Better known in 1882 as a cultural icon than a serious writer, Oscar Wilde was brought to North America for a major lecture tour on Aestheticism and the decorative arts. With characteristic aplomb, he adopted the role as the ambassador of Aestheticism, and he tried out a number of phrases, ideas, and strategies that ultimately made him famous as a novelist and playwright. This exceptional volume cites all ninety-one of Wilde's interviews and contains transcripts of forty-eight of them, and it also includes his lecture on his travels in America.

Oscar Wilde's grand U.S. tour, captured in dozens of newspaper interviews

About the Author
Matthew Hofer is an associate professor of English at the University of New Mexico. Gary Scharnhorst is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico and the author of Bret Harte: Opening the American Literary West and other works.

Reviews
"A generous and welcome sampling."--New York Review of Books

"Highly recommended."--Choice

"[A] rewarding, absorbing, and necessary book."--The Gay and Lesbian Review
"Wilde was a source of fascination and provocation, and these assembled portraits reveal the rawness and the refinements, the pride and the anxieties, of American culture in the making during this important period. A vital and valuable book."--Eric Haralson, editor of Reading the Middle Generation Anew: Culture, Community, and Form in Twentieth-Century American Poetry
"This stimulating work is an invaluable record of Wilde's speech, appearance, and demeanor. An excitingly fresh study of interest both to Wilde specialists and to general readers."--Donald Mead, chairman of the Oscar Wilde Society and editor of The Wildean: A Journal of Oscar Wilde Studies



Book Information
ISBN 9780252079726
Author Oscar Wilde
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint University of Illinois Press
Publisher University of Illinois Press
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 20mm