Oscar Wilde Collection

The Oscar Wilde collection includes manuscripts and letters written by the Irish poet and playwright.

Series I. is composed of five major works by Oscar Wilde. The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Windermere's Fan, and A Woman of No Importance are present as complete typescripts while an incomplete draft of A Florentine Tragedy is handwritten. Salomé, in French, is a complete holograph notebook. A few additional items are also present.

Series II. is divided into outgoing and incoming correspondence. Outgoing correspondence are letters from Wilde to friends and associates including George Alexander, Frank Harris, and Ada Leverson, among others. Incoming correspondence includes letters to Wilde from a wide variety of friends and admirers.

Series III. is divided into works by other authors and third-party correspondence. Works by other authors include Mr. and Mrs. Daventry (based on a plot by Wilde) by Frank Harris and Robert Sherard's Oscar Wilde: The Story of an Unhappy Friendship. Third-party correspondence includes letters between people who were associated with Wilde, his family, and his biographers, including Vyvyan Holland, Arthur Ransome, and Constance Wilde.

This collection was digitized as part of Project REVEAL (Read and View English & American Literature).