams; sale 20137; 12 Jun. 2012; lot 160; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
To Dr Regensburger, 5 Apr. 1881. Requesting information about a prescription that he had found beneficial.
• Heritage Auctions; sale 6111; 8 Oct. 2014; lot 49217; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
To Christine Nilsson, n.d. [Jul. 1881].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 31 Oct. 2023). Tipped into a presentation copy of Poems, which bears an inscription to Nilsson dated July 1881.
• Holliday, S. E. (2022) Oscar and the opera singer, Books & People, 29(2), pp. 1–3; WBM (transcript).
To the Prince of Wales, n.d. [Aug. 1881]. Tipped into a presentation copy of Poems, which bears an inscription to the prince dated August 1881. Wilde begs the prince to accept the copy and draws his attention to poems he might find interesting.
• Royal Collection Trust, RCIN 1084257; view source (quotation; facsimile).
• Maier-Sigrist, W. & Marland, R. (2024) Oscar Wilde and the Prince of Wales: a most prestigious presentation copy, The Wildean, 65, 66–95 (transcript; facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent [a representative of Richard D’Oyly Carte], [30 Sep.-1 Oct.] 1881. Regarding an invitation to lecture in America.
• The Works of Oscar Wilde, ‘American Lectures’ by W. F. Morse, Vol. 15, p. 75; view source (transcript).
To Colonel W. F. Morse, n.d. [1882-1884].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 May 2023). Suggesting that a title for a lecture might be improved by adding ‘and in morals’, though acknowledging that this might offend people.
• Merwin-Clayton Sales Company; Catalogue of Elegant and Rare books from the Library of Mr. John Kendrick Bangs; 8-10 Feb. 1905; p. 147; item 1082; view source (partial transcript).
To J. Grant Wilson, n.d. [?1882–1883].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 14 Mar. 2024). A letter card, referring to an invitation. The only reason to date this letter to 1882–1883 is that Wilson resided in New York, and Wilde was in New York at various points during his North American lecture tour of 1882 and in August–September 1883.
• The Anderson Galleries; 25 Nov. 1907; sale 598; lot 292; view source (description).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [?c. 1882]. The only reason to date this fragment to c. 1882 is that it survives pasted to a cartoon of the aesthetic movement, but it could have been written at any time.
• The Morgan Library; MA 4500; view source (transcript).
To Mrs Sherwood, n.d. [1882].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Informing the recipient that Mrs O’Donnell lives on Madison Avenue.
• The Anderson Galleries; Rare Books ... collected by Lewis Buddy 3d of New York; sale 779; 9 Nov. 1909; p. 75, lot 650; view source (HathiTrust) (transcript, possibly partial).
To Helen Lenoir, n.d. [1882].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 May 2023). Regarding his arrangements with D’Oyly Carte and the meaning of the phrase ‘personal expenses’.
• Merwin-Clayton Sales Company; Catalogue of Elegant and Rare books from the Library of Mr. John Kendrick Bangs; 8-10 Feb. 1905; p. 147; item 1084; view source (quotation).
To Stephen Fiske, [Jan. 1882]. Wilde apparently wrote a letter to Fiske, the editor of the New York Star, enclosing an introductory letter. Fiske printed the letter in his paper. I have not been able to inspect copies of the Star to verify this story, which originates from ‘Wilde’s Experience’, The Topeka Daily Capital (Topeka, KS), 23 Jan. 1882, 3.
To Mrs [Emily] Hayes, n.d. [?11 Jan. 1882]. Inviting her and her husband (Augustus Allen Hayes Jr.) to the theatre to see Clara Morris the following afternoon. Wilde is known to have seen Clara Morris on the afternoon of 12 Jan. 1882.
• Christie’s; sale 8401; 28 May 1999; lot 26; view source | WBM (transcript).
• Marland, R. (2022) Oscar Wilde: The Complete Interviews, p. 67 (transcript).
To Mrs Florence Duncan, n.d. [16–18 Jan. 1882].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 27 Mar. 2024). Fragment. Apparently accepting her invitation to visit her before he leaves Philadelphia. Wilde arrived in the city on 16 January and departed on 19 January. Duncan was the editor of the Philadelphia magazine Quiz, which published an interview with Wilde on 25 January.
• J. A. Stargardt; catalogue 712; 9 Apr. 2024; p. 114, lot 189; view source (Issu) (complete transcript of surviving fragment). Also see the lot on Invaluable: view source | WBM (facsimile).
To Richard D’Oyly Carte, n.d. [20-24 Jan. 1882]. Complaining about being left without a manager. Dated according to the address (Arlington Hotel, Washington). A longer letter on the same topic is on pp. 130-1 of Holland & Hart-Davis.
• Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin; MSS_WildeO_2_4_018; view source (facsimile).
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, pp. 33-4 (transcript).
To the editor of The Sun, 23 Jan. 1882. Complaining about his treatment by the press.
• The Sun, (Baltimore, MD), 23 Jan. 1882; view source (transcript).
• Marland, R. (2020) A letter to the editors, Marland on Wilde; view source (transcript).
• Marland, R. (2022) Oscar Wilde: The Complete Interviews, p. 102 (transcript).
To an unknown correspondent, [c. 28] Jan. 18[8]2.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 Jan. 2024). A card from the St Botolph club for ‘a little girl who is going to play the violin’. The Dulau catalogue gives the date as 1892, but this must be incorrect; Wilde visited Boston’s St Botolph Club on 28 January 1882.
• Dulau & Company; cat. 246; p. 86; lot 1047; view source (Hathitrust) | Archive (possibly partial transcript).
To Colonel W. F. Morse, n.d. [c. Feb.-Mar. 1882].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the letter to Morse (personal communication, 8 May 2023). Requesting that a £30 cheque be sent to Lady Wilde and expressing his hope that a tour of California can be arranged. Wilde also expressed hope about the California tour in a letter from Bloomington, Illinois (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 147), where he lectured on 10 March. The tour was announced in the San Francisco press on 17 March. In a letter dated 10 February Lady Wilde mentioned a cheque that she had presumably received from her son; on 25 February she acknowledged receipt of another cheque to the value of £15 (Tipper, K. S. A. (2011) Lady Jane Wilde’s Letters to Oscar Wilde, 1875-1895: A Critical Edition, pp. 66, 70).
• Merwin-Clayton Sales Company; Catalogue of Elegant and Rare books from the Library of Mr. John Kendrick Bangs; 8-10 Feb. 1905; p. 147; item 1085; view source (partial transcript).
To John Donoghue, [11 Feb. 1882]. Thanking the Chicago-based sculptor for his gift of a bas-relief plaque illustrating Wilde’s poem Requiescat and setting a time for a visit to Donoghue’s atelier.
• ‘Art in Chicago’, The Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago, IL), 19 Feb. 1882, 16; view source (transcript).
• Marland, R. (2024) John Donoghue’s ‘Requiescat’ plaque, The Wildean, 64, 6 (transcript from the Tribune).
To the editor of the Denver Times, [c. 11 Apr. 1882]. Regarding his imminent arrival in Denver. The phrasing of this letter is somewhat suspicious, and it may not be genuine.
• Denver Times (Denver, CO), 12 Apr. 1882, 4 (transcript).
• Hofer, M., & Scharnhorst, G. (2010) Oscar Wilde in America: The Interviews, p. 181; view source (transcript from the Times).
To George W. Warder, [17 Apr. 1882]. Thanking Warder for his poem, and inviting him to visit Wilde’s hotel after that evening’s lecture. Dated according to the address (Coates House, Kansas City).
• The Sedalia Weekly Bazoo (Sedalia, IL), 5 Sep. 1882, 2 (transcript).
• Murphy, J. D. (2013) Review: ‘Declaring His Genius: Oscar Wilde in North America’ by Roy Morris, Jr., The Wildean, 43, 130-3; view source (subscription required) (transcript from the Bazoo).
• Sturgis, M. (2020) Wildeana, p. 90 (transcript from the Bazoo).
To Thomas Brower Peacock, 20 Apr. 1882. Responding to a request for a poem from a Topeka-based poet, who is the ‘local poet’ Wilde refers to in his letter to Norman Forbes-Robertson of the following day (see Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 165).
• ‘Letter from Oscar Wilde’, The Topeka Sunday Capital (Topeka, KS), 13 May 1883, 3 (transcript).
• Cagle, C. H. (1981) Oscar Wilde in Kansas, Kansas History, 4, 227–45, 245 n. 38; view source (quotation).
• Sotheby’s; sale N07980; 13 Apr. 2004; lot 246; view source | WBM (quotation).
• Collection of Mark Samuels Lasner.
• Quintus, J. A. (2024) Topeka Peacock: Oscar Wilde’s letters from Topeka, Kansas, The Wildean, 65, 52–65 (transcript; facsimile).
To [Anne Lynch] Botta, 11 May 1882. Humorously complaining that his American tour has made him a ‘civilized vagrant’.
• Leland Little; The Winter Auction - Fine & Decorative Arts, Jewelry & Silver; 2 Dec. 2016; lot 463; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• Sturgis, M. (2020) Wildeana, p. 93 (quotation).
• Cooper, J. An impromptu lecture, Oscar Wilde in America, 23 Dec. 2021; view source (transcript; partial facsimile of first page).
To Mrs [Russell] Stephenson, [mid-May 1882].I thank Jeremy Mason for confirming the name of the letter’s recipient (personal communication, 20 Mar. 2023). I also thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Kotte sale (personal communication, 6 Oct. 2023). Asking her to accept a copy of his Poems in memory of an evening at her house. The letter was written at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal. Wilde lectured in the city on 15 and 20 May 1882. A copy of Poems inscribed to Mrs Stephenson and dated to May is in the collection of Jeremy Mason.
• British Library; RP 10007; view source (item listed in catalogue)
• Kotte Autographs; offered for sale c. Apr. 2021; view source (WBM) (facsimile).
To George Washington Cable, 20 Jun. 1882. A telegram sent from Galveston to New Orleans. Wilde informs Cable that Saturday is his only free night and asks if their ‘expedition’ can be arranged for then. The following Saturday was 24 June, on which date Wilde did not lecture. That evening he was interviewed at his hotel in New Orleans (Marland, R. (2022) Oscar Wilde: The Complete Interviews, 431–3). The interviewer records that ‘The poet had an engagement to go out for the evening, and he shortly took his departure with a party of gentlemen, as it was reported, to witness some mysterious and curious ceremonies of the devotees of voudou, which were to inaugurate the recurrence of St. John’s night, June 24’. This must be the expedition referred to in the letter. A week earlier, before embarking on his Texan tour, Wilde had told another interviewer in New Orleans that ‘Among the things he most desired to see here was a voudou dance. He had read of them in Mr. Cable’s novel, and wished he could be present at one.’ (Marland, 425.) Cable’s 1880 novel The Grandissimes, 246ff, features the description Wilde refers to (view source).
• Tulane University Special Collections; George Washington Cable papers (LaRC-2); Box 7; Folder 30; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Mary Ashley Townsend, n.d. [?26 Jun. 1882]. Wilde accepts Townsend’s invitation to drive down to ‘the Fort’ and suggests a time of six o’clock. He requests confirmation by messenger. On stationery of the St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans. The proposed drive was presumably on 26 June, when Wilde lectured in the evening at Spanish Fort Casino Pavilion. Wilde had visited Townsend’s home on 17 June (Marland, R. (2022) Oscar Wilde: The Complete Interviews, 426).
• Tulane University Special Collections; Townsend and Stanton families papers (LaRC-19); Box 1; Folder 10; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Major [James Burton] Pond, n.d. [?Jul., Sep. 1882]. Arranging a meeting with Pond, a lecture manager. Addressed from the Park Avenue Hotel [New York], where Wilde stayed in July and September 1882. With an unfranked envelope addressed in Wilde’s hand to Pond at the Everett House, another New York hotel.
• British Library; RP 4327; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To [?Mr] McSmith, n.d. [late Jul. 1882]. Accepting an invitation to lecture at the Charlotte Opera House, and stating that he would visit the city about 20 October. Wilde did not visit Charlotte and ended the last leg of his North American lecture tour in Canada in mid-October (though he would eventually give two more lectures before leaving the US). Wilde may have expressed an interest in lecturing in Charlotte, but this description of a letter should be treated with caution unless it can be corroborated by further evidence.
• ‘Spirits Turpentine’, The Morning Star (Wilmington, NC), 29 Jul. 1882, 1; view source (description).
To Francis Augustus MacNutt, n.d. [mid to late 1882]. A note accompanying a packet of letters of introduction.
• MacNutt, F. A. (1936) A Papal Chamberlain: The Personal Chronicle of Francis Augustus MacNutt, p. 59; WBM (quotation).
• Marland, R. (2024) John Donoghue’s ‘Requiescat’ plaque, The Wildean, 64, 55, n. 75 (quotation from MacNutt).
To an unidentified correspondent [‘A Gentleman in Chicago’], 17 Sep. 1882. Explaining his philosophy on ‘[m]an’s first duty’. This letter is quite obviously fabricated. It is written in the rarefied and impenetrable style that was, at this time, assumed to be used by aesthetes. The letter is in no way similar to any other Wilde letter.
• ‘Man’s First Duty’, Wheeling Register (Wheeling, WV), 3 Oct. 1882, 3 (transcript).
• Formisano, P., & Scharnhorst, G. (2008) A rediscovered Oscar Wilde letter, The Wildean, 32, 6-7; view source (subscription required) (transcript and facsimile of Register article).
To James Owen O’Conor, 22 Sep. 1882. Thanking him for his poem.
• The Lancaster Daily Intelligencer (Lancaster, PA), 28 Sep. 1882, 3; view source (transcript).
• Murphy, J. D. (2013) Review: ‘Declaring His Genius: Oscar Wilde in North America’ by Roy Morris, Jr., The Wildean, 43, 130-3; view source (subscription required) (transcript).
To Steele MacKaye, [c. 26 Sep. 1882]. Regarding the staging of The Duchess of Padua. Dated based on other known letters on the same topic.
• MacKaye, P. (1927) Epoch: The Life of Steele MacKaye, Vol. 1, p. 446; view source (transcript).
• Schroeder, H. (2002) Additions and Corrections to Richard Ellmann’s Oscar Wilde, 2nd ed., p. 70 (cited).
• Sturgis, M. (2020) Wildeana, pp. 101-2 (transcript).
To John Boyle O’Reilly, [?c. 26 Sep.-2 Oct. 1882]. Informing Boyle that he will probably remain in Boston that night, and so is free to meet. Wilde was also in Boston in late January and early June, but this letter is dated to September/October because there are other surviving letters from this time in which Wilde attempts to fix a meeting with Boyle.
• Wilde, O. (1907) The Writings of Oscar Wilde: Epigrams, p. 214; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (facsimile).
To Mrs [J. F.] Kenny, n.d. [9-10 Oct. 1882]. Accepting the invitation of a young socialite of Halifax, Novia Scotia, to dine with her and her husband after his [Wilde’s] lecture that evening.
• O’Brien, K. (1982) Oscar Wilde in Canada, p. 190 (transcript).
To Steele MacKaye, [c. 15 Oct. 1882]. Inviting him to dine and see The Rivals starring Joseph Jefferson, which was staged at the Union Square Theatre between 18 September and 28 October. Wilde was touring New England in late September.
• MacKaye, P. (1927) Epoch: The Life of Steele MacKaye, Vol. 1, p. 447; view source (transcript).
• Marland, R. (2022) The Complete Interviews, p. 490, n. 2 (description).
To Steven Massett, n.d. [?26 Oct. 1882].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May 2023). Stating that a pressing engagement will prevent a meeting ‘tomorrow morning’, but expressing a hope that the pair can meet upon Wilde’s return to New York. The letter is dated ‘Thursday’ in Wilde’s hand. There is a possibility that Wilde was referring to his engagement to lecture in Bridgeton, New Jersey, on Thursday 26 October. Wilde is known to have stayed overnight in Bridgeton, because he was interviewed on the train back to New York the following morning (Marland, R. (2022) The Complete Interviews, p. 488).
• The Anderson Galleries; The Collection of the Late George P. Elder; sale 1098; 15 Oct. 1914; p. 67; lot 573; view source (partial transcript).
• Millea Bros; ABC: 3 Day Online-Only Auction: Day 3, Ephemera & Autographs; 15–17 Oct. 2024; lot 3321; view source | WBM (partial transcript; facsimile).
To Joseph Jefferson, n.d. [c. Nov.-Dec. 1882].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 18 Aug. 2023). Asking for a box on Friday night, as he would like to see Jefferson in Rip Van Winkle again. Dated according to the address (48 West 11th Street, [New York]). Jefferson does not appear to have played the role for which he was most famous in New York in late 1882; Wilde may have been confused by advertisements for a new version of Rip Van Winkle that opened at the Standard Theatre on 1 November and in which the eponymous character was not played by Jefferson. Wilde had previously seen Jefferson in the role in London (Marland, R. (2022) The Complete Interviews, pp. 235, 239).
• American Art Association; Library Sets of Esteemed Authors, Sumptuously Bound; 24-25 Feb. 1925; lot 670; view source (quotation).
To Steele MacKaye, n.d. [Nov. 1882]. Inviting him to see Mrs. Langtry, presumably at the theatre. Langtry made her American stage debut in New York on 6 Nov. 1882 and was in Boston by early December.
• MacKaye, P. (1927) Epoch: The Life of Steele MacKaye, Vol. 1, p. 448; view source: transcript; facsimile (card on bottom left).
To Steele MacKaye, [?Nov. 1882]. Inviting him to dine.
• MacKaye, P. (1927) Epoch: The Life of Steele MacKaye, Vol. 1, p. 445, letter 2; view source: transcript; facsimile (letter on right).
To Harry Edwards, n.d. [?Nov. 1882].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter and for identifying the possible link to Henry Edwards (personal communication, 8 May 2023). So dated because the recipient may be the Henry Edwards to whom Wilde wrote in about November 1882 (see Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 189).
• C. F. Libbie & Co; Autograph collection of Frederick W. French; 2-3 May 1901; p. 149; lot 1374; view source (existence).
To A. M. Palmer, n.d. [c. Nov. 1882].Identified by Mary Chitty in the Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library. Thanks also to Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the 1906 sale of the letter (personal communication, 1 Apr. 2023). Suggesting that Palmer produce Wilde’s play [Vera]. Dated according to the address (West 11th Street, [New York]).
• The Merwin–Clayton Sales Company; Catalogue of the library of the late Albert M. Palmer, pt. 1; 30-31 Jan. 1906; p. 48, lot 604; view source (quotation).
• Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library
To ‘Tal’ (?George F. Talman), n.d. [c. Nov. 1882].I thank John Cooper for informing me of George F. Talman (personal commumication, 21 Aug. 2023) and Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Aspire sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). Inviting the recipient to dine with him. Dated according to the address (48 West 11th [Street, New York]). Swann Galleries give the recipient’s name as ‘Ted’ and speculate that this is Theodore Tilton. However, Wilde’s handwriting is legible as ‘Tal’, and another letter dating to November 1882 is addressed to ‘Dear Mr Tilton’ (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 189). Note also that a letter to Wilde from his friend Edgar Fawcett dated 10 November refers to a dinner at New York’s Union Club that is to be attended by Wilde and ‘Tal’ (Sturgis, Oscar: A Life, p. 789, n. 24). George F. Talman was a treasurer at the Union Club at this time.
• Aspire Auctions Fine Art & Antiques; 9 Feb. 2012; lot 301; view source | Archive (transcript; facsimile).
• Swann Galleries; LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History; sale 2544; 13 Aug. 2020; lot 2544; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To Stephen Massett, n.d. [7 Dec. 1882]. Informing him that Mrs. Langtry was pleased with his (Massett’s) songs. Langtry made her American stage debut in New York on 6 Nov. 1882 and departed for Boston on 3 December. The letter is dated on the verso, presumably not in Wilde’s hand.
• Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books; catalogue 24 (2010); lot 250; p. 73; view source | WBM (quotation).
