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Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900)
The Chameleon: A Bazaar of Dangerous and Smiling Chances.
Vol. 1 no. 1 (all published), containing the first appearance of Wilde's "Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young," two poems by Lord Alfred Douglas, and the editor John Bloxam's "The Priest and the Acolyte." 4to, 3/4 brown morocco gilt; top edges gilt; original wrappers bound in. Small book label, clipped newspaper printing of "Wilde's Easter Day," and a carbon copy of "The Shadow of the End" by John Gambril Nicholson laid in. London: Gay and Bird, [1894].
scarce first, limited, and only edition. number 18 of 100 copies. Wilde had been invited to contribute a handful of witticisms to The Chameleon, the Oxford University journal, which also included a poem written by Wilde's lover, Lord Douglas. Wilde's link to the journal, as well as the misattribution to him of the risqué "The Priest and the Acolyte," were later used as evidence in his trial for acts of indecency in which the prosecutor interrogated Wilde about the last line of Douglas' poem Two Loves, "the love that dares not speak its name." As a result, Wilde was arrested and convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labor.
