Controversial twenty-seven-year-old Irish writer Oscar Wilde lectured in the Twin Cities on March 16, 1882. The St. Paul Globe reported that he "was dressed in purple silk velvet, wide sleeves, cut away coat and knee breeches. One hand was encased in a white kid glove and the other sported a lace handkerchief. A long lace neck tie… encircled his neck." They reported that Wilde "was shocked by our buildings, by the mud in the streets, and especially by the rooms and furniture in the hotels."
“Quite a large audience assembled at the Opera House last night to listen to the apostle of aestheticism,” the Pioneer Press said added that they were used to his “slighting references about America.” The paper noted that he was “striking in appearance, somewhat eccentric in dress,” and “famous rather for his aesthetic doctrines than for any tangible achievements in art.” In fact, Wilde's career as playwright and novelist had not begun, and people in the city appeared to see the young Irishman as representing a peculiar kind of artistic endeavor rather than a distinguished writer. “It is probable,” the local reporter concluded, “that the larger portion were attracted by curiosity rather than any idea of a literary feast.”Thank you to historian Steve Trimble for this post. Photo of Oscar Wilde in 1882 by Napoleon Sarony. Wikimedia Commons, US Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.
Original source can be found here.
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