To Mrs Herrod, n.d. [?1883-1900].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 26 Mar. 2023). Sent from Paris. The letter could have been sent during one of Wilde’s several long stays in Paris, or on another occasion when he passed through the city.
• Colgate University literary letters collection; M3001; box 1; folder 33; view source (existence).
To an unidentified correspondent, [?1883-1885]. A note about a cheque. So dated based on Wilde requesting ‘the two Scotch dates as I have many engagements in Feby [sic]’, which may refer to possible lecture dates.
• Skinner; Books & Manuscripts, sale 2167, 26 Oct. 2002; lot 229; view source | WBM (transcript, possibly partial).
To an unknown correspondent, 1883.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Referring to his mother and her literary work. Wilde wrote of the same subject in known letters, but if the date of 1883 is correct then this letter must be undocumented.
• The Anderson Galleries; Fine Books and Important Autographs from the Library of the Late Bishop W. C. Doane; sale 1027; 28-29 Apr. 1914; p. 98, lot 775; view source (HathiTrust) (description).
To [Wilson] Barrett, n.d. [?Jan. 1883].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 27 Mar. 2024). Asking for a box at that night’s production of Barrett’s ‘latest triumph’, The Silver King. The play opened at the Princess’s Theatre in London on 16 Nov. 1882. Wilde was then in New York; he was back in the UK by 6 Jan. 1883. He could have seen the play before he departed for Paris at the end of January or, as it had a long run, after he had returned to London in May. But he is likely to have wanted to see it as soon as possible.
• Swann Galleries; Autographs, sale 2446, 4 May 2017; lot 426; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To Dorothy Tennant, n.d. [?Mar.-Apr. 1883]. Complimenting her on her illustrations for faery stories. Waller notes that Tennant had illustrated Mrs W. K. Clifford’s Anyhow Stories, Moral and Otherwise, which was published at Christmas 1882, thereby implying that Wilde was complimenting Tennant’s work for this book. Sturgis dates Wilde’s letter to April 1883, presumably on the basis that Tennant wrote to Wilde on ‘9th April’ to thank him for sending a ‘charming, real child’s story’ he had written and a copy of Rennell Rodd’s poems. As far as I am aware, there is no other evidence that Wilde wrote a child’s story in 1883, but this is the only year during which he would have sent Tennant a copy of Rodd’s poems. Then again, there is no clear indication that Tennant’s letter was sent in response to the letter from Wilde quoted by Waller: Wilde may have sent it later in the decade. As Waller does not give his source, I have been unable to inspect the original letter.
• Waller, D. (2009) The Magnificent Mrs Tennant, p. 217, view source (quoted).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 274 (quoted from Waller).
To Marie Prescott, 6 May 1883. An incomplete draft of a letter, written in Paris, about the faulty clauses in their agreement to produce Vera.
Tipped into the scrapbook of Vera materials at the Berg Collection, New York Public Library, New York, NY.
To ‘Nellie’ [Ellen Terry], n.d. [?May-Jul. 1883]. Offering ‘a small tribute of flowers—in all friendship and affection from your loyal admirer.’ Although Wilde also addressed his friend Helena Sickert as Nellie, this letter is certainly to Ellen Terry. Wilde sent Terry a poem as proof of his ‘loyal admiration’ in early July 1879 (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 81). His earliest surviving letter in which he addressed Terry as ‘Dear Nellie’ is dated 3 Jan. 1881 (p. 107), and also accompanied flowers. The present letter is dated according to Wilde’s address in Grosvenor Square. Although Wilde also resided in Grosvenor Square in November and December 1881, Terry was then touring with the Lyceum company in the UK provinces and Wilde is unlikely to have sent her flowers. Between May 1883 when Wilde returned to London from Paris and late July when he undertook a brief lecture tour prior to sailing to New York, Terry appeared in a number of plays at the Lyceum. Wilde could have presented the flowers at any time during these months, but the tribute most likely coincided with Terry’s annual benefit on 31 May or the opening on 2 June of The Lyons Mail.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 343; spring 1916; p. 140; item 583; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (possibly complete transcript).
To Mr Young, [?May-Jul. 1883]. Inviting him to visit. So dated because of the possibility that this is the same Mr. Young to whom Wilde wrote after returning from France in 1883.
• The Anderson Galleries; Association Books from the Library of John Greenleaf Whittier; sale 1470; 24-25 Feb. 1920; p. 49; lot 423; view source (quotation).
To Henry Irving, n.d. [?May 1883]. Requesting to meet Irving for ten minutes on an important matter. Dated according to Wilde’s address at 8 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square.
• Henry Irving Correspondence; ref. no. 4453; view source | WBM (description of original at the Victoria & Albert Theatre Collections, THM/37/1/24).
To Mr Young, Thursday [?17 May 1883].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the 2011 RR Auction sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). An invitation to breakfast. The date is based on the address (8 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square), on Wilde mentioning that he has just returned from France, and on the invitation being for ‘tomorrow (Friday)’ (17 May was a Thursday). Wilde wrote a letter to Robert Sherard upon returning from France that Holland & Hart-Davis date to 17 May 1883 (pp. 209-10).
• RR Auction; 9 Mar. 2011; lot 649; view source | Archive (transcript; facsimile).
• RR Auction; sale 602; 10 Feb. 2021; lot 251; view source (WBM) (transcript; facsimile).
To Miss Brownrigg, n.d. [?early summer 1883–Nov. 1884].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Sotheby’s sale (personal communication, 23 Aug. 2023) and the Aguttes sale, as well as providing information about Annie Brownrigg (personal communication, 10 Oct. 2024). The address is given as 9 Charles Street [London], where Wilde lived for the last two months of 1881, briefly upon his return from America in January 1883, and from early summer 1883 until about December 1884. The letter refers to lecture tickets and so was probably sent during the latter period, when Wilde was lecturing in the UK. Bonhams gives the recipient’s name as ‘Browning’ but Wilde does appear to have written ‘Brownrigg’. Aguttes identifies the recipient as Annie Brownrigg, an Irish poet and translator of German literature.
• Sotheby’s; Catalogue of modern first editions, 11-12 Mar. 1968; p. 154; lot 813; view source (quotation).
• Bonhams; Manuscripts from the Estate of Charles Williamson & Tucker Fleming; sale 19377; 20 Apr. 2011; lot 154; view source | WBM (partial transcript; facsimile).
• Aguttes; Livres & Manuscrits; 2 Oct. 2019; p. 129; lot 280; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent (‘My dear Doctor’). [?early summer 1883-Nov. 1884). Dated according to the address (9 Charles Street [London]) and the fact that Wilde refers to an upcoming lecture. Responding to an invitation.
• Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin; MSS_WildeO_2_4_016; view source (facsimile).
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 56 (transcript).
To Marie Prescott, [c. Jul. 1883]. Regarding the relative risks undertaken by Wilde and Prescott in the production of Vera.
• The Daily Graphic (New York, NY), 11 Aug. 1883, 277; view source (transcript, presumably partial).
• Dearinger, K. L. (2009) Marie Prescott: A Star of Some Brilliancy, p. 131-2 (transcript, presumably partial).
To [Julia Ward] Howe, n.d. [11–20 Aug. 1883].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the 1917 sale (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Inviting Mrs Howe to see his play [Vera] if she happened to visit New York that autumn. Sent from the Brunswick Hotel, New York, where Wilde stayed during the rehearsals and production of the play. The letter was presumably sent before the premiere: the play was savaged and it was immediately clear that a long run was unlikely. In 1933 the letter was sold laid into a copy of Vera, but the copy probably did not belong to Howe as the letter was sold without the copy in 1917.
• Anderson Galleries; Rare Autographs from the Correspondence of Julia Ward Howe; sale 1319; 20-21 Dec. 1917; p. 17; lot 121; view source (transcript, presumably partial)
• Maier-Sigrist, W. (2022) Annotated Bibliography of Wilde Manuscripts; view source (quotation from Anderson Galleries; 2-3 Nov. 1933).
To John J. Mack, postmarked 16 Aug. 1883. Thanking ‘my dear Joe’ for his letter, and agreeing to see him next week. Promising to send the recipient a box for Vera when he returns to New York. Joe was the eleven-year-old son of John and Rhoda Mack, who had hosted a reception for Wilde after his first American lecture on 9 Jan. 1882. Wilde hopes that Joe will recover from what appears to be an illness. Joe must have recovered, as he would attend his younger brother’s wedding in May 1895. The letter is on the stationery of the Union Club, but addressed in Wilde’s hand from the Brunswick Hotel.
• Second Story Books; offered for sale December 2023; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, pp. 1 & 2 of 4 and envelope)
To Edgar Fawcett, 20 Aug. [1883].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 29 Jul. 2023). Inviting the poet to join him in his box that night. Fawcett is known to have sat in Wilde’s box at the Union Square Theatre for the premiere of Vera.
• RR Auction; Fine Autographs and Artifacts; 12 Oct. 2016; lot 559; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To Marie Saker, n.d. [Oct. 1883–1885]. A fragment of a letter in which Wilde appears to express a willingness to return to lecture in Liverpool as all of his previous lectures there had been on America. Wilde gave Personal Impressions of America in Southport (near Liverpool) on 1 Aug. 1883, in Liverpool on 6 Oct. 1883 (afternoon and evening), and in Birkenhead (across the River Mersey from Liverpool) on 10 Dec. 1883. He returned to Southport with House Beautiful on 11 Dec. 1883, and possibly on 24 Sep. 1884 with Dress (Dibb, G. (2013) Oscar Wilde: A Vagabond with a Mission). The terminus ante quem for the letter is presumably the end of 1885, when Wilde gave his final lectures. Other items on surrounding pages of Saker’s album are from the mid to late 1870s, but the album is not in date order and the cutting from Wilde’s letter may have been pasted here because it fit beside another letter. Because most other letters in the album are complete, one must assume that the remainder of Wilde’s letter was not of a nature that Saker was willing to share with those who might peruse her album. The album passed into the hands of another owner in February 1895, so Saker cannot have discarded part of the letter due to Wilde’s arrest and conviction.
• Liverpool Record Office; Album of Marie Saker; 920 MD 411; f46; view source (existence).
To an unidentified correspondent, [?1884-1887]. Proposing the plot of a story about a carpenter who falls in love with a duke’s daughter. The date is arbitrary. There is no salutation, implying that the surviving sheet is a fragment.
• Sworders; Fine Interiors (including Books); 12 Mar. 2019; lot 479; view source | WBM (transcript, final two pages; facsimile, penultimate page).
To an unidentified correspondent [the editor of a periodical], n.d. [?Jan. 1884]. Responding to a request for a photograph.
• Siegel, S. F. (2000) Wilde on photographs: four unpublished letters, The Wildean, 17, 12-47; view source (subscription required) (transcript; facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent [the editor of a periodical], n.d. [?Jan. 1884]. Suggesting that [R. G. Harper] Pennington provide a likeness of Wilde for publication.
• Siegel, S. F. (2000) Wilde on photographs: four unpublished letters, The Wildean, 17, 12-47; view source (subscription required) (transcript; facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent [the editor of a periodical], n.d. [?Jan. 1884]. Confirming that the editor is free to publish any portrait of Wilde by Pennington.
• Siegel, S. F. (2000) Wilde on photographs: four unpublished letters, The Wildean, 17, 12-47; view source (subscription required) (transcript; facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent [the editor of a periodical], n.d. [?Jan. 1884]. Providing Pennington’s address.
• Siegel, S. F. (2000) Wilde on photographs: four unpublished letters, The Wildean, 17, 12-47; view source (subscription required) (transcript; facsimile).
To Bram Stoker, n.d. [?Mar.-Jul. 1884]. Asking for the address of Lawrence Barrett, ‘an old friend of mine.’ Dated according to the address (9 Charles Street [London]) and the fact that Lawrence Barrett, the American actor, began his season at the Lyceum on 12 April, closed on 30 May, and departed for America on 5 July. Wilde attended a banquet given in Barrett’s honour at London’s Langham Hotel on 2 April, so it seems likely that he would have requested Barrett’s address before this date.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 441; autumn 1923; p. 257; lot 2167; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Henry Wellcome, [15 Apr. 1884]. Declining an invitation to a reception for Frank Lincoln. A reception was given by Wellcome at Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly, on 14 May 1884 for William Winch, after Frank Lincoln cancelled at the last minute. The letter appears to have been written on a single sheet of paper folded in four. Scans of pages 2-4 are available on Jstor, but page 1 is not.
• Wellcome Collection; view source | WBM (facsimile, pp. 2-3); view source | WBM (facsimile, p. 4).
To an unidentified correspondent, 22 May 1884.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Christie’s sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). The British Library describes this as a letter in which Wilde offers terms for a lecture tour. The letter sold at auction by various houses has the same date and refers to lectures, but Wilde does not offer terms. The British Library letter is likely the same as that sold at auction, but I have not yet been able to verify this by consulting it.
• British Library; RP 9960 view source (description).
• Christie’s; 20 Nov. 1998; lot 1116; view source | Archive (transcript)
• Bonhams; Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs; sale 20137; 12 Jun. 2012; lot 158; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, p. 1 of 2).
• Kotte Autographs; offered for sale c. Aug. 2020; view source (WBM) (transcript; facsimile, p. 1 of 2).
To E. W. Godwin, n.c. [c. Dec. 1884].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 27 Aug. 2024). Asks the architect and designer to come and look at the new work on Tite Street as ‘they’ (the contractors) say it is as Godwin directed. So dated because other letters to Godwin about the renovation of Tite Street are in Holland & Hart-Davis and are dated to about this time. The letter may have been sent a little earlier, but the reference to ‘new’ work suggests December or thereabouts.
• Dominic Winter Auctions; 21 Jun. 2012; lot 373; view source | Archive (transcript; facsimile).
To Constance Wilde, [c. 18 Dec. 1884]. Quoted in a letter from Constance to E. W. Godwin. Wilde hopes his wife has received patterns for curtains from Godwin, and instructs her, if not, to write to Godwin herself.
• British Library; Add MS 81691; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Mrs Dobson, [?1885-1895]. Declining an invitation. The date is speculative, though the letter was probably sent before Wilde’s arrest. There are no letters to a Mrs. Dobson in Holland & Hart-Davis.
• Viney, P. (1996) In the saleroom, The Wildean, 8, 50-1; view source (subscription required) (description).
To Arthur Dacre, n.d. [1885-1895]. Introducing Miss Agnes Cahill. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Bonhams; Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs; sale 20137; 12 Jun. 2012; lot 157; view source | WBM (transcript, possibly partial; facsimile, p. 1 of 4).
• British Library; RP 9914; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To [Charles William or Walter] Dowdeswell, n.d. [1885-1895]. Introducing Mr Worres. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Christie’s; Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana; sale 2227; 4 Dec. 2009; lot 145; view source | WBM (transcript, possibly partial).
To Mrs Humphrey, n.d. [?1885-1895]. Asking her to call in. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Clark Library; W6721L H926.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 36 (transcript).
To Mrs Humphrey, n.d. [?1885-1895]. Asking her to communicate with a Mr Ledger. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 58 (transcript).
To ‘Humphrey’, n.d. [?1885-1895]. Asking recipient to write to Mrs Humphrey. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Clark Library; W6721L U58.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 37 (transcript).
To Philippa Knott, n.d. [1885-1895]. About Wilde’s illness and ‘war with the academy.’ Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Herbert, A. J. (ed.), Autograph Prices Current, Vol. 5, 1919-1921; p. 207 view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (description).
• Christie’s; Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana; sale 2227; 4 Dec. 2009; lot 144; view source | WBM (quotation/transcript).
To Mrs Morgan, n.d. [?1885-1895]. The date is arbitrary.
• British Library; RP 4323; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Mr Mundella, n.d. [1885-1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 May 2023). Asking to meet with the recipient at the House of Commons or at his (the recipient’s) house. Dated according to the address (Chelsea).
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 488; Spring 1927; p. 268; Lot 659; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To [Mr] Murphy, n.d. [1885-1895]. Requesting he return a copy of Emerson’s Essays. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Christie’s; The Halsted B. Vander Poel Collection of English Literature; sale 6973; 3 Mar. 2004; lot 251; view source | WBM (quotation).
• Bonhams; Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs, including the Property of the late Michael Silverman; sale 18992; 22 Nov. 2011; lot 194; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, pp. 2-3 of 3).
• Xiling Yinshe Auction; 2018 Spring Auction – Six Senses of Childhood: Special Sale of Letters and Comics; 7–9 July 2018; lot 3048; view source | WBM (facsimile).
To ‘Violet Fane’ [Lady Mary Montgomerie Singleton], n.d. [1885-1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May and 22 Jun. 2023). Suggesting the plot of a one-act play for her to write.
• Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge; Catalogue of Valuable Autograph Letters and Historical Documents; 10-12 Mar. 1920; p. 58; lot 452; view source (partial transcript).
To Mr Stockton, n.d. [1885-1895]. Inviting him and his wife to tea. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Wilde, O. (1907) The Writings of Oscar Wilde: Epigrams, pp. 228-30; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (facsimile).
To ‘Arthur’, n.d. [1885-1895]. Wishing him a Happy New Year. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Christie’s; Printed Books, Including Autographed Letters; sale 6307; 19 Nov. 1993; lot 311; view source | WBM (description).
To ‘Fred’, 2 Apr. [1885-1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the 2011 Bonhams sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). Inviting him to dine. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Bonhams; Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs; sale 17860; 23 Nov. 2010; lot 36; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
• Bonhams; Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs, including the Property of the late Michael Silverman; 22 Nov. 2011, lot 193; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
To ‘Tristram’, n.d. [1885-1895]. Inviting him to ‘[c]ome in at tea-time tomorrow’. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Wilde, O. (1907) The Writings of Oscar Wilde: Epigrams, p. 215; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (facsimile).
To ‘Viking’, n.d. [1885-1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the International Auctions sale (personal communication, 27 Aug. 2024). Inviting him/her to lunch. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street), though Donald Mead dates it more precisely to 1889-1893. He also suggests that the recipient may be the actress Elizabeth Robins, who appeared in Hedda Gabler from 24 Apr. 1891.
• Swann Galleries; Autographs; sale 2095; 30 Nov. 2006; lot 293; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• John Wilson; n.d. [sold after 5 Oct. 2007]; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
• International Auctions; 16 Aug. 2017; lot 262; view source (free account necessary) | Archive (transcript; facsimile).
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79-104 (transcript; facsimile).
To Countess [?], [1885-1895]. He cannot call on the unnamed Countess because his mother is ill with influenza. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• National Library of Ireland; MS 50,247; view source | WBM (quotation).
To an unidentified correspondent (‘Cher Monsieur’), n.d. [1885-1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 27 Mar. 2024). In French. Postponing dinner with his correspondent, a ‘witty Frenchman’, at Tite Street that evening as Constance has been called away to the country. Dated according to the address (16 Tite Street).
• Alexander Historical Auctions; Winter Historical Auction; 16 December 2010; lot 570; view source | WBM (translated partial transcript; facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [?1885-1895]. A short note on 16 Tite Street stationery requesting the recipient to come ‘Tomorrow. 7.45. here. no dress.’ On Antiques Roadshow in 2024 Matthew Haley valued the note at £2,000–4,000.
• Viney, P. (1996) In the saleroom, The Wildean, 8, 50-1; view source (subscription required) (transcript).
• Antiques Roadshow, BBC One, 15 Sep. 2024; view source (video showing letter).
To an unidentified correspondent (‘My dear Pessimist’), n.d. [?1885-1895]. Thanking him for ‘the Bouquet and the Balzac’ and inviting him to breakfast. The letter is on the notepaper of the Albemarle Club; Wilde’s first letter from the club in Holland & Hart-Davis is dated to 1885.
• Sotheby’s; The James S. Copley Library: Arts & Sciences, Including the Mark Twain Collection; sale N08698; 17 Jun. 2010; lot 447; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, pp. 1 & 4).
