A short life of the author
Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist whose wit, aesthetic philosophy, and tragic biography have made him one of the most celebrated and most collected literary figures of the modern era.
His major works include The Picture of Dorian Gray (first published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, July 1890, then revised as a novel in 1891), the society comedies An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest (both 1895), the long prose poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and the posthumously published prison letter De Profundis (1905). His fairy tales, collected in The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) and A House of Pomegranates (1891), are masterpieces of the genre.
Wilde’s 1895 trials for “gross indecency” and subsequent two-year imprisonment destroyed his career and health. He died in exile in Paris at age forty-six.
Collecting Wilde
Wilde is one of the most expensive and actively collected authors in the English language. Key items include: the July 1890 Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine containing the first version of Dorian Gray ($5,000–$20,000); the 1891 first book edition ($10,000–$50,000+ in fine condition); first editions of the plays; The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898, Leonard Smithers) published pseudonymously as “C.3.3.”; and Salomé (1893) in the original French with Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations in the 1894 English edition. Autograph material is extremely scarce and valuable.