WILDE, Oscar (1856-1900). Wit and dramatist.
Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs [Henrietta] Barnett, 4 pages 8vo, 16 Tite Street, no date, [ca 1889]. Discussing his lectures, expressing the hope of giving a lecture on Irish Art at Toynbee Hall, and complaining of malaria.
A fine letter written at about the end of Wilde's lecturing period, evincing his keen interest in the betterment of the working classes, and in particular their education in art. It is also instructive to find Wilde complaining of an attack of malaria, as he did also in a letter to George Lewis in 1889. It has long been speculated that Wilde was in fact suffering from syphilis, and Richard Ellmann, in his authoritative biography, was sure of it. Others take a differing view. However, it is possible that Wilde did indeed catch malaria on a visit to France in 1880.

'... I have been ill for a long time with malaria, caught during a rash visit to Provence at vintage time - it comes and goes. ... Some day I will give Toynbee Hall a lecture on Irish Art, if I can get someone to help me with a magic-lantern. I think that pictures are really necessary to give people a proper idea of what one is talking of - but I have never yet had pictures in any lecture. ...'

Unpublished, not in Letters or More Letters, ed Hart-Davis.
Together with a wholly secretarial letter, signed on Wilde's behalf, to Mrs Barnett from the Woman's World, 10 January 1889, asking to see her article on art.
[No: 7603]