Lost for 50
years, nine manuscripts and four letters written by
legendary writer Oscar Wilde have been found and
donated to the Morgan Library in New York.
Among the pieces
discovered was the earliest surviving letter from Wilde
to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas. The Independent
newspaper reports the letter was most likely written
in late 1892; it documents Wilde's yearning for
Douglas, a college undergraduate whom Wilde called Bosie.
Wilde writes,
"Dearest Bosie, I am so glad you are better and that
you like the little card case [given to Bosie for his 22nd
birthday]. Oxford is quite uncomfortable in winter. I
go to Paris next, or in the next 10 days or so ... I
should awfully like to go away with you somewhere
where it is hot ... I am terribly busy in town ... If the
poem I will write tomorrow, Oscar."
Bosie destroyed
many of Wilde's letters (most of the surviving letters
can be found at the Clark Library at the University of
California, Los Angeles). The found volume belonged to
Bosie's father, the ninth Marquess of Queensberry,
whose fury over his son's relationship with Wilde led
to the eventual conviction of Wilde for "gross
indecency."
The 11th Marquess
of Queensbury, the grandson of the ninth, found the
Wilde papers, which include a letter Wilde wrote to a young
man about his 1888 collection of stories, The Happy
Prince and Other Tales. (Neal Broverman,
Advocate.com)
