WILDE, Oscar

Intentions: The Decay of Lying, Pen Pencil and Poison, The Critic as Artist, The Truth of Masks

First edition. Original green cloth gilt. A little cocked, and chips to the corners of several pages which were roughly opened, none affecting any text. Attractive bookplate of Eleanor Stout McRae on the front pastedown, with a handwritten note that seems to indicate that the book was obtained from bookseller Walter Hill in 1924; and with the ownership signature of Jonathan Sturges dated in 1891 on the front fly. Signed by Wilde on the blank facing the title-page: "Oscar Wilde, May '91." Sturges, an American-born Princeton graduate, who had been crippled by polio, was a charming and attractive writer who moved to England. He has been characterized in several articles and biographies as part of "Wilde's London homosexual circle." (Kaplan 404) He was also a close friend of Henry James and reputedly the object of James' repressed affections. According to Leon Edel, Sturges' recitation of a conversation he had with William Dean Howells provided James with the germ of an idea that resulted in his masterpiece, The Ambassadors. James also wrote an introduction to Sturges' translations of de Maupassant. Sturges was reportedly, along with Edmund Gosse, James' principle source of gossip about the scandalous doings of Wilde. The painter James McNeil Whistler was also close to Sturges, and designed a monogram of his initials for a signet ring. One of 900 copies with the English imprint, of a total edition of 1500. Rare signed, and with an interesting association.

[BTC #89990]