🌻 The Leading Online Digest of Oscar Wilde Studies
When I was preparing my recent posting about Oscar Wilde and his lecture in Bloomington during the local council drainage meeting, I was reminded that Wilde once wrote a letter from Bloomington.
A moment’s research led to a minor historical jigsaw puzzle.
Continue reading “Lillie Langtry’s Autograph”
Local councillors in Bloomington, IL had a committee meeting arranged for the evening of March 10, 1882. The order of business was the town drainage: no doubt an event that would have passed without too much strain had Oscar Wilde not been announced to lecture on the same evening.
Inevitably the question arose for councillors with twin duties: which was the lesser of two evils? The tedium of Oscar’s lecture on art decoration, or, maintaining a quorum currently contemplating the size of local sewage lines.
Admittedly, it was a tough choice.
Continue reading “Executive or Decorative”