Locations in Manhattan associated with Oscar Wilde.
Oscar Wilde first arrived in New York on 3 January 1882. That morning interviews with the visiting lecturer appeared in all the major dailies – they had been conducted the previous evening while the steamship on which he had crossed the Atlantic was anchored at quarantine. On the 9th he spoke to a large audience at Chickering Hall on ‘The English Renaissance’ (his term for the fashionable aesthetic movement in art). He was also lionised by local luminaries, such as the lobbyist and gourmet Samuel Ward and the society hostesses Mrs Paran Stevens and Mrs John Bigelow.
Oscar Wilde, photographed by Napoleon Sarony in New York, January 1882. Library of Congress.
After touring the western states Wilde returned to New York in May and gave what was billed as his ‘Farewell Lecture’ at the newly built Wallack’s Theatre. He then embarked on tours of the south and Canada before spending much of the autumn and early winter in Manhattan. He attended premieres at the city’s many theatres, socialised with his friend the artist Carroll Beckwith, and met with the actresses Mary Anderson and Marie Prescott at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and Delmonico’s restaurant, respectively, to discuss the production of his first two plays. He gave his last lecture in America in November at Parepa Hall in Yorkville and sailed for England in late December.
Wilde returned to New York in the summer of 1883 to promote Prescott’s production of his tragedy Vera; or, The Nihilists. The play was a flop and Wilde soon returned home, never to return to America.
While researching my new book Oscar Wilde’s First Tragedy: The Composition, Production, and Reception of Vera; or, The Nihilists I made a map of places in Manhattan associated with Wilde so that I could better understand his activities in the city. I have now put that map on Google Maps, where you can browse it.
I have colour-coded the icons: locations that are still extant are shown in red; locations that have not survived are in blue. Click on each icon to learn more and see photographs and contemporary maps.
You can view the map below or click here to open it in a new tab (click on the icon in the top-left of the map to open the list of locations).
I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of John Cooper.