To George Haité, n.d. [1885–1889].I thank Simon Casimir Wilson for sharing the full content of the letter and for informing me of Ricketts’s change in address (personal communication, 24 May 2024). Thanks also to Robert Whelan and Eleanor Fitzsimons. Recommending artists Arthur Danpier May and C. S. Ricketts, and apparently declining to join the Sette of Odd Volumes, a dining club. On Tite Street stationery. Wilde gives Ricketts’s address as ‘The Studio, Edith Terrace, Edith Grove, Brompton’. Ricketts left this address for the Vale, Chelsea, in late 1889.
• Swann Galleries; Autographs; sale 2192; 29 Oct. 2009; lot 277; view source | Archive (quotation; facsimile, p. 1 of 4).
To Alfred Milner, n.d. [1885]. Requesting to review Comyns Carr’s Essays on Art. Bloomsbury date the letter to 1882, but Matthew Sturgis (Oscar: A Life, p. 796) points out that this is an ‘obvious impossibility’ as the letter is addressed from Tite Street.
• Bloomsbury Auctions; Important Books, Manuscripts & Works on Paper; 19 May 2014; lot 49; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, p. 2 of 2). By flipping the facsimile of p. 2 and increasing the contrast it is possible to see a partial facsimile of p. 1 (view image).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 797-8, n. 9 (transcript).
To Mrs [?Georgina] De La Rue, n.d. [?Jun.-Jul. 1885. ?Nov.-Dec. 1886]. On 16 Tite Street stationery. Responding to an invitation to dine. Regrets that his wife’s doctor will not allow her to dine out. This suggests that the letter dates to the months after the birth of one of the Wildes’ two sons. The recipient may be Georgina Todd De La Rue née Dickinson, formerly Hawthorn (1855–1924), the daughter of a Durham colliery owner, who married Herbert De La Rue (1855–1930) in London on 14 February 1885 (on which date, Dibb, A Vagabond with a Mission, p. 190–1, conjectures that Wilde was lecturing in Scotland). In 1881 Herbert, an underwriter at Lloyd’s, was living with his parents at 73 Portland Place; ten years later he was living on ‘private means’ at the same address with his mother, his wife, and their young son. The likelihood, then, is that the Wildes were invited to Portland Place. There is no other evidence, of which I am aware, connecting the Wildes and the De La Rues. In Small’s transcript, for ‘Sincerely’ read ‘Truly’.
• Clark Library; W6721L D3392 (facsimile available at Gale Primary Sources: British Literary Manuscripts Online)
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, pp. 38-9 (transcript)
To E. W. Godwin, postmark 22 Jun. 1885. Postcard. Says he will call in at the club tomorrow and hopes to talk about Green (the contractor with whom Wilde was having legal trouble).
• British Library; Add MS 81690; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Lady Ardilaun, n.d. [c. 20 Jul. 1885]. Requesting the support of Lady Ardilaun and her husband in his desire to be appointed a school inspector. So dated because the letter is similar to one addressed to George Curzon on that date (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 264).
• Whyte’s; Irish History & Literature; 5 Apr. 2008; lot 100; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
To the Rt Hon. Edward Stanhope, n.d. [c. Jul.-Aug. 1885]. Applying for the position of school inspector. So dated because the letter was presumably sent soon after one addressed to George Curzon in which Wilde seeks support for his application (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 264).
• Kent Archives; U1590/O330; view source | WBM (description).
• @kent_archives; view source on Twitter | WBM (facsimile, final page).
To Pierre Louÿs, 1 Apr. 1886. Musing on the state of poetry in the modern world.
• Bonhams; Fine Books and Manuscripts; sale 14787; 18 Feb 2007; lot 253; view source | WBM (partial transcript).
To Edward Heron-Allen, 9 Jun. 1886. Asking if he is a member of the Lyric [Club] and for a meeting there on the following day.
• British Library; Add MS 81726; view source (item listed in catalogue)
• McCann, T. J. (2021) Oscar Wilde’s letters to Edward Heron-Allen, The Heron-Allen Society Newsletter, 38, 3-8, 6 (transcript).
To G. W. Appleton, n.d. [?Oct. 1886]. Inviting him to visit and informing him that Wilde planned to lecture at Birkbeck on 4 November. So dated because Wilde is known to have lectured on Chatterton at Birkbeck in November 1886, although the lecture was given not on the 4th but the 24th.
• Birkbeck University; BIRKBECKBCM~11~11~57057~112910 BH0208; view source | WBM (facsimile).
To ‘Robinson’, n.d. [late 1886].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Sotheby’s sale (personal communication, 21 Mar. 2024). Offering ‘my ghost story’. On Court and Society Review stationery. The letter surely refers to Wilde’s story The Canterville Ghost, which was published in the Court and Society Review in February and March 1887, but that magazine was edited by Charles Gray Robertson. Sotheby’s, when offering the letter for sale in 2000, suggested that Wilde addressed it to ‘Mr [Philip] Robinson’, the editor of The Sunday Times, ‘lending him the manuscript of the story for his personal perusal’ before it was published. Sturgis describes the letter as ‘curious’ because ‘it is hard to believe that OW offered the story to The Sunday Times before he had offered it to the Court and Society Review on Court and Society Review letterhead’. If Sturgis is correct that the letter refers to a submission for publication, an explanation for it being addressed to Robinson rather than Robertson could be that Wilde called at the offices of the Court and Society Review to personally deliver his manuscript to Robertson but, finding the editor absent, asked a clerk for some paper on which to write a note (we know that he did the same when seeking John Boyle O’Reilly at the offices of The Pilot in 1882; see Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 182, and the original of that letter). If this occurred, Wilde, in his haste, addressed the note to Robinson rather than Robertson as he intended. But Sotheby’s interpretation seems the likelier, because they sold the letter with another to Robinson. If the present letter was intended for Robertson it would have been left at the office of the Court and Society Review and, therefore, not have come into the possession of Robinson, as it probably did before being offered for sale with another letter to Robinson. Then again, the two Robinson letters may have been brought together by a later collector.
• Sotheby’s; English Literature and History; 19 Dec. 2000; lot 126 (quotation and description)
• British Library; RP 4301/1; view source. (item listed in catalogue)
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 803, n. 77 (quotation from copy at the British Library).
To Philip Robinson, n.d.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 21 Mar. 2024). Accepting a lunch invitation. This could have been sent at any time, but is placed here alongside a letter to Robinson sold as part of the same lot.
• Sotheby’s; English Literature and History; 19 Dec. 2000; lot 126 (quotation and description)
To Doctor [?], n.d. [?Nov. 1886]. Paying a portion of a doctor’s bill.
• Bloomsbury Auctions; Literature, Manuscripts & Modern Firsts; 23 Apr. 2009; lot 751; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, pp. 1 & 4 of 4).
• Seeney, M. (ed.) (2023) Oscar Wilde as Editor: An Index to Woman’s World, p. 9 (quotation).
To Beatrice Faudel-Phillips, n.d. [c. Nov. 1886]. Declining an invitation on behalf of his wife.
• Mason, J. & Haley, M. (2021) Oscar Wilde: A Man for Our Times, p. 20 (quotation).
To the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, [6 Nov. 1886]. Discussing Swinburne’s article in that day’s Athenaeum. The authenticity of this letter has been called into question: see pp. 17-18 of Schwab. A. T. (2006) Wilde and Swinburne: Part I, The Wildean, 29, 12-27; view source (subscription required).
• Mason, S. (1914) The Bibliography of Oscar Wilde, item 175, pp. 141-5; view source (transcript).
To E. T. Cook, [19–22 Nov. 1886]. Responding to Harry Quilter’s criticism of Wilde’s review of his book, Sententiae Artis, in The Pall Mall Gazette. Wilde’s review was published on 18 November; Cook’s response to Quilter, which Wright describes as based on Wilde’s letter, was published on 23 November.
• British Library; Add MS 81648; view source (item listed in catalogue)
• Wright, T. (2008) Oscar’s Books, p. 212 (description of original at the British Library)
• Stokes, J., & Turner, M. W. (Eds.) (2013) The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, Vol. 6: Journalism, Vol. 1, pp. xxv & 316 (description)
• Wright, T. (2014) The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Volumes VI & VII: Journalism, The Wildean, 44, 115-37, 135, n. 7 (description)
To Louise Jopling, n.d. [late 1886 – early 1887].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 28 Apr. 2024). On stationery of ‘8, Cranley Place, | Onslow Gardens. | S.W.’. Asking for the address of a Mr Rowe – presumably the lawyer George W. Rowe, whom Jopling married in 1887. Complimenting Jopling on her new house. Jopling mentions in her memoir that her new home at Cranley Place was ready for occupancy by New Year 1886, and that Wilde left this letter when he called at the house and Jopling was out.
• Louise Jopling (1925) Twenty Years of My Life: 1867 to 1887, p. 299; view source (transcript)
• University of Glasgow Archives and Special Collections; GB 247 ASC 002/B/21/8; view source (quotation)
To Luther Munday, n.d. [?1887–1893]. Asking about the cost of his subscription (presumably to the Lyric Club, of which Munday was secretary between 1887 and 1893). Wilde also invites Munday to visit on any Wednesday.
• Clark Library; W6721L M965
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 39 (transcript)
To [Luther] Munday, n.d. [?1887–1893].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 24 Oct. 2024). Declining a request to write something and mentioning ‘our soirées’. On 16 Tite Street stationery. So dated because the request may have been to write something for, or relating to, the Lyric Club. But the letter could have been written two years either side of this period (I am unaware when Wilde and Munday met).
• Sotheby’s; English Literature and History; 13 Dec. 1990; p. 118; lot 170 (quotation; facsimile of signature)
To George Haité, n.d. [1887–1889]. Inviting Haité to visit him at Cassells, the publisher of The Woman’s World, which Wilde edited between 1887 and 1889.
• Swann Galleries; Autographs; sale 2192; 29 Oct. 2009; lot 278; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• Bonhams; Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs, including the Property of the late Michael Silverman; sale 1899; 22 Nov. 2011; lot 195; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To George Haité, n.d. [1887–1889]. Refusing Haité’s designs for drop capitals for use in The Woman’s World. Dated according to the address (Cassells).
• Swann Galleries; Autographs; sale 2192; 29 Oct. 2009; lot 276; view source | WBM (description; facsimile, p. 1 of 2).
To ‘Andre’, n.d. [?c. 1887–1889].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Sotheby’s sale (personal communication, 24 Oct. 2024). Informing him that he has written to Maxwell to ask him to join Wilde at lunch with the recipient. Juliens take their lead in dating the letter to 1887–1889, and in identifying the recipient as André Raffalovich and ‘Maxwell’ as the novelist W. B. ‘Willie’ Maxwell, from a note pasted on the rear of the letter’s frame by the Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery. The note may pre-date the Sotheby’s sale, as that sale’s catalogue gives the same recipient and date. But there is really no evidence for the date (the paper bears no address that could serve as a clue) and the identities of ‘Andre’ and ‘Maxwell’ are not certain. The latter could be Willie’s elder brother Gerald Maxwell – Wilde’s surviving letters to ‘Dear Gerald’ date to 1888–1893 (see Holland & Hart-Davis, pp. 369, 421–2, 543), but there are no known letters to Willie Maxwell (though he and Wilde were acquaintances: see Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 394n). Neither are there any known surviving letters to Andre Raffalovich. Another candidate for ‘Andre’ might be André Gide, but Wilde would be expected to have written to the French author in French.
• Sotheby’s; English Literature and History; 13 Dec. 1990; p. 117; lot 168 (quotation; facsimile)
• Juliens; Tony Bennett: A Life Well-Lived; 19 Apr. 2024; lot 485; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile)
To an unidentified correspondent, [?c. 1887–1888]. Informing the recipient that he will come down on the 2.15 [train] from Paddington, and expressing thanks for an offer of hospitality. The name of the recipient has been snipped out, perhaps after the events of 1895 when the recipient wished to conceal their connection to Wilde. On stationery of the Beaufort Club. The only letter in Holland & Hart-Davis from this address is to Fannie Bernard-Beere and is tentatively dated to late October 1887 (p. 330–1). However, there appears to be another known letter on Beaufort Club stationery. The letter to S. Wall Richards on p. 304 is likely the letter in the Clark Library catalogue (W6721L R519 [1888] [Mar. 15]; view source). Holland & Hart-Davis state that the Clark letter has been paired with the wrong envelope and instead belongs with an envelope in the same archive that is postmarked 15 June 1887. They also state that the letter is addressed from 16 Tite Street; the Clark state that the letter is on Beaufort Club stationery. Both may be correct, as Wilde sometimes struck through a printed address and inscribed a different address. I have not been able to check the original to confirm if that is what he has done here. But if we accept Holland & Hart-Davis’s date and the Clark’s note about stationery, this would show that Wilde was using Beaufort Club stationery in 1887. Therefore the present letter is most likely to date to 1887–1888, though I am not aware of when Wilde’s membership of the Beaufort Club began and ended and so the letter could have been sent at another time.
• John Wilson; n.d. [sold before 27 Jan. 2004]; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
To [T. Wemyss] Reid, n.d. [?1887].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the RR Auction sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). Apologising for breaking an engagement to dine. On Tite Street stationery. The date is Sturgis’s.
• RR Auction; 15 Feb. 2012; lot 645; view source | Archive (transcript; facsimile).
• Sturgis, M. (2020) Wildeana, p. 139 (partial transcript).
To Mrs [Emilia Aylmer] Gowing, n.d. [?spring 1887]. Bonhams give the correspondent’s name as ‘Mrs Eowing’ and RR Auction as ‘Mrs Ewing’ (that is, the writer Juliana Horatia Ewing), but the name begins with a G: compare the letter with a detail from the De Profundis manuscript, here. (A similar error was made by Ian Small in his transcription of another letter to Gowing, the recipient of which he reads as ‘Ewing’. See Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 41-2; and Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 329.) Emilia Aylmer Gowing’s article on Alphonse de Lamartine was published in The Woman’s World in Sep. 1889 (vol. 2, pp. 594-7). Wilde asks for the addresses of Miss [Emily] Pfeiffer, whom he invited to write an article for the magazine in the summer of 1887, and Marie Corelli, who contributed an article to the May 1889 issue.
• Bonhams; sale 24808; 11 Feb. 2018; lot 271; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• RR Auction; Fine Autographs and Artifacts; 8 Nov. 2018; lot 559; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To Charles Gray Robertson, n.d. [c. Mar. 1887]. Wilde seeks to follow up the success of The Canterville Ghost at Robertson’s Court and Society Review with a short fairy tale, which Sturgis (p. 347) suggests may have been The Selfish Giant.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 346-7 (quotation from original at the British Library).
To Alsagar Vian, [20 Apr. 1887]. Promising that his review of the play The Red Lamp will be ready by Monday. I have been unable to check the five letters to Vian in the British Library, but they are likely to include this letter.
• Mead, D. (2011) Oscar Wilde, Alsager Vian and ‘The Court and Society Review’, The Wildean, 38, 6-15; view source (subscription required) (transcript).
• British Library; RP 9775; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Alsagar Vian, [early May 1887]. Complaining about the review of the Grosvenor Gallery exhibition in The Court and Society Review. I have been unable to check the five letters to Vian in the British Library, but they are likely to include this letter.
• Mead, D. (2011) Oscar Wilde, Alsager Vian and ‘The Court and Society Review’, The Wildean, 38, 6-15; view source (subscription required) (transcript).
• British Library; RP 9775; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Bram Stoker, 19 May 1887. Asking for two stalls for that night at the Lyceum (Henry Irving and Ellen Terry were appearing in The Merchant of Venice).
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 441; autumn 1923; p. 257; item 2166; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Constance Naden, n.d. [?summer 1887]. Soliciting an article or short poem for The Woman’s World. This is one of several letters, similarly phrased, that Wilde sent to potential contributors in the summer of 1887 (see Holland & Hart-Davis, pp. 302–19). Thain suggests that it was probably as a result of this letter that Wilde printed Naden’s poem ‘Rest’ in the March 1888 number.
• The collection of Walter Llewellyn Rees (1986; when photocopied by Moore)
• Papers of James Moore relating to research on Constance Naden; University of Birmingham; MS962; Box 2; view source (facsimile)
• James R. Moore, ‘Re-membering Constance Naden: Feminist Erotics and Philosophy of Science in Late-Victorian England’ (Unpublished [1986]; Birmingham University Library; rpq PR 5102.N2), pp. 248–9 (I have not consulted this source, but Thain’s citation of it suggests that it includes a transcript and perhaps also a facsimile).
• Marion Thain (2011) Birmingham’s women poets: aestheticism and the daughters of industry, Cahiers Victorianes et Édouardiens, 74, 37–57, paragraph 24; view source (quotation)
To an unidentified recipient (‘Madam’), n.d. [summer 1887]. Soliciting an article or short story for The Woman’s World. This is one of several letters, similarly phrased, that Wilde sent to potential contributors in the summer of 1887 (see Holland & Hart-Davis, pp. 302–19). The letters generally include a list of persons who had already agreed to contribute, with names varying from letter to letter. The list of persons in this letter is identical to that in Wilde’s letter to St. John Brodrick (pp. 311-12) except that here the name of Lady Ferguson is given. Her name does not feature in any other known letter by Wilde. Mary Catherine, Lady Ferguson (1823-1905) was an author from Dublin. Her article on Alexandra College, Dublin appeared in The Woman’s World in January 1888 (vol. 1, pp. 129-31).
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 306; Mar.-Apr. 1913; p. 171; item 1523; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (partial transcript)
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 487; 1927; p. 435; Lot 2440; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (partial transcript)
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 488; Spring 1927; p. 268; Lot 657; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (partial transcript)
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 60 (transcript, from a transcript at the Clark Library)
To William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, n.d. [c. early Jul. 1887]. An invitation card in Wilde’s hand.
• Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave; 90.0019; view source (transcript; facsimile).
To Arthur [?Clifton], n.d. [postmark 1 Aug. 1887].I thank Robert Whelan for informing me about which letter fits in which envelope (personal communication, 1 Oct. 2022). Apologising for failing to meet him at the Lyric. This letter must belong with the envelope postmarked 1 Aug. 1887 that was sold with another letter, lot 172 in the same Sotheby’s sale. The present letter is on paper that fits the envelope; the other letter is not. Furthermore, the other letter arranges for a meeting at Drury Lane, and that theatre was dark in August 1887. The Lyric referred to here must be the club and not the theatre, which did not open until December 1887.
• Sotheby’s; Books and Manuscripts: A Summer Miscellany; sale L20409; 4 Aug. 2020; lot 173; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile)
• Ivory, Y. (2023) Undated, unpublished, unpacked: Wilde’s Lyric Club letters to Mortimer Menpes and Henry Jalland, The Wildean, 63, 107-42 (facsimile [116])
To Arthur [Clifton], n.d [?1887]. Inviting him to Drury Lane [Theatre]. The Sotheby’s website states that this letter was sold with an envelope postmarked 1 Aug. 1887, which was an error (see lot 173 in the same sale, above). The dating of this letter must therefore be considered speculative.
• Sotheby’s; Books and Manuscripts: A Summer Miscellany; sale L20409; 4 Aug. 2020; lot 172; view source | WBM (facsimile).
To G. W. Appleton, n.d. [?Sep. 1887]. Expressing his fear that he will not be able to lecture much next season. Mentions his plans to lecture in Bournemouth. Wilde lectured in Bournemouth in 1883 and 1887/1888. The estimated date is Dibb’s.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 36 (transcript).
• Dibb, G. (2013) Oscar Wilde: A Vagabond with a Mission, p. 205 (transcript).
To J. Bernard Partridge, n.d. [c. Oct. 1887]. Refers to Partridge’s illustration for Wilde’s poems Le Panneau and Les Ballons.
• Mitchell, R. N. (2020) An unpublished letter by Oscar Wilde, Notes and Queries, 67, pp. 559-60; view source (subscription required) (transcript).
