Details
WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900) -- autograph manuscript by Wilfred Hugh CHESSON (1870-1952), an ACCOUNT OF HIS MEETING WITH OSCAR WILDE IN PARIS ON 5 JULY 1898, 22 pages, with inserted folding leaves, 4to, in an exercise book, upper cover inscribed 'W.H. Chesson, 337 Sandycombe Road, Kew Gardens' (wear to edges and covers); with another of Chesson's notebooks containing related material, typed transcripts (incomplete), and two typed letters signed from Vyvyan HOLLAND, Wilde's son, to R.J. Smith (1955). Provenance: R.J. Smith.
'"artistically it is perfect -- socially most inconvenient"': Wilde's view on his own life, in response to Chesson's observation 'I saw that his life was a harmony of two extremes, very rare and I thought very valuable'. Chesson, a book reviewer and publisher's reader, met Wilde in Paris in the summer of 1898, when he delivered some leaves of Wilde's manuscript of The Duchess of Padua, and when Wilde was correcting proofs of The Importance of Being Ernest. Chesson's detailed account of their meeting and conversations offers a portrait of Wilde following his release from prison; the text is full of Wilde's anecdotes, views and experiences, of prison, religion, literature (his sarcasm of Kipling's method, '"I object to know all about cod fishing"'), of his friendship with Lord Alfred Douglas, '"They could not separate us; we were always together"' and of old friends. Chesson's account was published in December 1911 under the title 'A Reminiscence of 1898', in the New York literary magazine, The Bookman (volume XXXIV). (4)
'"artistically it is perfect -- socially most inconvenient"': Wilde's view on his own life, in response to Chesson's observation 'I saw that his life was a harmony of two extremes, very rare and I thought very valuable'. Chesson, a book reviewer and publisher's reader, met Wilde in Paris in the summer of 1898, when he delivered some leaves of Wilde's manuscript of The Duchess of Padua, and when Wilde was correcting proofs of The Importance of Being Ernest. Chesson's detailed account of their meeting and conversations offers a portrait of Wilde following his release from prison; the text is full of Wilde's anecdotes, views and experiences, of prison, religion, literature (his sarcasm of Kipling's method, '"I object to know all about cod fishing"'), of his friendship with Lord Alfred Douglas, '"They could not separate us; we were always together"' and of old friends. Chesson's account was published in December 1911 under the title 'A Reminiscence of 1898', in the New York literary magazine, The Bookman (volume XXXIV). (4)
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