For sale:
letters from a love-sick Wilde to the object of his affection
Correspondence reveals the burgeoning homosexuality that would land writer in prison
By Andy McSmith, The Independent, Thursday, 16 September 2010



Wilde, left - Getty Images, wrote the letters to Vian eight years before his sensational trial and conviction for homosexuality

Oscar Wilde's eye had been caught by a bright young journalist years before he embarked on his disastrous affair with Lord Alfred Douglas – at least, that is the conclusion which can be drawn by reading between the lines of a recently unearthed series of the playwright's handwritten letters.
Sent byWilde to a young man named Alsager Richard Vian, the letters are due to be auctioned later this month and are expected to fetch £10,000. Ostensibly they are business letters in which Wilde undertakes to write pieces for the Court & Society Review, which Vian edited.

In one letter, reproduced above, Wilde suggests he write about amusing answers given by American school children. This part of the letter seems innocent enough, but the next paragraph reads distinctly like a proposition.

Wilde invites Vian to dinner for two with wine at a London restaurant, going on to suggest the men retire after dinner to Vian's house, the address for which Wilde requests. Before he signs off, "Truly yours, Oscar Wilde," he writes: "This is all wrong, isn't it."

Other letters concern the often mundan professional exchanges shared between editor and writer, but often end with further invitations to meet.
More at The Independent.