To [Edith Nesbit], 19 Oct. [1887]. Asking her to contribute to The Woman’s World. Maggs state that this letter is addressed ‘to the same’ ‘lady novelist and poet, author of children’s books’ to whom Wilde addressed the previous item (1876) in the catalogue. That letter is reprinted in Holland & Hart-Davis (p. 287), and Wilde addresses it to ‘Mrs. Bland’, the married name of Edith Nesbit. It seems clear that Maggs knew that Nesbit was the recipient of both letters but omitted her name so as not to make public her association with Wilde (she was still living when the catalogue was published). Nesbit contributed two poems to The Woman’s World.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 425; summer 1922; p. 234; item 1877; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Edith Nesbit, 21 Oct. 1887.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Christie’s sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024).
Thanking her for agreeing to contribute to The Woman’s World.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 457; Christmas 1924; p. 328; item 3092; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (transcript).
• Christie’s; sale 6973; The Halsted B. Vander Poel Collection of English Literature; 3 Mar. 2004; lot 248; view source | WBM (quotation).
• James Cummins Bookseller via viaLibri; available for sale Apr. 2017; view source (WBM) (quotation; facsimile).
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79-104 (transcript; facsimile).
To Cecil Smith, 3 Nov. 1887. Asking Smith (who worked at the British Museum) to show the bearer (an artist) some of the museum’s exhibits so that he could draw them for The Woman’s World.
• Guardiola, R. R. (2019) Oscar Wilde’s letters to the British Museum and the illustrations in The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 54, 16-52 (transcript; facsimile).
To Cecil Smith, 9 Nov. 1887. Thanking him for sending photographs.
• Guardiola, R. R. (2019) Oscar Wilde’s letters to the British Museum and the illustrations in The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 54, 16-52 (transcript; facsimile).
To Miss [Yetta Blaze] de Bury, 19 Nov. 1887. Expressing his regret that he cannot say when de Bury’s article will appear, as he has so many manuscripts to deal with. Yetta Blaze de Bury’s article ‘French Women Before and After Mme. Campan’ was published in The Woman’s World in Sep. 1889 (vol. 2, pp. 607–10), the penultimate number of Wilde’s editorship. Because the letter is dated and was sent from the offices of the magazine, there is a good chance that it was drafted by one of Wilde’s assistants.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 457; Christmas 1924; p. 328; item 3091; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (description).
• Marland, R. & Maier-Sigrist, W. (2023) Four unpublished Oscar Wilde letters drafted by assistants at The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 52, 19-44, n. 74 (description based on Maggs Bros).
To Janet Ross, 15 Dec. 1887.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 14 Mar. 2024). Dealing with articles that Ross might write for The Woman’s World. Ross published two poems in the magazine: ‘A View Near Taranto’ (Oct. 1888, vol. 1, p. 542) and ‘A View in the Val d’Arno’ (May 1890, vol. 3, p. 348). The letter is in the hand of an assistant (ECS).
• Smith College, Mortimer Rare Book Collection, MiscMS 788 (description). There is no permalink to the record: visit the library catalogue, click on the link for Rare Books, and search for ‘Mrs J. Ross / Oscar Wilde’.
• Marland, R. & Maier-Sigrist, W. (2024) Three more letters drafted by Oscar Wilde’s assistants at The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 65, 125–34 (transcript; facsimile)
To Mrs [?Edith] Humphrey[s], n.d. [?1888-1895]. Complimenting her writing and asking her to ‘communicate with Mr. Leader’ about an unspecified matter. The correspondent may be the wife of Arthur Humphreys, the manager of Hatchards bookshop. The letter was sold in 1928 alongside two letters from Constance Wilde to the same recipient. Eleanor Fitzsimons (Wilde’s Women, p. 236) suggests that Constance and Arthur Humphreys may have become acquainted in 1888. The letter is on Tite Street stationery, so cannot have been written after 1895.
• Hodgson & Co.; A Catalogue of Miscellaneous & Scientific Books; 26-27 Jan. 1928; lot 251; view source (quotation).
• Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin; MSS_WildeO_2_4_013; view source | WBM (facsimile).
To Arthur Stannard, [c. 1888]. Concerning a presentation for the novelist Frances Hodgson Burnett. This may be the same letter described above; as I have not examined it I cannot be sure.
• University of Leeds Special Collections; GB 206 Elliott Collection MS Wilde; view source | WBM.
• The Fay and Geoffrey Elliott Collection handlist; view source (description).
To Walter Crane, [c. Jan 1888]. Thanking him for sending a poem and illustration. Dated according to the appearance of the same in The Woman’s World (view poem and illustration).
• Crane, W. (1907) An Artist’s Reminscences, p. 195; view source (transcript).
• John Wilson; n.d. [sold before 2 May 2004]; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
• Bloomsbury Auctions; Continental & English Lit. and Manuscripts; 12 May 2011; lot 168; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• Marland, R. (2022) Oscar Wilde: The Complete Interviews, p. 804 (transcript from Bloomsbury facsimile).
To Phil Robinson, postmarked 16 Jan. 1888. On 16 Tite Street stationery. Sending Robinson (editor of The Sunday Times) ‘a very clever feuilleton’ (a story named The Little Gold Nugget) by Haddon Chambers. The story was published in The Sunday Times on 29 Jan. 1888.
• British Library; RP 4301/1 (item listed in catalogue)
• Sturgis, M. (2020) Wildeana, p. 234 (transcript).
To Phil Robinson, n.d. [?late Jan. 1888]. Arranging a lunch with Robinson for tomorrow (a Thursday). On Tite Street stationery. So dated because the lunch may have been to discuss Chambers’s story, but it could have taken place at another time.
• British Library; RP 4301/1; view source. (item listed in catalogue)
To Cecil Smith, 25 Jan. 1888. Asking him for advice on where to find good portraits of various women from antiquity.
• Guardiola, R. R. (2019) Oscar Wilde’s letters to the British Museum and the illustrations in The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 54, 16-52 (transcript; facsimile).
To ‘Violet Fane’ [Lady Mary Montgomerie Singleton], n.d. [postmark 1888; ?Feb. 1888]. Hoping to be able to visit her at 4 ’o clock.
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79-104 (transcript; facsimile).
To [Emily] Faithfull, n.d. [Feb. 1888]. Informing her that the March number [of The Woman’s World] had gone to press, but that he hoped she could submit something for April or May. An article by Faithfull appeared in the June 1888 number. Wilde informed Violet Fane in a letter postmarked 2 Feb. 1888 that the March number was ‘now going to press’ (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 341), so the letter to Faithfull must have been written after that date.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 291; Jun. 1912; p. 85; item 2852; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Pauline Schletter, 23 Feb. 1888. Thanking her for submitting an article to The Woman’s World. Wilde published Schletter’s article on Matilde Serao, the Italian newspaper editor, the following year. The letter is in the hand of an assistant (ECS).
• Yale University Library; Annie Schletter papers; GEN MSS 547; view source (facsimile).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 807, n. 15 (citation of original at Yale).
• Marland, R. & Maier-Sigrist, W. (2023) Four unpublished Oscar Wilde letters drafted by assistants at The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 52, 19-44 (transcript; facsimile).
To Miss [Bibidie] Leonard, 28 Feb. 1888. Asking for a short article for The Woman’s World on the saloniste Madame Adam. No such article appeared.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 807, n. 17 (partial transcript of original at Washington [?DC]).
To Pauline Schletter, 19 Mar. 1888. Apologising that, although he liked her article ‘immensely’, he could not publish it for some time as he had a surplus of articles. The letter is in the hand of an assistant (ECS).
• Yale University Library; Annie Schletter papers; GEN MSS 547; view source (facsimile).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 807, n. 15 (citation of original at Yale).
• Marland, R. & Maier-Sigrist, W. (2023) Four unpublished Oscar Wilde letters drafted by assistants at The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 52, 19-44 (transcript; facsimile).
To Roberts Bros. [?Thomas Niles], rec. 26 Mar. 1888. Wilde gives the Boston publishers an idea of the production plans for the British edition of The Happy Prince and Other Tales. Roberts Bros. would publish the American edition.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, pp. 363-4 (quotation); p. 806, n. 2 (partial transcript of original at Columbia University – presumably in the ‘Roberts Brothers papers, 1838-1932, bulk 1882-1898’, MS#1071).
To [J. S. Redmayne], [?Apr. 1888]. Declining an invitation to give a speech at an event, but agreeing to say ‘a few words in support of one of the resolutions’.
• Bonhams; Printed Books & Manuscripts; sale 16869; 10 Nov 2009; lot 127; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, p. 1 of 2).
• British Library; RP 9601; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Arthur Fish, [Apr. 1888-Nov. 1889]. A note to Wilde’s assistant at The Woman’s World about his inability to fit an item into the magazine. Dated according to the period during which Fish worked with Wilde, which appears to have begun in April 1888.
• Cassell’s Weekly, 2 May 1923, p. 216 (top of column 2); view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (transcript).
To [W. P.] Frith, n.d. [Apr. 1888]. Informing him that the May edition of The Woman’s World has gone to press. A similarly phrased letter can be found in Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 343, except there the month given is April. There may be two letters, but there is a possibility that there is only one and the transcription of one or the other is in error.
• The Autograph, Nov. 1911, 14; view source (quotation)
To Joan Allen Owen Visger, 17 Apr. 1888.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 18 Jun. 2022). Complimenting her on an article she had written and soliciting a submission for The Woman’s World. The letter is in the hand of an assistant (Arthur Fish).
• Gorringe’s; sale LJUNE22; 28 Jun. 2022; lot 5; view source (WBM) (facsimile).
• Marland, R. & Maier-Sigrist, W. (2023) Four unpublished Oscar Wilde letters drafted by assistants at The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 52, 19-44 (transcript)
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [May 1888-Mar. 1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 10 March 2023). Responding to a request for a contribution [to a magazine?], Wilde offers to write ‘a little parable on Originality … in the style of my fairy tales’, for which he would like to receive ten guineas. The reference to fairy tales means that the letter cannot date to any earlier than May 1888, when The Happy Prince and Other Tales was published.
• The Anderson Galleries; sale 2185; lot 527, p. 59; view source (quotation)
To [Miss] Armitage, 27 May 1888. Sending her an autograph but discouraging her from keeping an autograph book.
• Swann Galleries; Autographs; sale 2095; 30 Nov. 2006; lot 294; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, pp. 2-3 of 3)
To Thomas Niles, n.d. [Summer 1888]. Wilde informs his American publisher that The Happy Prince and Other Tales has been a great success in the UK.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 806, n. 8 (quotation, presumably from a letter in the ‘Roberts Brothers papers, 1838-1932, bulk 1882-1898’, MS#1071).
To Mr [Thomas] Niles, [Summer 1888]. Complaining about the printing of the American edition of The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Roberts Brothers, Boston.
• Wright, T. (2008) Oscar’s Books, p. 149 (quotation)
• Sturgis, M. (2020) Wildeana, p. 151 (quotation of original at Columbia University – presumably in the ‘Roberts Brothers papers, 1838-1932, bulk 1882-1898’, MS#1071)
To Lady Monckton, [?Jun.-Jul. 1888].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Sotheby’s sale (personal communication, 29 Aug. 2022). Inviting her to contribute to The Woman’s World. So dated because it seems to precede the letter to Lady Monckton in Holland & Hart-Davis (pp. 353-4). The two sources given here may refer to the same letter, but this cannot be confirmed without further information.
• Sotheby’s; Jean-François Chaponnière Library; 18 Nov. 2019; lot 284; view source | WBM (partial transcript; facsimile, pp. 1 & 4 of 4).
• National Library of Ireland; MS 41,868; view source | WBM (description).
To Ella Hepworth Dixon, n.d. [c. Jun. 1888]. Offering ‘unstinting praise’ of her story ‘Murder or Mercy’, which he published in The Woman's World in Aug. 1888 (vol. 1, pp. 466–9). So dated because the number in which Dixon’s story was published would have had to go to press in June, though Wilde could have written the letter earlier as there were often delays between his receipt of a submission and its publication.
• Dixon, E. H. (1930) As I Knew Them: Sketches of People I Have Met on the Way, p. 34, (description).
• Fitzsimons, E. (2024) Articles from The Woman's World, Edited by Oscar Wilde, p. 20 (quotation of Dixon).
To [Mortimer] Menpes, n.d. [Jun. 1888]. Sending a copy of ‘my little book’. So dated because, as Sturgis points out (Oscar: A Life, p. 806 n4), Wilde elsewhere referred to The Happy Prince and Other Tales using the same words (see Holland & Hart-Davis, pp. 350, 352). Menpes’s copy of The Happy Prince and Other Tales, signed and dated by Wilde ‘June ’88’, survives (Forum Auctions; Private Press, Illustrated Books and Modern First Editions; 30 Jan. 2019; lot 276; view source | WBM).
• Jissen Women’s University, Hisao Honma Collection, Scrapbook 15.171; view source (facsimile, first and final pages)
To Arthur Stannard, n.d. [c. Sep.-Oct. 1888]. Sending a subscription towards ‘Mrs Burnett’s presentation’ and stating that he had received a copy of Stannard’s wife’s new novel, which he hoped to notice in his January number. The presentation for the American author Frances Hodgson Burnett, made at a dinner preceding her departure from England in mid October 1888, was a gift of a diamond bracelet and an address on vellum expressing the gratitude of British authors for her efforts to attract public attention to the unsatisfactory condition of copyright law in England. The address was signed by a number of authors, including Wilde and Stannard’s wife Henrietta, who wrote as John Strange Winter (‘Testimonial to an Authoress’, The Whitstable Times (Whitstable, UK), 20 Oct. 1888, 2). Winter’s new novel was Beautiful Jim, which began serialisation in late August and was available in two volumes from mid September. Wilde did not notice this novel in the January number of The Woman’s World. He had previously reviewed Winter’s That Imp! for The Saturday Review (7 May 1887, pp. 663-4).
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 349; Autumn 1916; p. 147; item 1700; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Cecil Smith, 17 Sep. 1888. Asking about artefacts in the British Museum that feature depictions of umbrellas.
• Guardiola, R. R. (2019) Oscar Wilde’s letters to the British Museum and the illustrations in The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 54, 16-52 (transcript; facsimile).
To John Stuart Blackie, n.d. [c. Oct.-Nov. 1888]. Requesting he support Lady Wilde’s application for a pension from the Royal Literary Fund, which was submitted in Nov. 1888.
• Sotheby’s; Fine Autograph Letters And Manuscripts From A Distinguished Private Collection: Part II; sale N09920; 13 Dec. 2018; lot 306; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile of p. 1 of 3).
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79-104 (transcript; facsimile).
To Alfred Nutt, n.d. [c. Oct. 1888]. Refers to a forthcoming review of The Happy Prince in The Saturday Review, which appeared in the issue of 20 Oct. 1888. Also expresses his desire to translate Flaubert’s The Temptation of St Anthony. The recipient was identified by E. H. Courville as Fanny Bernard Beere, but this is an error.
• Courville, E. H. (ed.), Autograph Prices Current, Vol. 1, 1914-1916; p. 178 view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
• Sotheby’s; Fine Autograph Letters And Manuscripts From A Distinguished Private Collection: Part II; sale N09920; 13 Dec. 2018; lot 311; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, p. 1 of 3). See also lot 312 in the same sale, which is accompanied by further images from this letter, presumably due to a website design error: view source | WBM (facsimile, pp. 2-3 of 3).
• Mead, D. (2019) Oscar Wilde letters at auction at Sotheby’s, New York, 13 December 2018, Intentions, 109, 9-16 (quotation; facsimile).
To [Henry. G.] Jalland, n.d. [Nov. 1888- Aug. 1892]. Informing the actor Frank Benson’s manager that he (Wilde) cannot see a play this week but hopes to do so next week. So dated by Ivory.
• Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig; Kurt-Taut-Slg./1/W-Z/W/66.
• Ivory, Y. (2023) Undated, unpublished, unpacked: Wilde’s Lyric Club letters to Mortimer Menpes and Henry Jalland, The Wildean, 63, 107-42 (transcript [108]; facsimile [110-11]).
To Mssrs Dowdeswell, 16 Nov. [?1888].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 12 Aug. 2024). Accepting an invitation on 13 December. It is unclear why PBA give the tentative date of 1888. Perhaps it is because the only letter to the Dowdeswells in Holland & Hart-Davis has the same tentative date of 1888 (p. 378).
• Pierre Bergé & Associés; Jean Patou: Couturier, Bibliophile et Collectionneur; 22 May 2015; Lot 376; view source | WBM (quotation)
To Mme Macchetta [Blanche Roosevelt], 1[?6] Nov. 1888.I thank Bill Kaiser for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 10 Sep. 2024). Sending her a copy of The Woman’s World. He had previously sent her a copy but it had been returned to him, and is now sending it to what he hopes is her correct address. Asks her to confirm the address so that he can send her a cheque. Roosevelt’s article on Guy de Maupaussant was published in the Nov. 1888 number (vol. 2, pp. 13–16). The letter is in the hand of an assistant (Arthur Fish).
• ONE Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries.
To Cecil Smith, 27 Nov. 1888. Asking for advice on types of beauty in Roman and Greek women.
• Guardiola, R. R. (2019) Oscar Wilde’s letters to the British Museum and the illustrations in The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 54, 16-52 (transcript; facsimile).
To Tristram [?Everett], n.d. [Dec. 1888]. Complaining good-naturedly at being stood up.
• Bonhams; Printed Books, Maps & Manuscripts; sale 10053; 11 Mar. 2003; lot 528; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, p. 1 of 3).
To [Emily] Wren, [postmark 13 Dec. 1888]. Thanking her son Chrissie for the gift of a photograph.
• Christies; The Albin Schram Collection of Autograph Letters; sale 7411; 3 Jul. 2007; lot 206; view source | WBM (transcript, possibly partial; facsimile, partial p. 2 and p. 3 of 3).
To [Mr] Webster, n.d. [?1889-1895]. Reminding him of his promise to dine with Wilde. The letter is on the notepaper of the Lyric Club; Wilde’s first letter from the club in Holland & Hart-Davis is dated to 1889.
• Heritage Auctions; Rare Books Signature Auction; sale 6117 8 Apr. 2015; lot 45755; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• Ivory, Y. (2023) Undated, unpublished, unpacked: Wilde’s Lyric Club letters to Mortimer Menpes and Henry Jalland, The Wildean, 63, 107-42 (cited [113, n. 27]).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [1889-1895]. Agreeing to his poems being included in the correspondent’s ‘anthology of praise’. Ivory notes that photographs of the letter show that it is on stationery of the Lyric Club.
• Wilde, O. (1907) The Writings of Oscar Wilde: Epigrams, pp. 221-3; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (facsimile).
• Ivory, Y. (2023) Undated, unpublished, unpacked: Wilde’s Lyric Club letters to Mortimer Menpes and Henry Jalland, The Wildean, 63, 107-42 (link to facsimile [133, n. 30]); view source | WBM.
To John Davidson, n.d. [1889–1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 28 Oct. 2023). Expressing his annoyance at the committee of the Lyric Club for not appointing Davidson a member. Dated according to Davidson’s relocation to London from Scotland in 1889.
• James Tregaskis & Son; Autographs, Old Deeds &c; Caxton Head Catalogue 980; 1930; p. 69; item 265; view source (partial transcript).
To [James] Knowles, n.d. [1889-1890].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Campo & Campo sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). Asking whether Knowles, the editor of The Nineteenth Century, has already sent him a cheque for his last article. Wilde published an article in the magazine in May 1885, but the letter is on 16 Tite Street notepaper and Wilde did not move into the address until the end of that year. It is more likely he is referring to one of the three articles that appeared between January 1889 and September 1890.
• Nate D. Sanders; sold before 18 Nov. 2016; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• Campo & Campo; Classic Auction; 28 May 2024; lot 444; Archive | WBM (facsimile).
