Narragansett Pier

—A Newly Discovered Lecture—

In verifying Oscar Wilde’s 1882 lecture tour of North America, it was prudent to begin with the four published itineraries¹. Unfortunately, none of those chronologies agreed with any other, and all were incomplete and occasionally incorrect—so it was necessary to make numerous additions and corrections to dates, locations and lecture titles.

Apart from verification, there is the more pleasing opportunity to discover previously unrecorded lectures: one such is an appearance made by Wilde at Narragansett Pier.

Where is Narragansett Pier?—you might ask.

Narragansett is a town in Rhode Island named for an Algonquian American Indian tribe. It occupies a narrow strip of land running along the Western bank of Narragansett Bay—and Narragansett Pier is its seaside village outpost.

As I was visiting Newport, which lies within Narragansett Bay on Aquidneck Island, I decided to stop off at Narragansett Pier before crossing the bridge to Newport, as I had read that Oscar Wilde expressed a liking for the place, and I wanted to see it for myself.

I assumed, naturally enough, that he must have been there, but I was not sure whether he had lectured there. The suspicion had arisen from two brief notes in newspaper society columns: one said he would “entertain the visitors at Narragansett Pier next week”, and another (published a week later) confirmed that he lectured there “last night”.

Although this evidence is scant it is fairly definitive, especially as these indications were independently made and separated by hundreds of miles. A chronicler would be satisfied with such corroboration; but the documetary researcher needs details.

Enter the Narragansett historical community.

With their help I have been able to establish the details of Wilde’s lecture in Narragansett Pier, which took place at the Mathewson Hotel.

Oscar was well-liked. The Narragansett Times described his talk as, “an eloquent, well-sustained plea for art in the household.” Afterwards, “he walked leisurely though the rooms of the house, and the ladies indulged themselves in a ‘good look’ at him.”

Here are the details at the relevant page in the chronology.

© John Cooper, 2018.

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Footnote:

1. ▪ Mikhail, E. H., ed. Oscar Wilde: Interviews and Recollections.  2 vols. London: MacMillan, 1979.
   ▪ Ellmann, Richard. Oscar Wilde. London: Hamish Hamilton; New York: Knopf, 1987.
   ▪ Page, Norman. An Oscar Wilde Chronology. Houndmills: MacMillian; Boston: G. K. Hall, 1991. [re-prints and credits Ellmann but differs in two respects]
   ▪ Beckson, Karl E., ed. The Oscar Wilde Encyclopedia. New York: AMS Press, 1998. ↩︎