WILDE, Oscar.

£75,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Importance of Being Earnest. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author in the month of publication, "To my friend Will Rothenstein: Oscar Wilde. Feb. '99", and with Rothenstein's bookplate.Wilde met William Rothenstein (1872-1945), a student at the Académie Julian, in Paris in 1891. The author became an instant admirer of the young artist's work, regarding him as "a sort of youthful prodigy" (Rothenstein, p. 86). He displayed several of Rothenstein's lithographs at his home, posed for him in a red waistcoat, and commissioned him to paint a portrait of Alfred Douglas in 1893. Rothenstein remembered that, at the time, "Wilde was the lion of the season in Paris; he was invited everywhere" (Rothenstein, p. 92). He introduced Rothenstein to the city's literary scene, often taking him to his underworld night haunts, including the Café d'Harcourt and the Château Rouge.The two remained friends after Wilde's arrest and imprisonment. During their long evenings together, they had animated conversations about art, literature, and gossip. Rothenstein was enchanted by Wilde's wit, and in his memoir Men and Memories (1930) praises him as "a unique talker and story-teller - I have never heard anyone else tell stories as he did... His description of people, his appreciation of prose and verse, were a never-failing delight. He seemed to have known all men and women. Tell me about so and so, Oscar, you would ask; and there would come a stream of entertaining stories, and a v

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