Facts on... Oscar Wilde

 OSCAR WILDE
Irish poet

Full name: Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie

Born: October 16, 1854, Dublin, Ireland.

Died: November 30, 1900, Paris, France.

Wilde was born from a creative family. His father, Sir William Wilde, was an Irish doctor and self-publisher. His mother, who wrote under the name Speranza, was a revolutionary poet. He also had a sister named Emily, who tragically died from a sudden fever. Oscar was profoundly affected by the loss of his sister, and he always carried a lock of her hair sealed in a decorated envelope.

First of his class, Oscar was awarded the Royal School Scholarship to attend Trinity College in Dublin in 1871. He also attended Oxford, and while studying there, he was awarded the Newdigate prize for his poem, “Ravenna”.

After moving to London, he published his first collection of poetry: “Poems”. Throughout this period of his life, Wilde delivered a series of lectures in the US on aesthetics, staged his play “Vera,” in New York and spent three months in Paris writing a blank-verse tragedy that was eventually turned down.

In 1884 Wilde married Constance Lloyd, with whom he had two children. However, in the summer of 1891, Oscar met Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas, the third son of the Marquis of Queensberry. They soon became lovers and were inseparable until Wilde’s arrest four years later. He was accused of homosexuality, arrested and sentenced to two years of hard labour. Constance took the children to Switzerland and reverted to an old family name, “Holland.”

His most creative period had started in 1889. He had published two collections of children’s stories, “The Happy Prince and Other Tales”, and “The House of Pomegranates”. In addition, his first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in an American magazine in 1890.

Oscar mostly spent the last three years of his life wandering Europe. Several years later, on November 30, 1900 Oscar Wilde died from meningitis. 

Throughout the late 19th century, Wilde wrote many short stories, plays and poems that continue to inspire millions around the world.