[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)] – Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ DOUGLAS (1870-1945) and Frank Harris (1855-1931). Annotated typescripts and galley proofs for the New Preface to ''The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde'', 1925.

[WILDE, Oscar (1854-1900)] – Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ DOUGLAS (1870-1945) and Frank Harris (1855-1931). Annotated typescripts and galley proofs for the New Preface to "The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde", 1925.

Approx. 232 pages in total, various sizes. Provenance: Reginald Caton (1897-1971, publisher); offered with a letter and related envelope addressed to Caton, 2 December 1925, from the Whitefriars Press, relating to the binding costs for the edition.

A collection of typescripts and galley proofs tracing the convoluted preparation for publication of a New Preface to “The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde”, a coda to Frank Harris’s scandalous 1916 publication, with autograph emendations from the man at the centre of the affair, Bosie Douglas, under whose auspices the volume was eventually published. Comprising typescripts and galley proofs, with annotations and emendations in the hands of Lord Alfred Douglas, Frank Harris, and an editor, in pen and pencil, including: typescript, ‘A Second Preface to “The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde” by Frank Harris’, annotations and emendations in the hands of Harris, Douglas and another (39 pages, 255 x 200mm); typescript, ‘New Preface to “The Life & Confessions of Oscar Wilde” by Frank Harris and Lord Alfred Douglas/ Foreword by Lord Alfred Douglas’, titled and amended in Douglas’ hand (4 pages, 330 x 200mm); and nine sets of galley proofs, 27 July – 25 November 1925, two sets with annotations and emendations in Douglas’ hand, seven of the sets with annotations in the hand of an editor.

In March 1925, Douglas was approached by Frank Harris, who claimed he wanted to make amends for his sensational – and, frankly, libellous – 1916 work, The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde, in which he painted Bosie as villain: Harris offered Douglas the chance to set the record straight, and the two agreed to publish a ‘New Preface’ for the edition. The collaboration ended in failure, blackmail and further accusations of libel, and Douglas took ownership of the Preface, publishing it independently at the end of the 1925 (see D. Murray, Bosie, 2000, pp.260-4 for a full account of the affair). The present archive relates to this publication – of particular note are certain draft passages which offer new perspectives on the case: the first typescript contains a passage, subsequently deleted, accusing Sir Edward Clarke – who represented Oscar Wilde in 1895 – of an act of ‘pure snobbery’ in breaking his promise to call Bosie to testify against his father, deciding to ruin his client in favour of exposing ‘a wealthy Marquis to universal execration’ (page 8).