Blue Valley Blade, (Seward, Nebraska), August 23, 1882, 4
SEWING MACHINES IMPROVE SPEAKING
During Oscar Wilde’s 1882 tour of North America, his name was used arbitrarily to sell any number of products—there are several such advertisements on this page.
Above is another example from the Davis Sewing Machine Company asserting that Oscar’s perceived lack of ability as a “talkist” was the result of his not having purchased one of their sewing machines. It’s true that commentators noted Oscar’s untutored monotone delivery, but it’s not clear how owning a Davis sewing machine would have developed his diction—with or without basting.
Needless to say, there is no record in Oscar’s tour expenses of a sewing machine.
From Quill Classics comes a new full length video documentary written and directed by Erik Ryding: Wilde in New York.
Although Oscar Wilde is mostly associated with London at his zenith as a playwright, New York City also deserves a special place in his history. It was in New York, in fact, that his first two plays—Vera and The Duchess of Padua—had their world-premiere performances. During his yearlong tour of the United States in 1882, when he was a little-known poet associated with the comic character Bunthorne in Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera Patience, he sojourned in New York several times, establishing important social and artistic connections. Prompting newspaper stories wherever he went, he returned to Europe a genuine celebrity.
Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, January 21, 1882. The caption to the full page reads: Oscar Wilde, the Apostle of Aestheticism—From a Photograph by Sarony, and Sketches by a Staff Artist.
Here we see an illustration from Frank Leslie’s newspaper showing Oscar Wilde in a pose reminiscent of those taken by Napoleon Sarony.
Scholars were never quite sure whether the caption to this sketch which says “From a Photograph by Sarony” meant that the illustration was from Sarony (in the sense of an artist’s impression of similar poses) or was a direct copy of an actual photograph of this particular pose.
Oscar Wilde’s After-Dinner Rebuke to his Press Critics
It is pleasing to see that recent Wilde studies continue to highlight the emergent nature of Oscar’s American experience, during which time he nurtured the art of public speaking, conducted his first press interviews, staged his first play, had his iconic photographs taken, and stockpiled—to use an American word—material for his future epigrams and works.
But there is a crucial American beginning for Oscar that has been under-appreciated: I refer to his first brush with literary society. It occurred during an event at 149 Fifth Avenue in New York City, the then home of an organisation of journalists known as the Lotos Club.
It has long been assumed that all of the 1882 photographs of Oscar Wilde by Napoleon Sarony were taken during the same visit to his studio. Indeed, in all of Wilde studies there does not appear to be any record of an assertion to the contrary. However, there is a convincing case to be made that the LAST FOUR photographs were taken at a later date.
Oscar Wilde’s Reception in Kansas and the Sunflower Soirée.
I recently gave a talk on the subject of Oscar Wilde and his relationship with sunflowers to the good people of the Maryland Agriculture Resource Council at their Sunflower Soirée, a yearly festival devoted to the Helianthus annuus. Literally, an annual event.
Between you and me, it was a wonderful occasion; but as there was a gloomy weather forecast I choose to take poetic license and focus on the portent to a poignant moment.
No longer a theater, it may have been just another empty converted office building symbolic of a Midwest hollowed out by recession, but it was still there. Unlike so many of the Wilde’s lecture venues which were lost to fire in gaslit days, surely, one thought, this building had survived that fate.
Gutted
But no, and here’s what makes the loss a little more personal.
Just a day earlier I had been discussing which city from Wilde’s lecture tour that I would most like to visit. No kidding. I said St Joseph, Missouri. One reason was that both Wilde’s hotel and lecture theater were extant, and very few cities that can boast that—although there is one fewer now.
You may recall that in my recent review of Wilde and Niagara I cited the entry that Oscar Wilde’s had made in the guestbook of his hotel on the Canadian side at Niagara Falls.
Well, having visited the area myself, I now have an illustration of his inscription (above) and, to reiterate, this is what it says:
the roar of these waters is like the roar when the “mighty wave democracy breaks against the shores where kings lie couched at ease.”
When Oscar wrote this he was doing several things at once.
A cartoon printed in the satirical magazine The Wasp to mark Oscar Wilde’s arrival in San Francisco
When Wilde arrived in San Francisco he was greeted by thousands of people curious to see him.
The above cartoon, titled “The Modern Messiah,” which appeared in The Wasp on the eve of Oscar Wilde’s third lecture in San Francisco, shows such a crowd, but in satirical style.1
Heavily featured are sunflowers, one of the floral emblems of the aesthetic movement; another, calla lilies, known to decorate Wilde’s table at dinners in America, serve as the donkey’s ears.
Also depicted in the scene are caricatures resonant of Wilde’s visit, some of whom were thought responsible for bringing Wilde to San Francisco, and therefore supportive of him. Here is a rundown of the personalities depicted:
Oscar Wilde
Oscar is shown arriving in messianic style.
Compare the biblical:
“… your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).
The modern messiah, however, bears a sunflower emblazoned with a dollar sign which reflects the accusation that his motivations were as pecuniary as they were missionary.
The Donkey
Braying, and with sunflower saddle and lily ears, we are reminded of the epithet “ass-thete” that accompanied Wilde across America, but here the donkey symbolizes his visit to San Francisco: attached to the tail is the $5,000 that Wilde was reportedly paid for his series of lectures in California; around the neck, padlocked to the conveyance, is an image of Wilde’s California promoter Charles E. Locke. The words on the padlock are “Bush St. Theatre”, where Locke was manager. Also, at Bush and Montgomery Streets was Platt’s Hall where Wilde lectured four times.
Man With the Goatee Beard
Charles Crocker (1822—1888) railroad executive who founded the Central Pacific Railroad that took Wilde on his journey to California
On April 19, 1882, Wilde wrote to his “Darling Hattie” in San Francisco expressing his love for her. The likely candidate for Wilde’s affection is Harriet, the daughter of Charles Crocker. {Sturgis 246-7]
Man With White Hair
Skulking somewhat appropriately behind proceedings is Ambrose Bierce (1842—c. 1914), who penned a relentless attack on Wilde in The Wasp, March 31, 1882, the text of which can be found at Wilde’s lecture on April 1.
Man at Far Left With Beard
Isaac Smith Kalloch (1832—1887) 18th Mayor of San Francisco serving from December 1, 1879 to December 4, 1881.
Man With Long White Beard (behind sunflower back left)
Maurice Carey Blake (1815—1897) 19th Mayor of San Francisco, serving from December 5, 1881 to January 7, 1883.
Short Man With Mustache
Daniel O’Connell (1849—1899) poet, actor, writer, journalist, and the grand-nephew of Daniel O’Connell (1775—1847), the famed Irish orator and politician.
O’Connell was co-founder of the Bohemian Club where Wilde was feted and had his portrait painted by Theodore Wores. The painting hung in the club until it was lost in the fire following the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Man With Broken Sunflower
Possibly impresario Tom Maguire.
Boys in the Foreground
Newspaper sellers, one carrying The Wasp in which the cartoon appeared [1].
Chinese in the Background
While in San Francisco Wilde famously visited Chinatown and expressed his admiration of their decorative arts, such as delicate tea cups.
Above is Boyd’s Theatre and Opera House in Omaha, Nebraska, as it was when Oscar Wilde lectured there.
If the surroundings look a little unmade (and Oscar complained about Omaha’s muddy streets) it was to be expected—in 1882 the midwest of America was still a place of frontier development, something that the people of St. Paul ironically accepted:
By the time Wilde arrived in Omaha in March 1882, the geography of his American adventure had started to take shape.
