The discovery of three books once owned by Oscar Wilde has been hailed as a “miracle” - and for providing an invaluable insight into Britain’s LGBTQ+ history.
The Picture of Dorian Gray author amassed a collection of more than 2,000 books in his lifetime but had to sell them off to help pay off legal debts he had incurred in 1895.
Only about 40 books in his collection have since been identified with the rest remaining lost to the nation.
But thanks to the detective work of a librarian at University College London, three more have been shown to have been owned by Wilde, one of Britain’s most famous gay writers.
Sarah Pipkin, Outreach and Exhibitions Coordinator in UCL Special Collections, noticed a handwritten note in all three copies from the buyer, which confirmed they were bought at the Wilde book auction.
The books, discovered in the library or archives at UCL, are said to provide an invaluable insight into his Asian influences and Britain’s LGBTQ+ history at the turn of the 20th Century.
Wilde was prosecuted for being gay at a time when being gay was against the law and Ms Pipkin said the volumes shed light on both the author and a crucial chapter in LGBTQ+ history.
She said: “Wilde did not use a personalised bookplate or write his name in all his books and it is the lack of annotations which makes re-building his library very difficult.
“The fact we have been able to identify these books at all is a miracle really. They are a slice of LGBTQ+ history.”
Two of the books from Wilde’s collection The Golden Lotus and Other Legends of Japan by Edward Greey and an 1882 translation of Persian author Mulláná Abdulrahmán Jámī’s The Book of Joseph and Zuleikhá.
A copy of Salome, a play by Wilde, was also confirmed as part of his collection. It contains drawings by an illustrator who was heavily influenced by Japanese art.
The Golden Lotus includes Greey’s retelling of several Japanese folklore stories and was published in 1883.
It was thought to have been owned by Wilde as it was listed on the auction catalogue, but UCL’s copy has revealed he had a personal relationship with the author.
UCL’s copy was given as a gift from the author alongside a personalised inscription to Wilde.
The title page includes a large inscription to Wilde – a new year’s greeting written in Japanese characters, Romanised Japanese and English.
Ms Pipkin said: “It is more proof of Wilde’s interest in Japanese art and literature. We knew Wilde owned a copy of the book, but not that he had a relationship with the author, who was a Japanese antiquities dealer.”
The Book of Joseph and Zuleikhá was not known to be linked to Wilde.
The third book, the play Salome by Wilde, is a one-act tragedy which was first published in 1893. It tells the story of the attempted seduction of Jokanaan (John the Baptist) by Salome, stepdaughter of Herod Antipas.
Salome was illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley, who was heavily influenced by Japanese art.
Ms Pipkin said: “In terms of LGBTQ+ history there’s a sense of loss of history because of things like the criminalisation of homosexuality.
“In Wilde’s case, there’s a sense of lost history because of his libel trial led to the dispersal of his book collection and much of it being lost.
“So identifying these books for me is very much about being seen to reconstruct these elements of LGBTQ+ history which otherwise would sit unknown on the shelves. The contents of Wilde’s library tell quite a nice story about our LGBTQ+ life in the late 19th Century.”
