Milestone Monday
On this day, April 3 in 1895, the trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde began, ultimately resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality. Wilde brought the suit against the Marquess of Queensberry who, angered by Wilde’s apparent ongoing homosexual relationship with the Marquess’s son Alfred Douglas, had publicly accused Wilde of sodomy. Wilde dropped the suit, however, after being confronted by the possibility of witnesses who could potentially prove the Marquess’s accusation. After winning a counterclaim against Wilde that left the writer bankrupt, the Marquess of Queensberry then presented evidence against him, and on April 6, 1895 Wilde was arrested on charges of "gross indecency," a coded term for homosexual acts. He was convicted on May 25, 1895 and sentenced to two years hard labor. Much of his sentence was spent at Reading Gaol, where he was addressed and identified only as "C.3.3" – the occupant of the third cell on the third floor of C ward. The harsh incarceration broke his health and eventually led to his death in 1900.
After his release, Wilde wrote the long poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which was published in London by Leonard Smithers on February 13,1898 under the name "C.3.3." While in prison, Wilde wrote a long letter to Alfred Douglas that was not delivered. It recounts their relationship and extravagant lifestyle, as well as Wilde’s spiritual transformation during his imprisonment. Wilde entrusted the manuscript to his loyal friend and sometimes-lover Robert Ross, who had it published after Wilde’s death by Methuen and Co. in 1905, giving it the title "De Profundis" (”Out of the depths”) from Psalm 130.
To commemorate this milestone, we present the title page from our first edition copy of The Ballad of Reading Gaol, limited to an edition of 800 copies on handmade paper; the title page and cover of our first edition of De Profundis, with the gilt device of a bird leaving a circle of bars designed by Wilde’s friend Charles Ricketts; and illustrations by the designer and artist John Vassos for an illustrated edition of The Ballad of Reading Gaol published in New York by E. P. Dutton & Co. in 1928.
View more posts of works by Oscar Wilde.
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