Wilde, Oscar.

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Description

Wilde, Oscar.

Autograph letter signed ("Oscar Wilde"), to H.E. Boulton ("My Dear Harold")

Literature

Complete Letters, p.85 (quoting only the first half of the letter), and cf p.66n.

Catalogue Note

Harold Edwin Boulton (1859-1935), later second Baronet, was an undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford, from 1878 to 1881. He was editor of Waifs and Strays, where two of Wilde's poems would appear (in June 1879 and March 1880: Mason, pp.216-18). Wilde was on sufficiently friendly terms with Boulton in 1878 to inscribe a copy of Ravenna to him.

...I very often have beautiful people to tea, and will always be very glad to see you and introduce you to them...I will give you a bed with great pleasure in this untidy and romantic house..I am afraid I must definitely decline your mother's kind invitation...Anything at Copped Hall is sure to be a success...