Oscar Wilde Discovers America 1882

This compelling and unique fictional foray into American history follows a brilliantly conjured Wilde and his young black valet on a whirlwind tour across the country from high-society Newport to the deep south.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,00, University of Bamberg, course: The works and trials of Oscar Wilde, language: English, abstract: The concept of travel is as old as mankind itself. In the very beginning, of course, travelling did not simply take place for enjoyment or education, but to satisfy basic needs such as food and shelter. When Man finally began to settle in certain areas, travelling still meant going shorter or longer distances to obtain food, water and other valuable items. First on foot, then through domestication mainly by horse, and finally, in many shapes and forms, by a seemingly endless possibility of modern transportation, with the invention of the steam engine all the way to 21st century solar and electricity-powered vehicles. Although, when talking about the nineteenth century, one could only rely on ocean liners running on steam and the locomotive in order to travel great distances. Such inventions enabled mankind not only to become much better organized and grow together in an economic way, but they also allowed the people to take journeys to far-away places and travel abroad as only dignitaries and statesmen could do. However, the concept of travel was no longer focused on obtaining supplies or being away on business, it now was able to unfold in many ways more. People travelled for pleasure, were anxious to meet and experience new things, get to know exotic cultures, manners and traditions. The single most important discovery that prompted such desire not just to explore, but later also to travel, is regarded by most experts as the beginning of the modern age: Christopher Columbus sets out to sea in order to find a new passage route to India. Instead, it was America he had discovered in early October 1492. That is how far back we can trace the so-called New World. New it was indeed to the many generations of explorers, conquerors and other interested visitors, ma

Witty, inspiring, and charismatic, Oscar Wilde is one of the Greats of English literature. Today, his plays and stories are beloved around the world. But it was not always so. His afterlife has given him the legitimacy that life denied him. Making Oscar Wilde reveals the untold story of young Oscar's career in Victorian England and post-Civil War America. Set on two continents, this book tracks a larger-than-life hero on an unforgettable adventure to make his name and gain international acclaim. 'Success is a science,' Wilde believed, 'if you have the conditions, you get the result.' Combining new evidence and gripping cultural history, Michèle Mendelssohn dramatizes Wilde's rise, fall, and resurrection as part of a spectacular transatlantic pageant. With superb style and an instinct for story-telling, she brings to life the charming young Irishman who set out to captivate the United States and Britain with his words and ended up conquering the world. Following the twists and turns of Wilde's journey, Mendelssohn vividly depicts sensation-hungry Victorian journalism and popular entertainment alongside racial controversies, sex scandals, and the growth of Irish nationalism. This ground-breaking revisionist history shows how Wilde's tumultuous early life embodies the story of the Victorian era as it tottered towards modernity. Riveting and original, Making Oscar Wilde is a masterful account of a life like no other.

The story of Oscar Wilde’s landmark 1882 American tour explains how this quotable literary eminence became famous for being famous. On January 3, 1882, Oscar Wilde, a twenty-seven-year-old “genius”—at least by his own reckoning—arrived in New York. The Dublin-born Oxford man had made such a spectacle of himself in London with his eccentric fashion sense, acerbic wit, and extravagant passion for art and home design that Gilbert & Sullivan wrote an operetta lampooning him. He was hired to go to America to promote that work by presenting lectures on interior decorating. But Wilde had his own business plan. He would go to promote himself. And he did, traveling some 15,000 miles and visiting 150 American cities as he created a template for fame creation that still works today. Though Wilde was only the author of a self-published book of poems and an unproduced play, he presented himself as a “star,” taking the stage in satin breeches and a velvet coat with lace trim as he sang the praises of sconces and embroidered pillows—and himself. What Wilde so presciently understood is that fame could launch a career as well as cap one. David M. Friedman’s lively and often hilarious narrative whisks us across nineteenth-century America, from the mansions of Gilded Age Manhattan to roller-skating rinks in Indiana, from an opium den in San Francisco to the bottom of the Matchless silver mine in Colorado—then the richest on earth—where Wilde dined with twelve gobsmacked miners, later describing their feast to his friends in London as “First course: whiskey. Second course: whiskey. Third course: whiskey.” But, as Friedman shows, Wilde was no mere clown; he was a strategist. From his antics in London to his manipulation of the media—Wilde gave 100 interviews in America, more than anyone else in the world in 1882—he designed every move to increase his renown. There had been famous people before him, but Wilde was the first to become famous for being famous. Wilde in America is an enchanting tale of travel and transformation, comedy and capitalism—an unforgettable story that teaches us about our present as well as our past.

Better known in 1882 as a cultural icon than a serious writer, Oscar Wilde was brought to North America for a major lecture tour on Aestheticism and the decorative arts. With characteristic aplomb, he adopted the role as the ambassador of Aestheticism, and he tried out a number of phrases, ideas, and strategies that ultimately made him famous as a novelist and playwright. This exceptional volume cites all ninety-one of Wilde's interviews and contains transcripts of forty-eight of them, and it also includes his lecture on his travels in America.

We experience the past, present and future of a young man watching a high-school track meet. A classic portrait of maleness and insights about what goes on between men.