To [Frank R.] Stockton, n.d. [c. 1889]. Expressing pleasure at meeting Stockton and complimenting him on his work.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 799, n. 9 (presumably partial transcript).
To [John] Verschoyle, [c. Jan. 1889]. Thanking the editor of the Fortnightly Review for the cheque in payment for Wilde’s article Pen, Pencil and Poison, and sharing the positive comments he had received about it.
• Mealy’s; Books; 05 Dec. 2006; lot 471; view source | Archive (quotation).
To Mrs [Henrietta] Barnett, 10 Jan. 1889.With thanks to Mr Mason and Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist (personal communication, 7-9 Jan. 2023). Inviting her to submit her article on art for possible publication in The Woman’s World. No such article was published. Barnett and her husband, the Rev. Samuel Barnett of St. Jude’s, Whitechapel, hosted art exhibitions beginning 1881 as part of their efforts to contribute to the welfare of the poor of London’s East End. Wilde and Rev. Barnett spoke at a meeting of the Popular Musical Union on 5 July 1889 (‘From Our London Correspondent’, The Manchester Guardian (Manchester, UK), 6 Jul. 1889, 9). The letter is in the hand of an assistant (Arthur Fish).
• John Wilson; n.d. [sold before 30 Nov. 2003, with letter to Barnett in Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 415]; view source | WBM (description).
• The collection of Jeremy Mason.
• Marland, R. & Maier-Sigrist, W. (2024) Three more letters drafted by Oscar Wilde’s assistants at The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 65, 125–34 (transcript; facsimile).
To ‘Violet Fane’ [Lady Mary Montgomerie Singleton], n.d. [c. Feb. 1889]. Responding to her letter thanking him for his notice of her book, which appeared in The Woman’s World in Feb. 1889.
• Sotheby’s; Fine Autograph Letters and Manuscripts From a Distinguished Private Collection: Part II; sale N09920; 13 Dec. 2018; lot 304; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, pp. 1 & 4 of 4).
• Mead, D. (2019) Oscar Wilde letters at auction at Sotheby’s, New York, 13 December 2018, Intentions, 109, 9-16 (transcript; facsimile, pp. 1 & 4 of 4).
To Arthur Clifton, 13 Feb. 1889.
• British Library; RP 5961; view source (item listed in catalogue)
To Mrs [Emma Compton] Reade, 5 Mar. 1889.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 30 Apr. 2024). Inviting her to submit an article on Hereford for publication in The Woman’s World. No such article was published. Reade was a novelist and the wife of clergyman and author Compton Reade, who from 1887 was a vicar in Kenchester, Hereford. The letter is in the hand of an assistant (Arthur Fish).
• Herefordshire Archive; AA72/256/122; view source.
• Marland, R. & Maier-Sigrist, W. (2024) Three more letters drafted by Oscar Wilde’s assistants at The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 65, 125–34 (transcript; facsimile).
To Arthur Clifton, [postmark 20 Mar. 1889]. A brief note about an arrangement to meet on Monday evening (the following Monday was 25 March).
• Dibb, G. (2018) An Oscar Wilde Letter at Auction, Intentions, 108 (transcript; facsimile).
To Pauline Schletter, 23 Apr. 1889. Apologising for not returning her manuscript yet (see letters above dated 23 Feb. and 19 Mar. 1888), and informing her of his intention to publish it in the August number. The letter is in the hand of an assistant (Arthur Fish).
• Yale University Library; Annie Schletter papers; GEN MSS 547; view source (facsimile).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 807, n. 15 (citation of original at Yale).
• Marland, R. & Maier-Sigrist, W. (2023) Four unpublished Oscar Wilde letters drafted by assistants at The Woman’s World, The Wildean, 52, 19-44 (transcript; facsimile).
To ‘Arthur’, [2 May 1889].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 6 Oct. 2023). Inviting him to dine at the ‘Soc.’ tomorrow.
• Kotte Autographs; sold c. Oct. 2020; view source (WBM) (facsimile).
To Oscar Browning, n.d. [c. summer 1889]. A letter of condolence. Browning’s mother died between Apr. and Jun. 1889.
• Sotheby’s; Fine Autograph Letters and Manuscripts From a Distinguished Private Collection: Part II; sale N09920; 13 Dec. 2018; lot 305; view source | WBM (partial transcript; facsimile, p. 1 of 3).
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79-104 (transcript; facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent, 21 Jun. 1889.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 21 Nov. 2024). Last page of a letter in Constance Wilde’s hand and signed by her and Oscar, authorising an increase in their investment in the United States and South American Investment Trust. This trust was incorporated in 1886. In April 1889, it held capital of £1M (‘The “Boom” in Trust Companies’, The Economist (London, UK), 6 Apr. 1889, 433–4). In October 1888 the trustees had recommended a dividend of 5% per annum (The Economist (London, UK), 6 Oct. 1888, 1266).
• The Rosenbach; EMs 1280/9; view source (description of item listed in catalogue).
To [Mortimer] Menpes, n.d. [?Aug. 1889-Jun. 1892]. He looks forward to Menpes’s exhibition. So dated by Ivory.
• Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig; Slg. Nebauer/L/Sa-Z/L678.
• Ivory, Y. (2023) Undated, unpublished, unpacked: Wilde’s Lyric Club letters to Mortimer Menpes and Henry Jalland, The Wildean, 63, 107-42 (transcript [108]; facsimile [109]).
To [Edward Smith] Willard, n.d. [late Aug. 1889 - Sep. 1890]. Asking for two ‘stalls’ [at the Shaftesbury Theatre] to see Willard in The Middleman. The play opened on 27 Aug. 1889 and Willard gave his last performance on 26 Sep. 1890 before departing for New York.
• Christie’s; Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts; sale 9860; 8 Jun. 2004; lot 166; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, pp. 2-3 of 3).
• John Wilson; n.d. [sold before 1 Feb. 2021]; view source (WBM) (partial transcript; facsimile - click on p. 1 to view pp. 2-3 of 3).
To Miss [?Juliet] Temple, n.d. [c. Nov. 1889]. Declining Lady Mount-Temple’s invitation because he is going to Mrs Palmer’s for a few days. So dated by Geoff Dibb, who indentifies the recipient as Lady Mount-Temple’s adopted daughter.
• Spencer, W. T. (1923) Forty Years in My Bookshop, p. 253; view source (quotation).
• Forum Auctions; Private Press, Illustrated Books and Modern First Editions; 30 Jan. 2019; lot 277; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
• For a higher resolution image of the letter see the listing at Live Auctioneers: view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
To Fanny Bernard Beere, n.d. [?9 Dec. 1889].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May 2023). Regretting that he cannot meet his ‘brilliant and beautiful Tosca’ as he has ‘promised to go to Ernest Birch’s Wedding to-morrow’. Birch was a songwriter and a singer in light opera. He may be the Ernest Mawbey Birch (b. 1863) who married Letitia Dobson at St Peter’s Church, Eaton Square, London on 10 Dec. 1889. Bernard Beere appeared in the title role in La Tosca at the Garrick Theatre from 28 Nov. 1889.
• Courville, E. H. (ed.), Autograph Prices Current, Vol. 1, 1914-1916; p. 177 view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To John Moore Sinyanki, n.d. [?15 Dec. 1889]. Offering to second Sinyanki’s nomination [to the Beaufort Club]. Offered for sale with an envelope postmarked 15 Dec. 1889.
• Bonhams; Printed Books, Maps, Manuscripts, and Photography; sale 11494; 16 Nov. 2004; lot 440; view source | WBM (transcript; low resolution but legible facsimile).
To [Henry G.] Jalland, n.d. [c. 19 Dec. 1889].I thank Geoff Dibb for informing me of the link between Jalland and Benson (personal communication, 26 Mar. 2021) A reminder to send Wilde ‘two stalls for your first night—I want to see Frank’s debut’. The Ebay seller gives the correspondent’s name as Talland, but the name begins with a J (compare the letter with a detail from the De Profundis manuscript, here). Jalland was the manager of Wilde’s friend the actor Frank Benson, who debuted as Lysander in Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Globe Theatre, London, on 19 Dec. 1889.
• Ebay user memoire.dencres; accessed 1 Feb. 2021; view source (WBM) (transcript; facsimile).
• Ivory, Y. (2023) Undated, unpublished, unpacked: Wilde’s Lyric Club letters to Mortimer Menpes and Henry Jalland, The Wildean, 63, 107-42 (transcript [138-9, n. 111]).
To Miss Kenealy, n.d. [1890-1895]. Congratulating her on an article she had written. So dated because Wilde mentions The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• The catalogue of the Stetson auction; p. 57; lot 313; view source (quotation).
To Pierre Louÿs, [?c. 1890].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 12 Aug. 2024). An epigram about mirrors and masks. Wilde did sometimes write epigrams or lines of poetry on cards for autograph seekers, but this does appear to be a letter as it is signed only ‘Oscar’ and was sold by PBA with a response by Louÿs, also signed with his first name.
• Pierre Bergé & Associés; Jean Patou: Couturier, Bibliophile et Collectionneur; 22 May 2015; Lot 377; view source | WBM (quotation)
[Arthur Fish] to Charlotte Stopes, 23 Jan. 1890. This letter, in which Stopes is requested to correct her article on frozen meat, is attributed to Wilde by Matthew Sturgis. I have inspected the original of the letter at the British Library (31 May 2023) and it is in the hand of Arthur Fish. This fact alone does not disqualify Wilde as the author, because Fish was Wilde’s assistant at The Woman’s World and is known to have drafted letters for Wilde. But letters drafted by Fish for Wilde are usually signed ‘Oscar Wilde, per AF’; this letter is simply signed ‘The Editor’. There are several other letters to Stopes at the British Library that are drafted by Fish or by another unknown person who signs his letters ‘The Editor’, dated between 26 Sep. 1889 and 15 Apr. 1890. The envelopes of many of these letters are preserved and somebody (presumably a librarian or previous owner of the letters) has written on them ‘O. Wilde’ or ‘Oscar Wilde’ in pencil. But this is an error. The October 1889 number of The Woman’s World was the last Wilde edited and it would have gone to press over a month before the present letter was written. It therefore seems clear that at this time Fish was acting as editor, co-editor with an unknown person, or as assistant to an unnamed editor, and that the present letter (and other surviving letters to Stopes by editor(s) of The Woman’s World) is not written by Wilde. Stopes’s article ‘Frost and Food’ was published in vol 3., pp. 264-6.
• British Library; Add MS 58454; f. 41; view source (item listed in catalogue)
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 367, footnote (partial transcript of original at the British Library). Note that Sturgis only identifies the location of the letter in his American edition (p. 341). He gives the date of the letter as 26 Sep. 1889, which is the date of a different letter from Fish to Stopes (f. 29).
To ‘Arthur’ [?Clifton], n.d. [c. Mar.-Apr. 1890]. Inviting him to the Vaudeville [Theatre]. So dated by Geoff Dibb, who also identifies the recipient as Arthur Clifton (Intentions, 108).
• Nate D. Sanders Auctions; 28 Jun. 2018; lot 103; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• University Archives; Outstanding Selection of Autographed Documents, Manuscripts, Books & Relics; 26 Sep. 2018; lot 281; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To Lady Mount-Temple, n.d. [?12 Apr. 1890].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024) and of the presentation copy (personal communication, 4 Nov. 2024). Sending a copy of ‘my little book of fairy tales’. This is likely to be a copy of The Happy Prince and Other Tales. A copy of that book inscribed to Lady Mount-Temple and dated 12 April 1890 was offered for sale by the Rosenbach Company in 1900; lot 598; view source.
• Christie’s; 23 Nov. 2009; lot 150; view source | Archive (quotation; facsimile, p. 1 of 3).
To [R. E. Forrest], n.d. [Jul. 1890-May 1891]. Responding gracefully to a suggested change to his essay The Critic as Artist.
• Sotheby’s; English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations; sale L16408; 13 Dec. 2016; lot 147; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, p. 4 of 4).
• West Sussex Record Office; Add Mss 45829; view source | WBM (description).
To Sir George Douglas, n.d. [c. Jul. 1890].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 24 Oct. 2024). Thanking the recipient, who is presumably Sir George Brisbane Scott Douglas, for his ‘artistic and ethereal appreciation’ of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde complains that the novel has been ‘very wrongly and stupidly assailed by the prurient’ and wishes that Sir George had reviewed it. States that he plans to include a chapter about Gray visiting the opium dens of the East End when the novel appears in book form. Dated according to the publication of the original, Lippincott’s version of the novel.
• Sotheby’s; English Literature and History; 13 Dec. 1990; lot 191 (partial transcript)
To Edward Heron-Allen, [postmark 5 Sep. 1890]. Only the envelope survives.
• British Library; Add MS 81726; view source (item listed in catalogue)
• McCann, T. J. (2021) Oscar Wilde’s letters to Edward Heron-Allen, The Heron-Allen Society Newsletter, 38, 3-8, 7.
To the editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, [c. 22 Sep. 1890]. Explaining the genesis of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• The Pall Mall Gazette, 23 Sept. 1890, 2; view source (transcript).
• Scharnhorst, G. (2010) Oscar Wilde on the origin of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’: a recovered letter, The Wildean, 37, 12-15; view source (subscription required) (transcript).
To Arthur Symons, [postmark 1 Oct. 1890]. Giving an unidentified friend of Symons the authority to translate Wilde’s essay on criticism.
• Christie’s; Printed Books and Manuscripts; sale 9634; 19 May 2000; lot 285; view source | WBM (transcript).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 814, n. 24 (transcript).
To Arthur Hamilton, [postmark 2 Oct. 1890]. Only the envelope survives.
• International Autograph Auctions Europe SL; Autographs, Letters & Manuscripts Auction; 29 Apr. 2021, lot 353; view source | WBM (facsimile of envelope only).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. (dated 18 Oct. [18]90 in another hand). In response to a letter concerning an unidentified female mortgagee. Wilde and this mortgagee appear to have some financial interest in a sale, presumably of a property. The circumstances are unclear. On 16 Tite Street stationery.
• Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford; MS. Walpole d. 18; f. 8; view source (item not specifically listed in catalogue)
To Marion Lea, [1891]. Content unknown.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 815, n. 16 (citation of original at Fales [NYC]).
To Elisabeth Robins, [1891]. Content unknown, but presumably relating to Robins’ performance in Hedda Gabler.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 815, n. 16 (citation of original at Fales [NYC, ?Elizabeth Robins Papers MSS.002, Box 42, Folder 209]).
To [Lawrence Barrett, Minna Gale, or their representatives], n.d. [Feb. 1891-Feb. 1892].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 5 Jun. 2023). Acknowledging the receipt of two drafts of £20 each for eight performances of The Duchess of Padua. Lawrence Barrett opened the play in New York in late January 1891 as Guido Ferranti; after his death his erstwhile co-star Minna Gale toured the play under its original title until, judging by press reports, February 1892.
• The Anderson Galleries; 18 May 1928; sale 2275; lot 272; view source (description).
To an unknown correspondent, n.d. [early Feb. 1891].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 Jan. 2024). Announcing that the anonymously authored blank verse drama produced ‘[o]n Wednesday last’ is by Oscar Wilde. The reference must be to Guido Ferranti aka The Duchess of Padua, which premiered on 26 January 1891. That Wilde includes his own name suggests that this letter may have been sent to Lawrence Barrett, the star and producer of the play, for publication in a New York newspaper, although no such publication had been found.
• Dulau & Company; cat. 246; p. 85; lot 1045; view source (Hathitrust) | Archive (partial transcript).
To the editor of the New York Herald, European edition, [c. 14 Feb. 1891]. Admitting authorship of Guido Ferranti aka The Duchess of Padua.
• New York Herald, European edition, (Paris, France), 15 Feb. 1891, 1; view source (transcript, possibly partial).
• Cooper, J. ‘Guido Ferranti By?’ Oscar Wilde in America, 2 Feb. 2016; view source (transcript, possibly partial).
To Henri de Régnier, 2 Mar. 1891. Content unknown.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 814, n. 28 (citation of original in Paris).
To Walter Crane, n.d. 23 Jun. 1891.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 May 2023, Maggs; 12 Aug. 2024, PBA). Asking Crane to use his influence in procuring for one of Wilde’s friends the post of superintendent to the Decorative Arts Guild. Also congratulating Crane on his exhibition yesterday (Crane was exhibiting original pictures, book designs, and decorations at the Fine Art Society’s Gallery in New Bond Street). PBA gives the name of the friend as ‘Mr. HE Eeo’, which seems likely to be a misreading.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 488; Spring 1927; p. 268; Lot 658; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
• Pierre Bergé & Associés; Jean Patou: Couturier, Bibliophile et Collectionneur; 22 May 2015; Lot 376; view source | WBM (quotation).
To Louis Couperus, [c. Jul. 1891]. Wilde apparently wrote a letter (not extant) complimenting Couperus on his novel, Noodlot, and enclosing a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray.
• Bastet, F. L. (1987) Louis Couperus: Een biografie, p. 155; view source (description).
To Arthur Fish, n.d. [?Jul. 1891].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 5 Jun. 2023). Informing his former editorial assistant that he is trying to write a new play. Sold laid into a presentation copy of Intentions, dated July 1891.
• Hodgson & Co.; 28-29 Nov. 1929; p. 34; lot 341; view source (description).
To William Heinemann, [?c. Oct. 1891]. Content unknown, but dated according to the possibility that it references Wilde writing a preface for two plays by Maeterlinck.
• Sotheby’s; sale L04414; 2004; lot 38; view source | WBM (name of correspondent).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [c. Nov.-Dec. 1891]. Thanking the recipient for a sketch he had sent, and remembering with pleasure a visit to Worcester.
• Butterscotch; Important Estates; 30-31 Mar. 2019; lot 79; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79-104 (transcript; facsimile).
To William Heinemann, [Nov.-Dec. 1891]. Apologising for not having written the preface to Heinemann’s translation of Maeterlinck’s Princess Maleine.
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 817, n. 33 (quotation of original at the British Library, RP 3753).
To Benoît-Constant Coquelin, [6 Nov. 1891].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 Oct. 2024). Asks for a meeting at the recipient’s home on the following day to discuss his (Wilde’s) ‘comedie moderne’, which is going to be performed at the St. James’s Theatre. Wilde wishes for the play to be performed in Paris and desires Coquelin’s advice. In French. So dated because the letter appears to precede one published in Holland & Hart-Davis (p. 493), postmarked 6 Nov. 1891, in which Wilde thanks Coquelin for agreeing to a meeting on the following morning. Although Bergé speculates that the ‘modern comedy’ is Salomé, it must be Lady Windermere’s Fan: the latter play opened at the St. James’s on 20 Feb. 1892 and, unlike Salomé, was a modern comedy. Holland & Hart-Davis (pp. 491n2, 493n3) are unsure whether the play Wilde was touting in Paris was Salomé or Lady Windermere’s Fan, even though a later letter to the Princess of Monaco (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 495) confirms, as the editors note, that Wilde had met with Coquelin to discuss Lady Windermere’s Fan. The present letter settles the question: Wilde sought Coquelin’s advice on translating Lady Windermere’s Fan for production in Paris. The production did not go ahead.
• Pierre Bergé; Manuscrits, autographes, livres anciens et modernes; 3 Nov. 2005; p. 28; lot 102; view source | WBM (partial transcript; facsimile, last two pages of 3 or 4)
To Gordon Ross, n.d. [?1892-1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May 2023). Agreeing to dine at Willis’ Rooms on Friday. So dated because, although the letter was written from 16 Tite Street and therefore could been written as early as 1885, it seems more likely that Wilde would have dined at Willis’ during the period coinciding with his success as a dramatist (I welcome corrections).
• Courvile, E. H. (ed.), Autograph Prices Current, Vol. 2, 1916-1917; p. 206; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Alfred Holles, n.d. [?1892]. Inviting him to dine. So dated because Holles was appearing in Lady Windermere’s Fan in 1892.
