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Who Was Oscar Wilde?
Best remembered as a playwright, Wilde was also a popular author of essays, poems, and short stories. His lectures and memorable aphorisms attracted followers years before his plays became successful. His private life drew even more attention, but his writing has withstood the test of time and has much to say to today’s audiences and readers.
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16th, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. Wilde later attended Dublin’s Trinity College and Magdalen College in Oxford, England from which he graduated with a degree in Classical Literature. Much of Wilde’s writing was influenced by his mother Jane, a poet. Even then, Wilde was well known for his eccentric fashion and behavior.
Oscar Wilde
In 1882, he lectured across the United States, assuring US Customs officials he had ‘nothing to declare but my genius’! Soon thereafter, Wilde married Constance Lloyd and fathered two sons. The family lived in London where he became editor of Woman’s World magazine. By 1890, he published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray followed soon after by his play Lady Windermere’s Fan– his first critical and financial success. Next came another hit entitled, A Woman of No Importance. In January 1885, An Ideal Husband opened in London.
Oscar Wilde
Wilde endured a much-publicized trial and imprisonment for ‘gross indecency.’ Afterwards, a couple of years after his wife Constance died, Wilde wandered around Europe for three years, living with friends or in cheap hotels. He died in Paris in 1900 of cerebral meningitis that he had contracted in prison. He is buried in France.
