April 6, 1895 - Oscar Wilde - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Oscar Wilde arrested for sodomy and gross indecency.Renowned poet Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. An avid and award-winning scholar, he excelled especially in classics and poetry. After graduating from Oxford, Wilde moved to London, where he published his first collection of poetry. Throughout 1882, he toured the United States, delivering lectures on aesthetics and meeting with such famous writers as Longfellow, Holmes and Whitman. After touring Britain and Ireland, Wilde married Constance Lloyd in 1884; they had two sons over the next two years. Shortly thereafter, Wilde created some of his most noted works, including children’s stories and his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Although the novel’s homoerotic nature garnered Wilde negative attention, he went on to establish himself as a playwright with highly acclaimed and financially successful plays such as An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest. When Wilde met Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, they became lovers for almost four years, until Wilde was arrested for sodomy and gross indecency on April 6, 1895. Convicted and sentenced to two years of hard labour in a London prison, he suffered ill health effects. After his release, he secluded himself in Europe until he died on November 30, 1900, in a Paris hotel under the name of Sebastion Melmoth.

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