“WILDE WAS ACCUSED OF ALL THE AVAILABLE VICES…”: RARE AUTHOR’S EDITION OF WILDE’S POEMS, ONE OF ONLY 220 COPIES SIGNED BY WILDE

WILDE, Oscar. Poems. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane, 1892. Octavo, original gilt-decorated pale violet cloth, pictorial endpapers, top edge gilt, uncut.Housed in a custom clamshell box.    $17,000.

Author’s edition, number 173 of only 220 copies signed by Wilde.

“In May 1892 Messrs. Elkin Mathews and John Lane issued 220 copies of Bogue’s fifth edition of the Poems, the first two preliminary leaves being cut out. For these were substituted a new half-title, on reverse being particulars of the issue, all being designed by Charles Ricketts. Pale violet cloth boards with gilt lettering and designs and decorated endpapers, all by Charles Ricketts” (Mason 309). The limitation page bears Wilde’s signature and reads: “This edition consists of 220 copies, 200 of which are for sale.” The original publication, in 1882, of Wilde’s Poems created a storm of controversy: “Wilde was accused of all the available vices from…. insincerity to indecency, heavy charges against a first book… it was becoming evident that the critics were laying for Wilde, and that nothing but utter originality would silence them… he was beginning to experience the victimization he had once imagined for Keats. [Wilde] knew perfectly well that his ideas were shocking to the English… He had no intention of changing. They must change.” Wilde’s response to the criticism was that “A poem is well or badly written. In art there should be no reference to a standard of good or evil” (Ellman, 144-149). Mason 309. Bookplate of English poet and critic Ernest Radford.

Interior fine. Lightest wear to joints, gilt bright. A very near-fine uncut copy. Scarce.