• Swann Galleries; sale 2043; 12 May 2005; lot 357; view source | WBM (facsimile).
To Miss Curtis, n.d. [Feb. 1892-Apr. 1895]. Enclosing a slip granting entrance to any matinee she likes. Dated according to the stationery (Lyric Club) and the dates between which Wilde’s drawing room plays were staged in London.
• Clark Library; W6721L C978.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 55 (transcript).
To Elisabeth Marbury, n.d. [Feb. 1892-Apr. 1895]. On 16 Tite Street stationery. Promising to send Vera and a photograph. Hopes that if [Charles] Frohman does not want ‘the play’, perhaps [A. M.] Palmer will take it. Marbury was Wilde’s American agent. The pair had met in 1882, but Sturgis (Oscar: A Life, p. 451) dates the beginning of their business relationship to after the London premiere of Lady Windermere’s Fan. Palmer produced Lady Windermere’s Fan in Boston and New York. Although Wilde mentions Vera by name in this letter, ‘the play’ is extremely unlikely to have been Vera, which Wilde had offered to Palmer in late 1882 (see his letter to Palmer, above) and which had flopped in New York in 1883. During discussions about Lady Windermere’s Fan or a later play, Marbury had presumably asked for a copy of Vera, not so she could offer it to managers but because she wanted to read it.
• Lot 440 on p. 67 of an unidentified auction catalogue that is part of the Eccles bequest at the British Library, Add MS 81848. The catalogue refers to Rupert Hart-Davis’s collection(s) of Wilde’s letters, so must date to 1962 or later. In the margin someone, presumably Lady Eccles, has written ‘not in Coll. letts. (2000)’, a reference to Holland & Hart-Davis’s Complete Letters.
To Byron Webber, n.d. [Feb. 1892-Apr. 1895].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 May 2023). Expressing his great pleasure at a review of his play. Webber, a journalist, had presumably reviewed one of Wilde’s drawing room plays.
• Merwin-Clayton Sales Company; Catalogue of Elegant and Rare books from the Library of Mr. John Kendrick Bangs; 8-10 Feb. 1905; p. 147; item 1087; view source (quotation).
To Katrine, Countess Cowper, n.d. [c. Feb. 1892]. Hopes she will see his play ‘on modern life’. This was presumably Lady Windermere’s Fan, which opened on 20 February 1892.
• Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, Autograph letters scrapbook compiled by Countess Cowper, DE/P/F587; view source | WBM (description).
To ‘Gilbert’, n.d. [?Feb. 1892. ?Apr.-May 1893]. Inviting him to supper if he is well. So dated because other letters Wilde wrote from the Hotel Albemarle survive from these times, which coincide with the openings of his first two society comedies.
• Clark Library; W6721L U58.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 49 (transcript).
To ‘Frank’ [?Frank Richardson], n.d. [?late Feb. 1892, ?late Apr. 1893].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter and suggesting Richardson as a possible recipient (personal communication, 23 Aug. 2023]. Returning what is likely to be a cheque in payment for a ticket to one of Wilde’s plays. So dated because written from the Hotel Albemarle, and to follow the premieres of the first two society comedies. Sotheby’s suggests the recipient may be Frank Harris; Frank Richardson is perhaps more likely.
• Sotheby’s; Catalogue of modern first editions, 11-12 Mar. 1968; p. 124; lot 727; view source (quotation).
To George Ives, c. 14 Aug. 1892. Content unknown. Ives records in his diary that he received a letter from Wilde on 14 Aug. 1892. The letter appears to have been lost.
• Stokes, J. (1996) Oscar Wilde: Myths, Miracles, and Imitations, p. 69 (existence).
To [Charles] Cartwright, n.d. [?1893–1894].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Sotheby’s sale (personal communication, 24 Sep. 2024). Commenting that politics are inartistic, complaining about feeling ill, and complimenting the recipient’s contempt for the English stage. The Sotheby’s catalogue quotes more fully from the letter, which is described as addressed from ‘New Travellers Club (16, Tite Street)’, suggesting that it was on club stationery but that Wilde had inscribed his home address. The recipient must be the Charles Cartwright who was an actor-manager, as this letter was sold alongside another letter from Wilde to the same recipient (lot 908 in the Sotheby’s sale) in which the recipient’s identity is clear. Wilde’s earliest known letter to Cartwright is dated [?2 Feb. 1891] (see Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 467). However, the present letter is tentatively dated to [?1893–1894] because this is the date range applied to the earliest known letter Wilde wrote from the New Travellers Club (see Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 580; also, pp. 591, 592, 594). I am unsure when Wilde joined the club. He resigned from it upon his arrest (see Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 642).
• Sotheby’s; Catalogue of Valuable Printed Books and Literary Manuscripts [etc]; 18–21 Jun. 1928; lot 907; view source | Archive (quotation).
• Hodgson & Co.; A Catalogue of Books Both Old and Modern; 4-6 Dec. 1929; lot 277; view source (quotation).
To Herbert Beerbohn Tree, [c. 1893]. Possibly discussing his next play [An Ideal Husband].
• Sotheby’s; sale L04414; 2004; lot 63; view source | WBM (description).
To Aimée Danielle Beringer, [1893]. Offering her daughter a small role in a provincial production of Lady Windermere’s Fan.
• Sotheby’s; Fine Autograph Letters and Manuscripts From a Distinguished Private Collection: Part II; sale N09920; 13 Dec. 2018; lot 313; view source | WBM (transcript).
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79-104 (partial transcript).
• Swann Galleries; LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History; 18 Aug. 2022; sale 2613; lot 6; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, p. 1 & 4 of 4).
To [Paul] Bonnefon, [1893]. Acknowledging receipt of Bonnefon’s book.
• Trinity College Library Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/3; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
To Jules Clarétie, [?c. Feb. 1893].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 12 Aug. 2024). Offers a copy of Salomé. Wilde writes to the general administrator of the Théâtre Français of a play he plans to write. So dated because the French edition of Salomé was published in February 1893.
• Pierre Bergé & Associés; Old and Modern Books; 23 Jun. 2009; Lot 2; view source | WBM (description). A small facsimile of p. 4 of 4 can be seen in the catalogue, p. 26 : view source | WBM.
To Alfred Taylor, 7 Mar. 1893. Asks him to call at the Savoy at 6 o’clock.
• Holland, M. (2003) Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde, p. 160; view source (transcript).
To Alfred Taylor, 10 Mar. 1893. Calling off a meeting at the Savoy (possibly the meeting referred to in the previous telegram) as he has to meet with [Herbert Beerbohm] Tree.
• Holland, M. (2003) Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde, p. 162; view source (transcript).
To Pierre Louÿs, n.d. [?18 Apr. 1893].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 27 Aug. 2024). In French. Informing the recipient of arrangements for lunch, dinner, and supper tomorrow. Supper will be after the theatre at Wilde’s hotel (the letter is on stationery of the Hotel Albemarle). So dated because A Woman of No Importance premiered on 19 Apr. 1893, and there survives a letter to John Lane from the Hotel Albemarle accompanying a ticket for an unidentified play – Lane was to be seated next to Louÿs (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 561). Signature House date the letter to 19 Apr. 1893, presumably based on the Lane letter but without correcting for the reference to ‘demain [tomorrow]’.
• Signature House; Auction XXIV - Autographs & Memorabilia; 2 May 2004; lot 633; view source (free account necessary) | Archive (translated transcript; facsimile).
To Stanhope Ward, [19 Apr. 1893]. Thanking the recipient for a gift. On stationery of the Hotel Albemarle.
• Clark Library; W6721L W2633 (facsimile available at Gale Primary Sources: British Literary Manuscripts Online).
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 49 (transcript).
To Pierre Louÿs, 28 Apr. [1893]. Acknowledging receipt of Louÿs’s letter acknowledging receipt of the proof dedicatory page of Salomé.
• Bonhams; sale 14787; 18 Feb. 2007; lot 253; view source | WBM (transcript, presumably partial).
To Adrian Clifford, n.d. [postmarked 3 May 1893].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 24 Oct. 2024). Accepting the post of Vice-President of the ‘Dramatic Club’, and congratulating the recipient on having Hermann Vezin as the President. On stationery of the Hotel Albemarle. An announcement in ‘Theatrical and Musical Intelligence’, The Morning Post (London, UK), 15 May 1893, 3, reads ‘The ever-increasing band of non-professional actors will be gratified to learn that a new dramatic club has been formed under the style and title of “The Garrick.” Its object is the performance, in London and the suburbs, of Shakespearean and other standards as well as modern plays of literary excellence. The Club will have the advantage of being in connection with a Shakespearean Reading Society, to which all members will have free ingress. Mr. Hermann Vezin is President, Mr. Oscar Wilde Vice-President, and Mr. Adrian Clifford hon. secretary.’ Other press reports from this time refer to the club as the ‘Garrick Amateur Dramatic Club’. A club by this name appears to have been active in the UK until at least 1898.
• Sotheby’s; English Literature and History; 13 Dec. 1990; lot 192 (quotation)
To G. H. Ellnanger, postmarked 27 May 1893. Asking the recipient to call on him at his rooms in St James’s Place.
• Clark Library; W6721L E475.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 48 (transcript).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [Jun.-Sep. 1893]. Writing from The Cottage in Goring-on-Thames, where he stayed in the Summer of 1893, apparently in response to an invitation to attend a ‘conversazione’ in London.
• Small, I. (2001) Some unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Courier, 338, 135-41, 140, view source (transcript).
To Percy Osborne, n.d. [Jun.-Sep. 1893]. Notifying the recipient that a previous letter he (Wilde) had sent had been returned to him. Dated according to the address (The Cottage in Goring-on-Thames).
• Clark Library; W6721L O81.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 49 (transcript).
To Alfred Taylor, 21 Aug. 1893. Apologises for being unable to manage dinner tomorrow.
• Holland, M. (2003) Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde, p. 161; view source (transcript).
To an unknown correspondent, n.d. [?Oct. 1893–Mar. 1894].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 Jan. 2024). Informing a publisher of his address, where he goes every day to work on an unspecified play. So dated because the address may be St James’s Place, where Wilde took rooms between October 1893 and March 1894 to write An Ideal Husband.
• Dulau & Company; p. 85; lot 1046; view source (Hathitrust) | Archive (possibly partial transcript).
To Bram Stoker, [?1894]. Asking him to come at noon.
• Clark Library; W6721L S8744.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, pp. 53-4 (transcript).
To Harry [Morell], [1894]. Asking him to wire Lewis Waller on his behalf. So dated because this appears to be in reference to negotiations for the staging of An Ideal Husband.
• Trinity College Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/4; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 827-8, n. 17 (partial transcript).
To an unknown correspondent [?Philip Houghton], [?Mar.-Apr. 1894]. Thanking him for sending the text of a lecture and a photograph. There are two letters on p. 586 of Holland & Hart-Davis that are identified as addressed to Houghton, and a comparison of the content suggests that they precede this letter.
• Wilde, O. (1907) The Writings of Oscar Wilde: Epigrams, p. 224-7; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (facsimile).
To an unidentified correspondent, 26 Mar. [?1894]. Dated from ‘Hotel Voltaire, Quai Voltaire, [Paris]’. Wilde does not know if he can provide the information the correspondent asks for, but invites the correspondent to visit him at his home on Wednesday. Wilde stayed at the Hotel Voltaire in the spring of 1883, but was still there by 28 April (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 209). It seems more likely that the letter dates to 1894: Norman Page’s chronology (p. 56) states that Wilde visited Paris in March of that year to meet Lord Alfred Douglas, and returned to London by the end of the month.
• Pace Auctions; Antique and Estate Auction; 17 May 2016; lot 0326; view source | WBM (low resolution but legible facsimile).
To a representative of The Press, [c. 7 & 14 Jul. 1894]. A series of telegrams in which Wilde refuses to be interviewed.
• The Press, (New York, NY), 8 Jul. 1894, 7; 15 Jul. 1894, 3; view source (transcripts).
• Marland, R. (2022) Oscar Wilde: The Complete Interviews, pp. 640-1 (transcripts).
To an unidentified correspondent, 26 Apr. [1894]. Enclosing a cheque for payment of balance of rent on the Goring property. The British Library gives the date as 27 April.
• British Library; RP 6688/11 view source (quotation).
• Sturgis, M. (2018) Oscar: A Life, p. 827, n. 7 (presumably partial transcript).
To Paul de Real, n.d., [?postmarked] 4 Jul. 1894.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). Inviting the recipient for tea. The letter is undated but was sold with the envelope. The date is presumably a postmark. The word that International Autograph Auctions reads as ‘receiving’ appears to be ‘renewing’, which implies that Wilde had not met with Monsieur Real, as he addresses the recipient, for some time.
• International Autograph Auctions; Autograph Auction; 5 Dec. 2015; lot 442; view source | Archive (transcript; facsimile)
To [Charles] Cartwright, n.d. [Aug.–Oct. 1894].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 24 Sep. 2024). Requesting his fees for an Australian production of Lady Windermere’s Fan and expressing the hope that the recipient has a good part in the production. Sold with another letter to Cartright (lot 907 in the Sotheby’s sale). Addressed from ‘The Haven, Esplanade, Worthing’. Wilde arrived for his summer holiday in Worthing on or about 10 August 1894 and departed for Brighton on 4 October (Edmonds, A. (2014) Oscar Wilde’s Scandalous Summer, pp. 31, 107).
• Sotheby’s; Catalogue of Valuable Printed Books and Literary Manuscripts [etc]; 18–21 Jun. 1928; lot 908; view source | Archive (quotation).
To William J. Williams, Sep. 1894. Providing an autograph at the request of Lillie Langtry. An envelope sold with the letter identifies the recipient and his address at Kennett, Newmarket. The recipient is possibly the William J. Williams born about 1860 in Kennett, whose father was an innkeeper.
• Heritage Auctions; 2006 October Grand Format Autographs Auction; sale 629; 13 Oct. 2006; lot 25900; view source | WBM (transcript, presumably complete; low resolution but legible facsimile of p. 1 of 2).
To an unidentified correspondent, Sep. 1894. Providing an autograph.
• Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 54 (transcript).
To ‘Frank’ [?Richardson], [?c. Mar. 1891 or Jan. 1894 or Oct. 1894]. Asks for more information on his work as a playwright. Sent from Brighton, where Wilde stayed several times.
• The catalogue of the Stetson auction; p. 65; lot 366; view source (quotation).
To Arthur Humphreys, 29 Sep. 1894. A postcard from Worthing.
• The Anderson Galleries; sale 2208; lot 699, p. 76; view source (existence).
To John Lane, n.d. [c. Oct. 1894].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter and identifying the recipient (personal communication, 8 May 2023). Asking an unidentified correspondent who must be John Lane, the publisher of his plays, to send three copies of the revised proof of A Woman of No Importance.
• Dobell’s; A Catalogue of Rare and Valuable Books; catalogue 75; 1928; p. 36; item 482; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To the editor of the New York Herald, European edition, [early Nov. 1894]. Expressing his opinions on the writings of Paul Bourget.
• New York Herald, European edition (Paris, France), 12 Nov. 1894, 3; view source (transcript, possibly partial).
To Charles Alexander Joachim Devaux, n.d. [postmark 8 Nov. 1894]. Wilde grants the correspondent permission to translate his plays into German, though acknowledges that he had ‘three years ago’ granted Dr Oskar Blumenthal permission to produce Lady Windermere’s Fan in Berlin. The contract with Blumenthal dates to May 1892 (see the Dulau Catalogue, p. 105). The correspondent, whose name was previously read as ‘Durand’, is identified by Yvonne Ivory in her 2023 article.
• RR Auction; Fine Autographs and Artifacts; 13 May 2020; lot 725; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• Mead, D. (2022) More unpublished Oscar Wilde letters, The Wildean, 61, 79-104 (transcript; facsimile).
• Ivory, Y. (2023) On Wilde’s letter to Charles Alexander Joachim Devaux and Devaux’s connections to Carlos Blacker and Constance Wilde, The Wildean, 62, 107-15 (facsimile of envelope).
To Ada Leverson, n.d.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the American Art Association sale of the letter (personal communication, 5 Jun. 2023). Responding to an invitation to dine. This and the following undated letters are placed here arbitrarily.
• The catalogue of the Stetson auction; p. 58; lot 322; view source (quotation).
• American Art Association; The Notable Library of Major W. Van R. Whitall; 14-16 Feb. 1927; lot 1367; view source (HathiTrust) (quotation, more extensive than in the Stetson catalogue).
To Ada Leverson, n.d. Thanking her for flowers.
• The catalogue of the Stetson auction; p. 60; lot 327; view source (quotation).
To ‘Robert’ [?Ross ?Sherard], n.d. A note to say that he is hurrying to see a dentist.
• The Anderson Galleries; sale 1760; lot 298, p. 33; view source (quotation).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 5 Jun. 2023). A postcard thanking a ‘chivalrous and pure minded woman’ for her ‘noble and beautiful letter’.
• The Anderson Galleries; 18 May 1928; sale 2275; lot 273; view source (description).
To Mr Bernstein, n.d. The Morgan notes that this letter is probably a forgery.
• The Morgan Library; MA 4500, 189181; view source (existence).
To Arthur L. Humphreys, n.d. [?1895]. To the publisher of Oscariana concerning a proposed Copeland and Day edition of that book.
• James Cummins Bookseller; 52nd Annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair; 12 Apr. 2012; lot 157; p. 29; view source | WBM (description).
• International Autograph Auctions; 24 May 2018; lot 122; view source | WBM (quotation)
To [Arthur L.] Humphrey[s], n.d. [?14 Feb. 1895]. Asking if he got his seat tonight. So dated because Wilde sent other letters from the Avondale Hotel in February 1895. These include a letter to Arthur Humphreys c. 12 February enclosing a ticket for the opening night of The Importance of Being Earnest (14 February).
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 441; autumn 1923; p. 257; item 2169; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Major Nelson, n.d. [Aug. 1896-May 1897]. A note thanking the governor of Reading Prison for his letter and for returning Wilde’s stationery. So dated according to Nelson’s arrival at Reading and Wilde’s release. The handwriting is suspiciously unlike Wilde’s.
• Freeman’s; Books, Maps & Manuscripts; 30 Sep. 2016; lot 277; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To Rev. James Adderley, n.d. [c. 12 May 1897]. Asking him to arrange a visit via the Prison Commissioners: ‘I go out on Wednesday morning, so let it be soon.’ Wilde was released from prison on Wednesday 19 May 1897. Adderley claimed in his autobiography to have visited Wilde at Reading Prison the day before his release (Adderley, J. (1916) In Slums and Society, p. 178-9); view source.
• Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge; Catalogue of Valuable Printed Books and Illuminated Manuscripts; 27-29 Mar. 1922; p. 83; lot 682; view source (partial transcript).
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 443; 1923; p. 576; item 3084; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (partial transcript).
To Henrietta Stannard, n.d. [?early June 1897].I thank Thomas Wright for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 27 Jun. 2024). A postcard. Wilde apologises for staying two and half hours with Stannard the other day. He also apparently agrees to another visit, and confirms that he likes gooseberry tart. Signed Sebastian Melmoth. So dated because Wilde is known to have visited the Stannards in Dieppe several times in the weeks after his release from prison, and because the text of the postcard implies that Wilde is referring to an early – or even his first – visit to the Stannards’. In a letter to Stannard that Holland & Hart-Davis date to 28 May 1897 (p. 857), Wilde hopes to visit the Stannards for the first time on the following day.
• Christie’s; Online Auction 23113, Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana; 27 Jun. 2024; Lot 88; view source | WBM | Archive (quotation; facsimile, p. 2 of 2).
To [Henry D.] Davray, [c. 3 Jun. 1897]. Thanking him for sending books. Dated accorded to the address (Berneval-sur-Mer), and Wilde mentioning that Ernest Dowson is with him.
• Christie’s; The Halsted B.Vander Poel Collection of English Literature; sale 6973; 3 Mar. 2004; lot 254; view source | WBM (quotation).
