Aug 13, 2020 - Sale 2544

Sale 2544 - Lot 10

Price Realized: $ 281
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(OSCAR WILDE TRIAL.)


Typed Letter Signed by unidentified drama critic to Boston Transcript editor Edwin F. Edgett regarding the trial of Oscar Wilde.
Single 8vo sheet, with 3 3/4x4 3/4-inch postmared envelope, which has a contemporary pencil annotation "re Wilde" below the address. London, April 17, 1895.

This letter was written in the days between Wilde's two trials by an unidentified drama critic in London (Walter ?) to Edwin F. Edgett, the theater editor of the Boston Transcript. It mentions, among other topics, "two dramatic letters dealing with Oscar Wilde" that he posted recently. The postscript reads (in part): "Poor Wilde! I heard the other day indirectly from the man who is defending him, that the evidence against him is damning, and that he will either be ostracised from the country or that he will have to serve two years. They won't allow him out on bail."