WILDE, Oscar.

£2,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Ballad of Reading Gaol. By C.3.3. First edition, one of 800 copies printed on handmade paper. This copy is beautifully presented, and includes the well-preserved wrappers at the rear.At the insistence of his publishers, Wilde employed a pseudonym for fear of the negative effect his name would have on the poem's sales. "C.3.3." derives from Wilde's cell in Reading Gaol - the third cell on the third landing of Gallery C. The first edition, of which another 30 copies on japon were also issued, sold out rapidly. A second edition was printed within weeks.

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