WILDE, OSCAR. AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED TO CARLOS BLACKER, 21 JULY [1897], 2 PP.

Autograph letter signed ("Oscar"), 2 pages on brown card (3 1/2 x 5 in.; 89 x 127 mm), Berneval-sur-Mer, France, 21 July [1897], to Carlos Blacker. Autograph envelope; verso with residue of white paper glued to envelope.

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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"… Tragedies are much better than Farces, and there is no other alternative on the world's stage."  Carlos Blacker (1859–1928), whom Wilde considered "the best dressed man in London," was a friend of long standing of both Wilde and his wife Constance. He remained faithful to Wilde after his trial and prison sentence, lending him money and sometimes acting as a go-between for the estranged Wildes. In the spring of 1898, Wilde and Blacker's friendship came to an end. most likely due to Blacker's disapproval of Wilde's continuing relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas.

In the present letter, written about a year before the friendship ended, Wilde writes to "My Dear Old Friend," congratulating him on the birth of a child. At this time the Blackers were living in Freiburg. "Your letter has just arrived, and I write to thank you for the sympathy and affection with which it is made beautiful to me. I look forward to you and your wife coming here with the keenest joy, and I do think you will find me a soul not marred or made morbid by what the Gods sent me. I am delighted to hear of the birth of your child: on both sides it inherits a noble nature, and an intellect of distinction and subtlety of perception. Of course its life will be a tragedy, but Tragedies are much better than Farces, and there is no other alternative on the world's stage."

A very fine letter, written one year after Wilde's release from Pentonville Prison, sharing his thoughts on the inevitability of tragedy in human life.

Not in The Collected Letters and presumably unpublished.