Oscar Wilde in America : the interviews / edited by Matthew Hofer & Gary Scharnhorst.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900.

Hofer, Matthew.

Scharnhorst, Gary.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authors, Irish--19th century--Interviews.

Authors, Irish.

Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900--Interviews.

Wilde, Oscar.

Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900--Travel--United States.

Physical Description:

193 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Confronted at every turn by an insatiable audience of sometimes hostile interviewers, the young poet tried out a number of phrases, ideas, and strategies that ultimately made him famous as a novelist and playwright. Seeing America and Americans for the first time, Wilde's perception often proved as sharp as his wit; the echoes of both resound in much of his later writings. His interviewers also succeeded in getting him to talk about many other topics, from his opinions of British and American writers (he thought Poe was America's greatest poet) to his views of Mormonism. This volume cites all ninety-one of Wilde's interviews and contains transcripts of forty-eight of them, and it also includes his lecture on his travels in America."--BOOK JACKET.

"This comprehensive and authoritative collection of Oscar Wilde's American interviews affords readers a fresh look at the making of a literary legend. Better known in 1882 as a cultural icon than a serious writer (at twenty-six years old, he had by then published just one volume of poems), Wilde was brought to North America for a major lecture tour on Aestheticism and the decorative arts that was organized to publicize a touring opera, Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, which lampooned him and satirized the Aesthetic "movement" he had been imported to represent." "In this year-long series of broadly distributed and eagerly read newspaper interviews, Wilde excelled as a master of self-promotion. He visited major cities from New York to San Francisco but also small railroad towns along the way, granting interviews to newspapers wherever asked. With characteristic aplomb, he adopted the role as the ambassador of Aestheticism, and reporters noted that he was dressed for the part. He wooed and flattered his hosts everywhere, pronouncing Miss Alsatia Allen of Montgomery, Alabama, the most beautiful young lady he had seen in the United States, adding, "This is a remark, my dear fellow, I supposed I have made of some lady in every city I have visited in this country. It could be appropriately made. American women are very beautiful."".

Contents:

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

INTERVIEWS

1. "Oscar Wilde's Arrival," New York World

2. "Oscar Wilde," New York Evening Post

3. "Our New York Letter," Philadelphia Inquirer

4. "The Theories of a Poet," New York Tribune

5. "The Science of the Beautiful," New York World

6. "A Talk with Wilde," Philadelphia Press

7. "The Aestethic Bard," Philadelphia Inquirer

8. "What Oscar Has to Say," Baltimore American

9. "Wilde and Forbes," New York Herald

10. "An Interview with the Poet," Albany Argus

11. "Oscar Wilde," Boston Herald

12. "The Aesthetic Apostle," Boston Globe

13. Lilian Whiting, "They Will Show Him," Chicago Inter-Ocean

14. "A Man of Culture Rare," Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

15. "Wilde Sees the Falls," Buffalo Express

16. "The Apostle of Art," Chicago Inter-Ocean

17. "Truly Aesthetic," Chicago Inter-Ocean

18. "Wilde," Cleveland Leader

19. "With Mr. Oscar Wilde," Cincinnati Gazette

20. "Oscar Wilde," Cincinnati Enquirer

21. "Utterly Utter," St. Louis Post-Dispatch

22. "Speranza's Gifted Son," St. Louis Globe-Democrat

23. "Oscar As He Is," St. Louis Republican

24. "Oscar Wilde," Chicago Tribune

25. "Philosophical Oscar," Chicago Times

26. "David and Oscar," Chicago Tribune

27. "Oscar Wilde in Omaha," Omaha Weekly

28. "Oscar Wilde: An Interview with the Apostle of Aestheticism," San Francisco Examiner

29. "Oscar Wilde's Views," San Francisco Morning Call

30. "Lo! The Aesthete," San Francisco Chronicle

31. "Oscar Arrives," Sacramento Record-Union

32. Mary Watson, "Oscar Wilde at Home," San Francisco Examiner

33. "Oscar Wilde," Salt Lake Herald

34. "Oscar Wilde," Denver Rocky Mountain News

35. "Art and Aesthetics," Denver Tribune.

36. "What Mr. Wilde Says About Himself," Manchester Examiner and Times

37. "Aesthetic: An Interseting Interview with Oscar Wilde," Dayton Daily Democrat

38. "Oscar Wilde's Return," New York World

39. "Oscar Wilde in Montreal," Montreal Witness

40. "Oscar Wilde: The Arch-Aesthete on Aestheticism," Montreal Star

41. "Oscar Wilde," Toronto Globe

42. "The Aesthete at the Art Exhibition," Toronto Globe

43. "Oscar Wilde Talks of Texas," New Orleans Picayune

44. "Oscar Wilde: Arrival of the Great Aesthete," Atlanta Constitution

45. "Oscar Dear, Oscar Dear!" Charleston News and Courier

46. "Loveliness and Politeness," New York Sun

47. "The Apostle of Beauty in Nova Scotia," Halifax Morning Herald

48. "Oscar Wilde Thoroughly Exhausted," New York Tribune

APPENDIX: WILDE'S LECTURE

From Impressions of America

Bibliography of All Known Interviews with Oscar Wilde

Works Consulted

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-01767-9

9786613017673

0-252-09288-0

OCLC:

747306201