You may recall my discovery back in 2018 of a lecture that Oscar Wilde gave at the seaside town of Narragansett Pier.
In that earlier blog post I reported how 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.”
Now the following article from has emerged from the Providence Morning Star which corroborates the “universal satisfaction” of Wilde’s “social success” in adding to the general gaiety of the resort.
It also includes a conversation with Oscar on the train down from Kingston, a village in Washington County, Rhode Island, whose railroad station, built in 1875, is happily exant.
Article
The Providence Morning Star, August 10, 1882, 6.
See also: Wilde’s lecture in Narragansett Pier in the chronology.
© John Cooper, 2023.
Thanks, John! Now added to the online updates page for The Complete Interviews.
Having just typed up the complete article – what a pleasure it has been to do so, for nowadays hardly any journalist is even given the space to go into detail about a lecture if it is reported on at all – I would like to note what a difference the emergence of Social Media today makes to anyone trying to report facts. More than anything else we need to beware of fake news. With a limit of digits imposed it is far easier to post fake news than to correct them. So thank you, John, for allowing us a glimpse of those remote and far more leisurely times in the summer of 1882.
Thank you, Jörg. always welcome.