• Trinity College Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/6; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
• Wright, T. (2008) Oscar’s Books, p. 278, n24 (quotation).
To Carlos Blacker, 21 Jul. [1897]. Congratulating him on the birth of a child.
• Sotheby’s; Fine Autograph Letters and Manuscripts From a Distinguished Private Collection: Part II; sale N09920; 13 Dec. 2018; lot 314; view source | WBM (transcript; low resolution but legible facsimile of p. 1 of 2).
• Mead, D. (2019) Oscar Wilde letters at auction at Sotheby’s, New York, 13 December 2018, Intentions, 109, 9-16 (transcript; facsimile, p. 1 of 2).
To Leonard Smithers, 15 Oct. 1897. Asking for £20 via Cook’s and stating that ‘mental anxiety is not good for poets.’ The description of this letter resembles another that Holland & Hart-Davis date to [?4 Nov. 1897] (p. 977). Holland & Hart-Davis’s tentative date is based, at least partly, on Wilde dating the letter to ‘Thursday night’. Wright & Jones date their letter to 15 Oct. 1897, which was a Friday. They may have obtained this date from a postmarked envelope that has not survived. This would leave open the possibility that the letters are one and the same and that Holland & Hart-Davis’s date is incorrect. Another possibility is that the letters are distinct: Wilde could have used the ‘mental anxiety’ line multiple times, and he mentions in the letter in Holland & Hart-Davis that he has asked Smithers to send the money before.
• Wright & Jones clipping [?c. 1904]; item 636; Jissen Women’s University, Hisao Honma Collection, Scrapbook 3.194; view source (description with quotation).
To Leonard Smithers, 17 Nov. 1897.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Referring to the sale of copyrights of An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. Letters that survive only as descriptions in auction catalogues must be treated with caution, but it is worth noting that Hodgson offered this letter for sale with another (lot 211) the original of which has survived and is included in Holland & Hart-Davis (p. 1110).
• Hodgson & Co.; A Catalogue of Valuable Miscellaneous Books; 21-23 Jun. 1910; p. 11, lot 208; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (description).
To Leonard Smithers, 13 Dec. 1897.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May 2023). Concerning proofs of The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
• Auction Sale Prices (Supplement to The Connoisseur), 30 Nov. 1904; p. 283; lot 560; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Maurice Gilbert, [1898-1900]. Inviting him to breakfast.
• Clark Library; W6721L G4655.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 54 (transcript).
To Leonard Smithers, [17 Feb. 1898].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 May 2023). Expressing his delight at the success of The Ballad of Reading Gaol, and asking the publisher to better advertise the poem.
• American Art Association; 16-17 Nov. 1926; lot 458; view source (transcript).
To Leonard Smithers, 20 Feb. 1898.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Referring to The Ballad of Reading Gaol and giving names of persons to whom presentation copies should be sent. A letter to Smithers held at Princeton that contains a list of persons who should receive presentation copies of the ballad is tentatively dated by the editors of Wilde’s letters to 18 Feb. 1898 (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 1017-18), and there is a possibility that this letter and the Princeton letter are one and the same. Arguing against this possibility is the fact that Hodgson offered the letter for sale with an envelope (presumably postmarked) and that letters survive from the days after 18 Feb. 1898 in which Wilde attempts to arrange for Smithers to be sent additional names and addresses. Letters that survive only as descriptions in auction catalogues must be treated with caution, but it is worth noting that Hodgson offered this letter for sale with another (lot 211) the original of which has survived and is included in Holland & Hart-Davis (p. 1110).
• Hodgson & Co.; A Catalogue of Valuable Miscellaneous Books; 21-23 Jun. 1910; p. 11, lot 210; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (description).
To Leonard Smithers, 21 Feb. 1898.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Referring to one of his poems and an interview from a New York journal (this interview, if it is with Wilde himself, is untraced). Letters that survive only as descriptions in auction catalogues must be treated with caution, but it is worth noting that Hodgson offered this letter for sale with another (lot 211) the original of which has survived and is included in Holland & Hart-Davis (p. 1110).
• Hodgson & Co.; A Catalogue of Valuable Miscellaneous Books; 21-23 Jun. 1910; p. 11, lot 209; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (description).
To Leonard Smithers, [24 Feb. 1898].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 May 2023). Inviting his publisher to drink absinthe and breakfast on hors d’oeuvres.
• Brentano’s Book Stores; [1936]; catalogue 56; p. 42; item 610; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (description).
To Leonard Smithers, [c. spring 1898]. Thanking him for sending a newly published play [An Ideal Husband], and enquiring about the sale of some Irish property. From the Hôtel d’Alsace. On squared paper. This letter must be treated as suspicious, as Holland & Hart-Davis (p. xviii) note that some of the forged Wilde letters still in circulation are addressed to Smithers, purport to have been written in 1898–1900, and are on squared or ruled paper. The hand does look like Wilde’s, however, so if this is a forgery it is a sophisticated one.
• The Pall Mall Gazette, 6 July 1911, 10; view source (quotation).
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, pp. 61-2 (transcript, from a transcript at the Clark Library).
• Christie’s; Valuable Printed Books & Manuscripts incl. Maps & Atlases; sale 7088; 16 Nov. 2005; lot 90; view source | WBM (quotation).
• Trinity College Library Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/10; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
To ‘Wilmot’, [?c. spring 1898]. Asking him to find Arthur Clifton and ‘get some information concerning that tiresome Dublin business’. From Paris. So dated because it appears to deal with the same subject as the Leonard Smithers letter of spring 1898. This letter must be treated as suspicious, as Holland & Hart-Davis (p. xviii) note that some of the forged Wilde letters still in circulation mention Arthur Clifton and purport to have been written in 1898–1900.
• The Anderson Galleries; sale 1565; lot 432; p. 80; view source (quotation).
To ‘Gibbs’, [?c. spring 1898].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 Oct. 2024). Asks about his Irish property and mentions Arthur Clifton. Concludes with ‘Things are going from bad to worse with me’. From the Hôtel d’Alsace. So dated because it appears to deal with the same subject as the Leonard Smithers letter of spring 1898. This letter must be treated as suspicious, as Holland & Hart-Davis (p. xviii) note that some of the forged Wilde letters still in circulation mention Arthur Clifton and purport to have been written in 1898–1900.
• James Tregaskis; The 919th Caxton Head Catalogue; Apr. 1926; item 418; p. 68; view source (HathiTrust) | WBM (quotation)
To Leonard Smithers, n.d. [?Mar.–Apr. 1898].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of these letters (personal communication, 12 Dec. 2024). Three undated letters, from Paris. The letters are quoted but there is no indication as to which quotations belong to which letters. Wilde asks Smithers to let him know ‘the result of the Dorian Gray affair’; the reference is obscure. He also asks if Smithers will ‘find how things are going with C—— and Beardsley’. The redacted name is likely Constance. Beardsley died on 16 Mar. 1898; Constance, on 7 Apr. 1898. Wilde states that ‘The patron is not all I should like’. This may be a reference to Jean Dupoirier, the patron of the Hôtel d’Alsace, into which Wilde moved at the end of March 1898, though Wilde appears to have liked Dupoirier. He may, therefore, be referring to the patron of his previous hotel, the Hôtel de Nice, or of some other hotel. Wilde asks for £9. There do not appear to be any references to this sum in Wilde’s collected correspondence.
• Sotheby’s; 30 Jun. 1925; p. 51; lot 472; view source (quotation)
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [?Mar.-Dec. 1898 / Aug. 1899 - Nov. 1900].I thank Gregory Mackie for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 10 June 2023). In French. Wilde thanks a ‘grand amie’ for her charming letter, and seeks to arrange a meeting with her at her home or a café. Dated according to the address (Hôtel d’Alsace). The earlier of the two possible periods seems the more likely.
• Displayed in the lobby of L’Hôtel, Rue des Beaux Arts, Paris, France (original with facsimile of page 2 of 2)
To Leonard Smithers, n.d. [?Mar. 1898 – Jun. 1900]. Thanking him for a cheque and encouraging him to visit soon. The letter may date from as early as November 1897, when Smithers appears to have begun sending Wilde money (see Holland & Hart-Davis, 977), but is more likely to have been sent between early spring 1898, when cheques from Smithers became more frequent (H&HD, 1031), and late spring of 1900, when Smithers’s finances began to collapse and cheques appear to have stopped (H&HD, 1188).
• Sotheby’s; Books & Manuscripts; 3 Jun. 2014; lot 153; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile)
To Henry D. Davray, n.d. [Mar.–Apr. 1898].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 28 Oct. 2023). Wilde returns the proofs of The Ballad of Reading Gaol, asking Davray to see that the stanza of six lines are [sic] marked by an interval and not to omit the ‘In Memoriam’ notice that is present in the English edition. Davray received a letter from Wilde on 4 Dec. 1897 about Smithers’s idea to have Wilde’s poem, which can only be The Ballad, ‘published in a popular, inexpensive edition’, presumably in a French translation (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 1000). Wilde promised to send Davray a copy. Davray’s positive review of The Ballad appeared in the April edition of the Mercure de France (view source). In a letter dated tentatively to c. 1 March (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 1028), Wilde thanked Davray for the review and asked him to translate the poem. Davray agreed to this and, as the present letter shows, sent proofs to Wilde. Davray’s translation of The Ballad was printed in the May edition of the Mercure de France (view source). Contrary to Wilde’s instruction, the ‘In Memoriam’ notice was not included.
• James Tregaskis & Son; Autographs, Old Deeds &c; Caxton Head Catalogue 980; 1930; p. 69; item 266; view source (quotation).
To [?Robert Buchanan], [?Mar. 1898].I thank John Cooper for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 22 Aug. 2023). Describing the warders at Reading Gaol. Sold by Sotheby’s tipped into a copy of The Ballad of Reading Gaol that was inscribed to Robert Buchanan and dated March 1898. The account of the auction in The Yorkshire Post explicitly identifies Buchanan as the recipient. Buchanan had written a letter to the press after Wilde’s arrest, defending the playwright (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 710, n. 1).
• ‘Galsworthy First Editions’, The Glasgow Herald (Glasgow, UK), 27 Jun. 1929, 13; view source (description).
• ‘High Book Prices’, The Yorkshire Post (Leeds, UK), 27 Jun. 1929, 10; view source (description).
To Robert Ross, 7 May 1898.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May and 22 Jun. 2023). Asking Ross to pay Carlos Blacker Wilde’s first quarterly allowance of £37 and 10 shillings. Wilde considered the first quarter to begin in May, as it was in May 1897 that he was released from prison and received the first portion of his allowance (Holland & Hart-Davis, 1062). Wilde wrote to Carlos Blacker on 9 May 1898 asking him for an ‘advance’ (that is, a loan) of £37.10s.0d, and proposing that Ross would repay the money when he received it from the trustees, which Wilde expected might not be until July (Holland & Hart-Davis, 1063).
• The Anderson Galleries; Rare Books ... collected by Lewis Buddy 3d of New York; sale 779; 9 Nov. 1909; p. 72, lot 616; view source (HathiTrust) (transcript).
To Leonard Smithers, [29 Jul. 1898]. Mentioning his financial difficulties and describing a dinner party.
• Wright & Jones clipping [?c. 1904]; item 633; Jissen Women’s University, Hisao Honma Collection, Scrapbook 3.194; view source (description).
To Alfred Vallette, n.d. [post-September 1898]. Asking him to distribute six copies of The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
• Trinity College Library Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/11; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
To Henry D. Davray, 13 Dec. 1898. Sending news of Frank Harris, who was staying at the Ritz.
• Christie’s; The Halsted B. Vander Poel Collection of English Literature; sale 6973; 3 Mar. 2004; lot 255; view source | WBM (quotation).
• Trinity College Library Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/12; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
To Leonard Smithers, [?1899-1900]. Requesting that he send £5, as Wilde is ‘face to face with starvation and death’. Spencer states that the letter was written shortly before Wilde’s death, but it could have been written earlier; Wilde requested the same sum from Smithers in March 1899 (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 1130) and there are other examples of Wilde requesting (and receiving) the same or similar sums from Smithers and others during his last two years.
• Spencer, W. T. (1923) Forty Years in My Bookshop, p. 243; view source (quotation).
To [Arthur L.] Humphrey[s], n.d., Paris [c. 1899]. Thanking him for his kind letter and ‘enclosure’. I infer that Humphreys is the correspondent as another letter in this sale (lot 2169) is also identified as to a ‘Mr. Humphrey’ when it should clearly be Humphreys.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 441; autumn 1923; p. 257; item 2168; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To [?Leonard Smithers], [?mid-Feb.] 1899.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Referring to the proprietor of his hotel and the payment of his bill: ‘I have given him some epigrams on account’. The letter is described as addressed from Cannes, but it most likely dates to February 1899 when Wilde was staying at the Hotel Terminus in Nice and got into trouble over the payment of his bill (see Holland & Hart-Davis, pp. 1123-6). Hodgson does not indicate to whom the letter was sent, but as it was offered for sale with others to Leonard Smithers it seems likely that Wilde’s publisher was the recipient. Letters that survive only as quotations in auction catalogues must be treated with caution, but it is worth noting that Hodgson offered this letter for sale with another (lot 211) the original of which has survived and is included in Holland & Hart-Davis (p. 1110).
• Hodgson & Co.; A Catalogue of Valuable Miscellaneous Books; 21-23 Jun. 1910; p. 12, lot 212; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Frances Harrod, May 1899. Congratulating her on her marriage.
• Sturgis, M. (2020) Wildeana, pp. 220-2 (transcript).
To Leonard Smithers, n.d. [?summer 1899].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 19 May 2023). Mentioning Mrs Brown-Potter and hoping that she will not repeat anything about the Venice jaunt in the spring. So dated because Wilde was negotiating with Brown-Potter in the summer of 1899 about the production of a play, although the date of the projected Venice jaunt is unknown and the letter could date to another time (Wilde appears to have contemplated a visit to Venice in September 1897; Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 935).
• Francis Edwards; Catalogue of Rare and Interesting Autograph Letters etc; Oct. 1915; p. 72; item 769; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
• Herbert, A. J. (ed.), Autograph Prices Current, Vol. 6, 1921-1922; p. 177; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Leonard Smithers, [?summer 1899]. Regarding the return of a manuscript and arrangements about Venice. So dated because the projected Venice trip is probably the same one referred to in another letter to Smithers (above).
• The catalogue of the Stetson auction; lot 348; p. 63; view source (quotation).
To Leonard Smithers, n.d. [c. 23 Jun. 1899].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Christie’s sale (personal communication, 18 Dec. 2023). Asks Smithers to loan him £10, which Robert Ross will repay on 1 July. Wilde mentions having sent a telegram on the same subject to Smithers ‘today’; the telegram is dated 23 Jun. 1899 (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 1154).
• Wright & Jones clipping [?c. 1904]; item 622; Jissen Women’s University, Hisao Honma Collection, Scrapbook 3.194; view source (description).
• Christie’s; Printed Books and Manuscripts; 16 May 1986; lot 124 (quotation)
To Henry D. Davray, [c. Aug. 1899].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Sotheby’s sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). Alerting him to Wilde’s postal address at the Hôtel d’Alsace.
• Sotheyby’s; 12 Dec. 2002; lot 308; view source | Archive (quotation).
• Trinity College Library Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/13; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
To [Monsieur Georges], [c. Aug. 1899]. Requesting to have his letters forwarded to ‘Mr. Melmoth’ at the the Hôtel d’Alsace.
• Trinity College Library Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/14; view source | WBM (description; facsimile).
To ‘Mrs Cheveley’ [Florence West], [Oct.-Dec. 1899]. Informing her that he is receiving many requests to write plays, complimenting her on her recent stage successes, and writing of what he has seen in the Paris theatres. Dated according to the address (Hotel d’Alsace) and Wilde mentioning that Coquelin is currently acting in La Dame de Monsoreau, which opened on 9 Oct. 1899. Coquelin appeared in Les Miserables from 27 Dec. 1899. Ward created the role of Mrs Cheveley in Wilde’s An Ideal Husband.
• Norfolk Record Office; BOL 4/39; view source (existence).
• Marland, R. (2024) An unpublished letter from Oscar Wilde to Florence West, Notes and Queries, 71, 251–4; view source (transcript).
To [John Farrington], n.d. [Feb. - Mar. 1900]. Acknowledging receipt of £100 from Ada Rehan as an advance payment for a script. Wilde had sent an agreement to Farrington on 7 Feb. 1900 (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 1170). Therefore, though this letter is undated, it must have been written some time after that date. Wilde mentions that he will shortly depart for ‘the Riviera’, and so the letter was probably written before he fell ill in late February with what he thought was blood-poisoning by mussels, as he was then temporarily unable to leave Paris. However, it could also have been written after his recovery, but before he decided in late March to accept Harold Mellor’s invitation to accompany him to Italy. Farrington demanded the return of the advance in July and again in November.
• Maggs Bros; catalogue 303; Jan.-Feb. 1913; p. 163; item 757; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive (quotation).
To Maurice Gilbert, 2 Apr. [1900]. Informing the recipient of his arrival in Palermo.
• Clark Library; W6721L G4655.
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 55 (transcript).
Notes on Holland & Hart-Davis (2000)
To Harold Boulton, 23 Dec. 1879. Expressing regret that Boulton could not come to tea. This letter is on p. 85 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it is apparently incomplete. Wilde goes on to decline an invitation from Boulton’s mother.
• Sotheby’s; sale L04414; 2004; lot 7; view source | WBM (quotation).
To an unidentified correspondent, n.d. [c. Sep. 1880]. Forwarding a copy of Vera. This letter is on pp. 97-8 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original and there are a number of minor typos.
• Sotheby’s; Fine Autograph Letters and Manuscripts From a Distinguished Private Collection: Part II; sale N09920; 13 Dec. 2018; lot 308; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, p. 1 of 4).
• Sotheby’s; Fine Books and Manuscripts; 16 Jul. 2021; lot 177; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To J. M. Stoddart, [?18 Feb. 1882]. This letter is on pp. 128–9 of Holland & Hart-Davis. In p. 128 n3 the editors state that Wilde requested copies of various papers, including The New York Times, to be sent to friends and family. But by ‘today’s Times’, Wilde is very likely to have meant The Times of Philadelphia. He also requests copies of ‘today’s Press’ be sent – the Press was another Philadelphia paper. Interviews in the Press (Marland, R. (2022) Oscar Wilde: The Complete Interviews, pp. 70-8) and Times (pp. 81-3) both appeared on 17 January. The letter is therefore more likely to have been written on 17 than 18 February. Stoddart was then in Philadelphia and so in a better position than Wilde’s manager W. F. Morse to forward copies of Philadelphia papers.
To Mrs George Lewis, 12 Feb. 1882. This letter is on pp. 136-7 of Holland & Hart-Davis. Wilde mentions that he received a letter of introduction to Clarence Stedman from [James Russell] Lowell. There is no footnote in Holland & Hart-Davis about the letter from Lowell to Stedman, which was sold in 2023 by RR Auction.
• RR Auction; Fine Autographs and Artifacts Featuring Presidents; 8 Feb. 2023; lot 536; view source (WBM) (transcript; facsimile).
To Julia Ward Howe, n.d. [c. 16 Feb. 1882].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter’s appearance in the Anderson catalogue (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Thanking her for her kind letter. The letter is quoted in Holland & Hart-Davis (p. 175 n2), but the text is taken from American Book Prices Current, 1918, and more of the letter is quoted in the Anderson Galleries catalogue. Holland & Hart-Davis state that Wilde’s letter was written in response to Howe’s defence of him after he was attacked in the press in February 1882.
• Anderson Galleries; Rare Autographs from the Correspondence of Julia Ward Howe; sale 1319; 20-21 Dec. 1917; p. 17; lot 123; view source (transcript, presumably partial)
To Fanny Bernard-Beere, [17 Apr. 1882]. Regarding his tour of the western US. This letter is on pp. 161-2 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original. Wilde’s drawing of the Mormons in his Salt Lake City audience was redrawn for Martin Birnbaum’s Oscar Wilde, Fragments and Memories (view Birnbaum’s image). Birnbaum’s version was reproduced by Holland & Hart-Davis.
