Declaring His Genius: Oscar Wilde in North America

Gilbert and Sullivan's operetta Patience (1881) satirized the aesthetic movement for which Oscar Wilde, fresh out of Oxford, was already a kind of poster boy. Wilde's North American tour of 1882, ostensibly organized to promote Patience, was a significant event of popular culture in the late 19th century and certainly one of the most controversial. Wherever Wilde went—and he went everywhere in the United States and eastern Canada from New York to Utah mining camps and beyond—newspapers covered his lectures and appearances, sometimes praising his ideas but more often making fun of him and his mannerisms. It's a well-recorded part of Wilde's life, before he moved on to playwriting and literary fame, but Morris, an independent scholar, tells the story with verve. It is difficult not to be amused by Wilde's encounter with the ebullient Leadville miners or the dour Jefferson Davis.