3rd Dec, 2025 12:00
Autograph Letters, Historical Documents and Manuscripts
1108
WILDE OSCAR: (1854-1900)
WILDE OSCAR: (1854-1900) Irish poet and playwright. A good A.L.S., Oscar Wilde, three pages, 8vo, Magdalen College, Oxford, n.d. (c.1878), to [Rev. Matthew Russell] (´My dear Sir´). Wilde commences his letter by writing ´I am sure you will excuse my not thanking you before for verses which in their depth and their beauty are well worthy of the great mystery of your church, but my recent success has quite plunged me in business of all kinds and I have had no time to myself´, further remarking ´I wish I cd. thank you personally - why do we never meet? I wd. like to know you very much´. Some very light, minor foxing and dust staining, otherwise about VG
Matthew Russell (1834-1912) Irish Jesuit priest, known as a writer and poet. Russell founded The Irish Monthly in 1873 and served as its editor for almost forty years, during which time he published several of Wilde´s poems.
At Magdalen College Wilde read Greats from 1874-78, graduating as a Bachelor of Arts with a double first. The ´recent success´ to which the twenty-four year old Wilde refers is the Newdigate Prize for English verse which he won in 1878 for his poem Ravenna. Wilde recited the poem at the Sheldonain Theatre in Oxford on 26th June, and the following year he moved to London, started writing for a living, dressed eccentrically (to attract attention) and styled himself as the ´Apostle of Aestheticism´.
€3,000 - €4,000
Buyer's premium: 25%
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WILDE OSCAR: (1854-1900) Irish poet and playwright. A good A.L.S., Oscar Wilde, three pages, 8vo, Magdalen College, Oxford, n.d. (c.1878), to [Rev. Matthew Russell] (´My dear Sir´). Wilde commences his letter by writing ´I am sure you will excuse my not thanking you before for verses which in their depth and their beauty are well worthy of the great mystery of your church, but my recent success has quite plunged me in business of all kinds and I have had no time to myself´, further remarking ´I wish I cd. thank you personally - why do we never meet? I wd. like to know you very much´. Some very light, minor foxing and dust staining, otherwise about VG
Matthew Russell (1834-1912) Irish Jesuit priest, known as a writer and poet. Russell founded The Irish Monthly in 1873 and served as its editor for almost forty years, during which time he published several of Wilde´s poems.
At Magdalen College Wilde read Greats from 1874-78, graduating as a Bachelor of Arts with a double first. The ´recent success´ to which the twenty-four year old Wilde refers is the Newdigate Prize for English verse which he won in 1878 for his poem Ravenna. Wilde recited the poem at the Sheldonain Theatre in Oxford on 26th June, and the following year he moved to London, started writing for a living, dressed eccentrically (to attract attention) and styled himself as the ´Apostle of Aestheticism´.
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Auction: Autograph Letters, Historical Documents and Manuscripts, 3rd Dec, 2025
