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February 1882 83 6. Springfield, Illinois, not Missouri. 7. Thomas Hughes (1822–96), author of Tom Brown’s School Days (1857) and founder of a utopian community in Tennessee in 1880. 8. See interview 8n1. 9. Benjamin Leopold Farjeon (1838–1903), English playwright, printer, journalist, and author. 10. William Black (1841–98) was a Scottish novelist educated with a view toward becoming a landscape painter. 11. Walter Besant (1836–1901) was an English novelist, critic, and historian. 12. James Rice (1843–82) was an English writer best known for his collaboration with Walter Besant. 13. Charles Reade (1814–84) was a popular English novelist. Wilkie Collins (1824–89), another English novelist, is best known for the sensation novel The Woman in White (1860). 14. Justin McCarthy (1830–1912), an Irish writer, journalist, and politician, finally achieved the large sales he had long craved with the publication of History of Our Times (1877). The son to whom Wilde refers is Justin Huntley McCarthy (1859–1936), a writer and politician, who wrote biographies of Sir Robert Peel, Pope Leo XIII, and Prime Minister William Gladstone and also finished his father’s History of the Four Georges. 23. “Oscar as He Is,” St. Louis Republican, 26 February 1882, 13 The pen pictures which have been drawn of Oscar Wilde universally by American newspapers are like the reflection of the convex mirror, faithful and yet distorted. No one seeing the true Oscar Wilde could fail to recognize him from them, and no one of any perception could fail to recognize just as clearly that the man is not what has been described. The pictures have at once been true and untrue, with the untruth predominating. A Republican reporter who called on him at the Southern yesterday afternoon and was shown up to his room was forcibly impressed with this. Mr. Wilde met him at the door with a pleasant “good afternoon” and an invitation to be seated, speaking with the broad English accent which still obtains in portions of America, especially in Virginia, an accent which is rhythmic always, and which appeared to be perfectly natural with him. His appearance was much as it has been described so repeatedly in the different newspapers of the country, barring the exaggerations. His dress, which would have seemed outre enough on the stage, did not seem out of place as a chamber negligee. He wore a short drab jacket, hanging open and showing a waistcoat i-xii_1-196_Wild.indd 83 8/4/09 9:11:45 AM 84 February 1882 of the same material, loose pantaloons, and a collar turned negligently over a neckcloth tied in the loose sailor fashion, and there was something suggestive of the sea in his whole “makeup.” The writer, who went altogether undecided as to the light in which the apostle was to be considered, found, after only a few words had been spoken, that there was a serious side to him which was altogether undeveloped for newspaper purposes, and which could be utilized to advantage. Perhaps no one has seen a man who has not been disappointed in some way. The disappointment here was that he was not the grotesque being that has been described, but a thoroughly well bred and well educated young gentleman, with a large share of good humor; disposed apparently to carry out the maxim from his own beloved Greek of “especially thinking well of himself above all things”; apparently too with much theoretical and little practical knowledge of men. This was the impression, but in his conversation there were keen flashes of wit which made it doubtful after all if he were not more a man of the world than he seemed. Taking a seat and motioning the reporter to another, he lighted a cigarette and waited to be questioned, while his servant, who evidently from frequent experience knew that his master required something to sustain him through the ordeal, placed a small glass of what appeared to be sherry punch, very weak, on the table before him. Leaning his head against the easy chair, with his long hair flowing over his shoulders, Oscar waited with an air which was at once resigned and quizzical, but without a suspicion of embarrassment. “ShallIputthequestionwhichwasputtoyourcountryman,Mr.Chuzzlewit, and ask you ‘What do you think of our kentry, sir?’”1 asked the reporter. “You may if you like,” was the reply, “although I might find some difficulty in answering it. It has changed greatly since Dickens’s visit, no doubt...

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