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)
