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John Cooper is a researcher, author, and documentary historian who has spent 30 years in the study of Oscar Wilde. He is an Editorial Board member of the Oscar Wilde Society and a former manager of the Victorian Society In America.
For the last 20 years John has specialized in Wilde’s 1882 U.S. lecture tour becoming a consultant on Wilde’s American experience to biographers and the wider media.
John also lectures on Wilde and has conducted new and unique research into Oscar Wilde’s visits to New York, and among his many discoveries was Wilde’s essay The Philosophy Of Dress that forms the centerpiece to his book Oscar Wilde On Dress (2013, 2025).
SOURCES:
Both this blog and the web site were created by John Cooper based on over 30 years of private study and countless hours in libraries and online since 2002. He is solely responsible for all original research, writing, editing, and web design.
This information has been used by scholars, institutions, and the media around the world and is the largest online resource on the life and times of Oscar Wilde.
The entire project was created without funding, is freely provided, and noncommercial.
FAIR USE:
This web site follows the U.S. legal doctrine permitting the ‘fair use’ of material for the purposes of criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. For many historical documents no copyright protection can be expected to arise as the originals themselves are in the public domain because their copyright has expired. Unpublished documents generally enter the U.S. public domain 70 years after the creator’s death. In all events this is a nonprofit web site and no financial benefit is accrued from the use of any documentation.
ALSO VISIT THE WEB SITE—A DOCUMENTARY ARCHIVE
For the detailed record of Oscar Wilde’s visits to America you can visit the separate documentary archive web site. In the world of Wilde scholarship there exists much historical information relating to his time in America: works, ephemera, photographs, quotations, interviews, and more which are collected on this web site.
© John Cooper, 2026.
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