• Sotheby’s; sale N09920; lot 310; view source | WBM (partial transcript; facsimile, detail of drawing).
• Mead, D. (2019) Oscar Wilde letters at auction at Sotheby’s, New York, 13 December 2018, Intentions, 109, 9-16 (description; facsimile, detail of drawing).
To Colonel W. F. Morse, 17 Apr. [1882]. Regarding an offer to tour the South and ordering a new costume. This letter is on p. 163 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was taken from a transcript. The text is identical to that in the Merwin-Clayton catalogue, except that the catalogue text includes several ellipses, making it clear that the text has been abbreviated.
• Merwin-Clayton Sales Company; Catalogue of Elegant and Rare books from the Library of Mr. John Kendrick Bangs; 8-10 Feb. 1905; item 1081; view source (partial transcript).
To Norman Forbes-Robertson, 21 Apr. 1882. Regarding his activities in Kansas. This letter is on p. 165 of Holland & Hart-Davis. For ‘Mayor’ read ‘Major’.
• Quintus, J. A. (2024) Topeka peacock: Oscar Wilde’s letters from Topeka, Kansas, The Wildean, 65, 52–65 (transcript; facsimile).
To Homer Watson, [c. Oct. 1882].I thank Merlin Holland for explaining how the letter came to be dated to 1888 in the Complete Letters and why he now dates it to 1882 (personal communication, 20 mar. 2022). I also thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Alexander sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). This letter is on p. 341 of Holland & Hart-Davis. Wilde thanks Watson for a landscape, which has finally arrived. A transcript of the letter was printed in Kevin O’Brien’s Oscar Wilde in Canada (1983), p. 104, with the date of 15 February 1888. Rupert Hart-Davis relied on O’Brien, and the same date is given in Holland & Hart-Davis. But when the letter came up for sale in 2010 Holland noted that it was addressed in Wilde’s hand from ‘1267 Broadway, New York’ (the offices of Wilde’s manager, Richard D’Oyly Carte). Holland now dates the letter provisionally to October 1882. Wilde showed the landscape to William Hurlbert, editor of the World, in New York; Hurlbert at once commissioned a similar picture ([Arthur J. Graham], ‘The Week’, Canadian Illustrated News (Montreal, QC), 2 Dec. 1882, 354). The dating of the Canadian Illustrated News article means that the letter cannot have been written any later than Nov. 1882.
• Alexander Historical Auctions; 21 Jan. 2010; lot 1112; view source | Archive (partial transcript; facsimile, pp. 1 & 3 of 3).
• Osenat; 23 Mar. 2022; lot 102; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, p. 3 of 3).
To Samuel Ward, n.d. [c. 24 Oct. 1882]. This letter is on p. 187 of Holland & Hart-Davis. The editors give the address as 85 Clinton Place, but the letter was surely written to this address and not from it. Ward had rooms at 85 Clinton Place and not at 84 as Holland & Hart-Davis state (p. 128, n. 2; ‘The Aesthetic Poet’, The New York Times (New York, NY), 12 Jan. 1882, 5). Wilde informs Ward that he will ‘come back Friday morning’ (Wilde’s emphasis), which suggests that the letter was written from outside of New York. Holland & Hart-Davis so date the letter because Wilde mentions having a lunch for Lillie Langtry, who arrived in New York on 23 October 1882. It seems likely that Wilde wrote the letter from Bridgeton, New Jersey, where John Cooper has shown he lectured on Thursday 26 October.
To Mr [?Edwin Strachan] Morgan, n.d. [1885-1891]. Advice to a writer. This letter is on pp. 264-5 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original and the correspondent is not identified. The letter is addressed to a ‘Mr. Morgan’, but the possibility that the recipient is Edwin Strachan Morgan is suggested by the existence of another letter to that person in which Wilde critiques his writing (Holland & Hart-Davis, pp. 397-8).
• Bloomsbury Auctions; The Collection of Laurence W. Hodson; 4 Apr. 2013; lot 282; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, pp. 1 & 13 of 13).
To [E. T.] Cook, n.d. [c. 23 Nov. 1886].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 22 Jun. 2023). Expressing pleasure with an article of his in The Pall Mall Gazette. This letter is on pp. 288-9 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original and there are slight errors. Dawsons dates the letter to 1877 but there is no reason to doubt the date given in Complete Letters.
• Dawsons; The June Fine Art & Antiques Auction; 29 Jun. 2023; lot 219; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
To W. E. Henley, [? Dec. 1888].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of Henley’s letter to Wilde (personal communication, 10 Oct. 2024). This letter is on p. 372 of Holland & Hart-Davis. It is a reply to Henley’s letter to Wilde, thanking him for a copy of The Happy Prince and Other Tales and comparing the work to Flaubert’s La Tentation de saint Antoine and Salammbô. Henley’s letter is dated 27 Nov. 1888, so Wilde’s reply can now be dated more accurately to late Nov. or early Dec. 1888.
• Pierre Bergé & Associés; Mille nuits de rêve IV: Collection Geneviève & Jean-Paul Kahn; 10 Dec. 2021; p. 104, lot 103; view source | WBM (transcript; small facsimile)
To Douglas Sladen, [c. Dec. 1888]. This letter is on pp. 375–6 of Holland & Hart-Davis. Wilde mentions that the poet Edgar Fawcett, whom he had met in America, ‘is furious with me because I never answer his letters’. Thomas Wright has noted that Fawcett inscribed in a copy of American Push (1892): ‘Oscar Wilde, most brilliant of Poets, most charming of Novelists, most admirable of Dramatists, most unepistolary of friends.’
• Wright, T. (2010) Wildean inscriptions, The Wildean, 37, 2–11; view source (subscription required).
To Walter Hamilton, [postmark 29 Jan. 1889].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Heritage Auctions sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). About parodies of his own poetry. This letter is on p. 390 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original and there are a number of minor typos. Instead of ‘contemporaneous’, read ‘contemporary’; ‘a love of the poet’ should be ‘a love for the poet’. The letter ends with Wilde’s characteristic abbreviation of ‘Truly yours’ and not ‘Yours sincerely’.
• Skinner; Books & Manuscripts; sale 2300; 30 Oct. 2005; lot 178; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile, pp. 1 & 4 of 4).
• Heritage Auctions; 19 Dec. 2013; lot 1147; view source | WBM (transcript; facsimile).
• Sotheby’s; English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations Online; sale L20407; 12 May 2020; lot 27; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
Herbert Vivian, 22 Nov. 1889 – 20 May 1890.I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Sotheby’s sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). Wilde’s letters to Vivian on the subject of an article Vivian had published about Wilde’s family are on pp. 415, 426–7 of Holland & Hart-Davis. Sotheby’s sold the letters with Vivian’s draft replies.
• Sotheby’s; 29 Oct. 2004; lot 37; view source | Archive (quotation; facsimile of 2 pages of Wilde’s 22 Nov. 1889 letter).
To Edith Elgee, n.d. [?early 1890]. Congratulating his cousin Edith on her editorship of a new magazine. This letter is on p. 424 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but the correspondent is unidentified because, according to the editors, ‘Wilde had no immediate cousins of this name [Edith].’ The letter was sold alongside presentation copies of The Happy Prince and Other Tales (‘To Edith Elgee with the best wishes of her cousin the Author’) and Ravenna (‘To William Elgee, Esq., from his cousin The Author’). Elgee was the maiden name of Wilde’s mother, but I have been unable to determine the exact relationship of Edith and William Elgee to Wilde.
• Hodgson & Co.; A Catalogue of Rare and Valuable Books; 27-28 Mar. 1930; lot 75; view source (quotation).
• Small, I. (1993) Oscar Wilde Revalued, p. 57 (transcript).
To G. H. Kersley, [postmark 3 Jan. 1890].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the International Autograph Auctions sale (personal communication, 20 Aug. 2024). Inviting him to visit. This letter is on p. 420 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original and there are a number of minor typos. For ‘you behaved’, read ‘you have behaved’. For ‘tell you you’, read ‘tell you that you’. Insert commas after ‘better to do’ and ‘since we met’. The letter ends with Wilde’s characteristic abbreviation of ‘Ever yours’ and not ‘Truly yours’.
• International Autograph Auctions; 24 May 2008; lot 452; view source | Archive (quotation; facsimile).
To Grant Allen, n.d. [c. 7 Feb. 1891].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 12 Jul. 2023), and the representative of Fieldings for their assistance (personal communication, 14 Jul. 2023). Wilde compliments Allen on his article on Celts in art and invites him to attend a Celtic dinner (Holland & Hart-Davis, pp. 469-70). A letter from Allen to Wilde, dated 11 February, appears to be in response to this letter of Wilde’s. In it Allen provides evidence of his Celtic ancestry and accepts the offer to dine. Fieldings’ description states that the letter is addressed to the Hotel du Cap Antibes; I thank a representative of Fieldings for confirming that this is an error – the letter is addressed from the hotel.
• Fieldings Auctioneers; Antiques & Interiors including Back To The Future; 21 Jul. 2023; lot 892; view source | WBM (description; facsimile of final page).
To Arthur Conan Doyle, n.d. [?Apr. 1891].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 30 Jan. 2024). This letter is on p. 478 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was transcribed from Doyle’s Memories and Adventures because the original ‘seems to have disappeared from the voluminous Conan Doyle papers’. Doyle explains that he has not transcribed the early part of the letter, in which Wilde comments on his The Sign of Four in too generous terms. This letter is likely to be the letter offered for sale at Christie’s in 2004 that is ‘about The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Sign of Four’. It was unsold and so remained the property of the heirs of Anna Conan Doyle. As far as I am aware the letter has never been published in full, though I have not consulted the Christie’s catalogue.
• Christie’s; 19 May 2004; lot 114; view source | WBM (description).
To Ernest Bernulf Clegg, n.d. [?Apr. 1891]. This letter is on pp. 478–9 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original and the recipient’s full name is not given. A comparison with the facsimile shows that the transcription is flawless.
• The Morgan Library; MA 7258.10, 282144; view source (transcript; facsimile).
To Benoît-Constant Coquelin, [6 Nov. 1891]. Thanks the recipient for agreeing to a meeting on the following morning. This letter is on p. 493 of Holland & Hart-Davis. The editors speculate that the meeting may have been about Salomé or Lady Windermere’s Fan. An uncollected letter to Coquelin confirms that the subject of the meeting was Lady Windermere’s Fan. For further details, see the uncollected letter to Coquelin, dated [6 Nov. 1891], above.
To Theodore Bromley, n.d. [?Dec. 1891]. Complaining that The Duchess of Padua is not being performed often enough (Bromley was managing a tour of the US with Minna Gale in the lead role). This letter is on pp. 509-10 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but the correspondent is not identified.
• The Anderson Galleries; sale 1470; lot 421; p. 48; view source (quotation).
To [Henry Labouchere], n.d. [3 Mar. 1892 – 16 Mar. 1892]. Correcting a dramatic columnist who had stated that Wilde’s first name was not Oscar but John. This letter is on p. 522 of Holland & Hart-Davis but the recipient is not identified. The article Wilde refers to appeared in Labouchere’s Truth, 3 Mar. 1892, p. 439 (view source).
• Truth, 17 Mar. 1892, p. 528; view source (transcript).
To Lord Alfred Douglas, n.d. [c. Nov. 1892]. Expressing gladness that Douglas is feeling better and mentioning his plans to travel to Paris. This letter is on pp. 538-9 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original and there are slight errors (‘Love to Encombe’ should be at the top of the letter, not the bottom; ‘really’ is underlined in the original and so should be italicised; and the word transcribed as ‘running’ should be ‘rushing’).
• The Morgan Library; MA 7258.11; view source (transcript; facsimile).
To John Lane, [Aug. 1894]. Returning corrected proofs [of A Woman of No Importance]. This letter is on pp. 604-5 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was not transcribed from the original, which is longer (the most interesting omission is ‘I have to thank you for allowing my wife to make selections of phrases for her anthology [Oscariana]’).
• The Morgan Library; MA 7258.14; view source (transcript; facsimile).
To Ada Leverson, [5 Oct. 1894]. Complimenting her article in Punch. This letter is on p. 618 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but there are differences. The most notable is Holland & Hart-Davis’s omission of references to ‘Dorian’ (presumably Lord Alfred Douglas), but both versions contain text the other doesn’t.
• The catalogue of the Stetson auction; lot 316; p. 57; view source (quotation).
To the editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, n.d. [1 Oct. 1894].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Signature House sale (personal communication, 27 Aug. 2024). Disclaiming authorship of The Green Carnation. This letter is on p. 617 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was taken from The Pall Mall Gazette or Miscellanies (1908). The letter is as printed, except that an editor has marked with blue pencil the deletion of the paragraph breaks before and after ‘The flower…is not’.
• Signature House; Auction XXIII - Autographs & Memorabilia; 13 Dec. 2003; lot 595; view source (free account necessary) | Archive (transcript; facsimile).
To George Alexander, n.d. [Aug. 1894]. Suggesting a synopsis for a play that would later be given the title of ‘Love is Law’ and written and produced by Frank Harris as Mr. and Mrs. Daventry. This letter is on pp. 599–600 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was taken from A. E. W. Mason’s Sir George Alexander and the St James’s Theatre. There are numerous errors in transcription. For ‘country place and after’, read ‘country place. After’. For ‘wife on how’, read ‘wife about how’. For ‘The same evening’, read ‘Same evening’. For ‘The wife is tired and falls’, read ‘The wife is tired and [?wounded] and falls’ (a transcription held with the letter gives the word as ‘[?cowed]’, but it looks more like ‘wounded’). For ‘Enter husband’, read ‘Enter the husband’. For ‘desiring admittance’, read ‘demanding admittance’. For ‘goes to the door’, read ‘goes to door’. For ‘I have kept Lady X up too late;’, read ‘I have kept up Lady X too late:’. For ‘trying an absurd experiment’, read ‘trying some absurd experiments’. For ‘noises’, read ‘noise’. For ‘servant with card.’, read ‘servant with a card!’. For ‘The wife is frightened’, read ‘No one is frightened’. For ‘Do you not see’, read ‘Don’t you see’. For ‘She considers’, read ‘She answers’. After ‘sacrifice me’ there is not a question mark but a dash, which would ordinarily be transcribed as a full stop. For the three instances of ‘Act IV’, read ‘Act 4’. For ‘she wishes him to die’, read ‘she wishes him to die’. After ‘“Because the father of my child must live”’, insert a comma and ‘she answers’. For ‘Pistols are heard’, read ‘Pistol-shot heard’. For ‘love one another’, read ‘love each other’. For ‘Curtain falls with’, read ‘Curtain falls on’. For ‘What do you think’, read ‘What do think’ (Wilde errs in omitting a word). For ‘I think it extremely’, read ‘I think it is extremely’. For ‘dénouement in Act III’, read ‘dénouement of Act III’.
• Washington State University Libraries; Paul Philemon Kies Autograph Collection, 1553–1970; Cage 308; Box 5, Folder 358; view source (item listed in catalogue).
To Leonard Smithers, [postmarked 15 Mar. 1898]. Responding to reviews of The Ballad of Reading Gaol. This letter is on p. 1037 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but it was taken from a transcript in which punctuation was regularised and underlining ignored.
• Bonhams; Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts; sale 17807; 23 Mar. 2010; lot 144; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile, p. 1).
To Carlos Blacker, [?28 Mar. 1898].I thank Robert Whelan for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 26 Sep. 2024) and the present owner for consenting to its inclusion in this list. Informing the recipient of an injury he had sustained to his mouth and of a change in his address. This letter is on p. 1050 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but there are some errors in the transcription. Wilde does not prefer the Hôtel d’Alsace because it is ‘cleaner’ but because it is ‘cheaper’ (this makes sense given that in a postcard to Robert Ross, also on p. 1050 of Holland & Hart-Davis, Wilde refers to the hotel as ‘half the price’ of his former accommodation). For ‘three’, read ‘3’. There is no question mark after ‘suit you’. The letter is postmarked but the date is indistinct and may be 23, 25, or 28 Mar. 1898. In light of Wilde’s other known letters from this time that Holland & Hart-Davis date with more certainty, the 28th seems the most likely of the options to be correct.
• Private collection.
To Leonard Smithers, [c. 4 May 1898]. Giving instructions on the printing and binding of The Ballad of Reading Gaol. This letter is on pp. 1059–60 of Holland & Hart-Davis. The editors of Wilde’s Complete Letters state that it was written in Paris and date it to c. 4 May 1898, presumably because Wilde refers to a French translation of the Ballad in ‘the current number of the Mercure de France’: the poem appeared in the May 1898 number. However, the Trinity College record states that the letter was written in Posillippo on 11 Nov. 1897. This would appear to be an error on the part of Trinity College. The letter is held with an envelope. Possibly this is the incorrect envelope and the source of the error.
• Trinity College Library Dublin; IE TCD MS 11437/1/1/9; view source | WBM (quotation; facsimile).
To Henry D. Davray, [20 Jun. 1898].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of this letter (personal communication, 8 Oct. 2024). Sends a page [of The Ballad of Reading Gaol] and informs the recipient of his recent movements. This letter is on p. 1084 of Holland & Hart-Davis, but was transcribed from a different catalogue in which the transcription differs. For ‘literature’, read ‘eternitie’. Probably ‘literature’ is correct, but the difference suggests that the word was not written clearly and alternate readings may be possible.
• James Tregaskis; The 944th Caxton Head Catalogue; Oct. 1927; item 93; p. 22; view source (HathiTrust) | WBM (quotation).
To Leonard Smithers, [postmarked 1 Mar. 1900].I thank Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of the Hill catalogue (personal communication, 17 Jan. 2024). Lamenting the death of Ernest Dowson. This letter is on pp. 1173–4 of Holland & Hart-Davis, where the date is given as c. 24 Feb. 1900 (at the time of writing, the same date is given on the catalogue of the Morgan Library & Museum, where the letter is now held). The letter was offered for sale in 1901 by William M. Hill with an envelope postmarked Paris, 1 Mar. 1900. Presumably this envelope has since been lost.
• Walter M. Hill; Catalogue of Some Choice Books, No. 6; Dec. 1901; p. 48; item 412; view source (HathiTrust) (quotation).
Robert Ross to More Adey, 14 Dec. 1900.With thanks to Wolfgang Maier-Sigrist for informing me of Aldrich’s memoirs (personal communication, 7 May 2023). Ross’s account of Wilde’s final illness, death, and funeral is on pp. 1211-14 and 1219-23 of Holland & Hart-Davis. It is transcribed from a typescript at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas (view source). The letter was printed in the German magazine Nord und Süd in 1909. Max Meyerfeld provided an introduction and was probably also responsible for the translation. The content of the Nord und Süd version is almost identical to that of the typescript. The only meaningful difference is after the sentence ‘there were five ladies in deep mourning’ (Holland & Hart-Davis, p. 1222). In the Nord und Süd version there follows text that is not present in the typescript: ‘Madame Stuart Merrill, Comtesse de Bremont, eine Zofe der Comtesse, ein altes Dienstmädchen von Oscar Wildes Frau, dessen [sic] Namen ich nicht kenne.’ (‘Madame Stuart Merrill, Comtesse de Bremont, a maid to the Comtesse, an old maid of Oscar Wilde’s wife, [and another woman] whose name I do not know.’). The phrasing is ambiguous and, if there was a fifth unidentified woman, she may have been Mildred Aldrich, who, in her unpublished memoir, claimed to have attended the funeral (p. 191 ff [seq. 210]; view source).
• Robert Ross, ‘Oscar Wildes letzte Tage’, Nord und Süd (Berlin, Germany), second November issue 1909, 313-28; view source (HathiTrust) | Archive.