Details
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest
With three letters, 1899
[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900).] The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan. London: Leonard Smithers & Co., 1899.
Limited first edition of Wilde's last play, no. 58 of 100 large-paper copies signed by Wilde, an exceptional copy with three letters tipped to flyleaves, by Robbie Ross (the dedicatee and Wilde's closest friend), George Alexander (producer of the play), and Wilde himself. The Importance of Being Earnest was Wilde’s best and most celebrated play, but also his downfall—the Marquess of Queensbury, father of his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, planned to disrupt the opening night and the ensuing conflict eventually lead to Wilde’s conviction and imprisonment for “gross indecency.” The play’s run was cut short due to Wilde’s notoriety, but he arranged for this publication of the text from his exile in Paris, with his name left off. The editing of this play, along with Lady Windermere’s Fan, for publication were Wilde’s final literary efforts. On 12 October 1900, less than a fortnight after the present letter from Ross, Wilde sent him a telegram reading “Terribly weak. Please come.” Wilde died on 30 November in Paris. Mason 382.
Small quarto. (Occasional light toning and spots, a few small repaired chips.) Publisher's pale rose-violet cloth gilt, covers with repeated leaf spray design by Charles Shannon, spine with leaf sprays and gilt-blocked title, unopened (a little sunned and faded). Chemise and slipcase.
[With:]
WILDE, Oscar. Autograph note signed ("Oscar Wilde") to "Dear Sir," 16 Tite Street, Chelsea, n.d., 1 page, 8vo, tipped with the following two letters into the above copy, briefly giving an address: "My agent's address is G.W. Appleton, 8 Clifford Inn, Fleet St."
ROSS, Robert (1869-1918). Autograph letter signed to OSCAR WILDE, London, 1 October 1900, 2 pages bifolium (some staining), on Reform Club stationery: "I enclose your belated cheque for 17.10. I am sending you also the Cornhill Magazine for October … The artist [Wilde] is expected to acknowledge the former, but is requested not to mention the latter. I daresay you may know that Lady Windermere is coming in at Kensington with Marion Terry... The Importance of Being Earnest was being played this summer at Brighton with great success ... I am told a great many things about Frank Wilde's play [i.e., Frank Harris's, who had written Mr. and Mrs. Daventry pretending that it was by Wilde]. I hope you will be in Paris at the end of the month when I come…”
ALEXANDER, Sir George (1858-1918). Autograph letter signed to J.T. Grein (critic and producer who gave Ibsen and Shaw their first London productions), Brighton, n.d., 4 pages bifolium, entirely about The Importance of Being Earnest: "... All that is nonsense about the third act being written under stress of circumstance. The play was submitted to me many months before its actual production and was in 4 acts ... When Wilde was there [in Holloway Jail] later he sent me a piece of paper ... 'Please admit my kind warder & his wife to my clever play. Oscar Wilde.'"
Details
Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest
With three letters, 1899
[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900).] The Importance of Being Earnest. A Trivial Comedy for Serious People by the Author of Lady Windermere's Fan. London: Leonard Smithers & Co., 1899.
Limited first edition of Wilde's last play, no. 58 of 100 large-paper copies signed by Wilde, an exceptional copy with three letters tipped to flyleaves, by Robbie Ross (the dedicatee and Wilde's closest friend), George Alexander (producer of the play), and Wilde himself. The Importance of Being Earnest was Wilde’s best and most celebrated play, but also his downfall—the Marquess of Queensbury, father of his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, planned to disrupt the opening night and the ensuing conflict eventually lead to Wilde’s conviction and imprisonment for “gross indecency.” The play’s run was cut short due to Wilde’s notoriety, but he arranged for this publication of the text from his exile in Paris, with his name left off. The editing of this play, along with Lady Windermere’s Fan, for publication were Wilde’s final literary efforts. On 12 October 1900, less than a fortnight after the present letter from Ross, Wilde sent him a telegram reading “Terribly weak. Please come.” Wilde died on 30 November in Paris. Mason 382.
Small quarto. (Occasional light toning and spots, a few small repaired chips.) Publisher's pale rose-violet cloth gilt, covers with repeated leaf spray design by Charles Shannon, spine with leaf sprays and gilt-blocked title, unopened (a little sunned and faded). Chemise and slipcase.
[With:]
WILDE, Oscar. Autograph note signed ("Oscar Wilde") to "Dear Sir," 16 Tite Street, Chelsea, n.d., 1 page, 8vo, tipped with the following two letters into the above copy, briefly giving an address: "My agent's address is G.W. Appleton, 8 Clifford Inn, Fleet St."
ROSS, Robert (1869-1918). Autograph letter signed to OSCAR WILDE, London, 1 October 1900, 2 pages bifolium (some staining), on Reform Club stationery: "I enclose your belated cheque for 17.10. I am sending you also the Cornhill Magazine for October … The artist [Wilde] is expected to acknowledge the former, but is requested not to mention the latter. I daresay you may know that Lady Windermere is coming in at Kensington with Marion Terry... The Importance of Being Earnest was being played this summer at Brighton with great success ... I am told a great many things about Frank Wilde's play [i.e., Frank Harris's, who had written Mr. and Mrs. Daventry pretending that it was by Wilde]. I hope you will be in Paris at the end of the month when I come…”
ALEXANDER, Sir George (1858-1918). Autograph letter signed to J.T. Grein (critic and producer who gave Ibsen and Shaw their first London productions), Brighton, n.d., 4 pages bifolium, entirely about The Importance of Being Earnest: "... All that is nonsense about the third act being written under stress of circumstance. The play was submitted to me many months before its actual production and was in 4 acts ... When Wilde was there [in Holloway Jail] later he sent me a piece of paper ... 'Please admit my kind warder & his wife to my clever play. Oscar Wilde.'"
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