“If… you do not withdraw your book Les Amours d’Oscar Wildefrom circulation, I will be truly amazed. The story you tell in your book is, as far as I am concerned, a jumble of falsehoods and lies”
DOUGLAS, LORD ALFRED “BOSIE.” (1870-1945). British aristocrat and poet best known for his scandalous love affair with Oscar Wilde. ALS. (“Alfred Douglas”). 2pp. 4to. Hove, December 23, 1929. On his personal stationery. (To French poet, historian, journalist, and sculptor LUCIE DELARUE-MARDRUS, 1874-1945).
“The day before yesterday I wrote you (in English) at the address of the Flammarion Publishing House. Since then, when sending a telegram to my friend Miss Toupie Lowther, I saw your own address. I would like to ask you to read the pages marked in the two issues of the Mercure de Franceof February 1 and March 1. If, after reading them, you do not withdraw your book Les Amours d’Oscar Wildefrom circulation, I will be truly amazed. The story you tell in your book is, as far as I am concerned, a jumble of falsehoods and lies. It is obviously simply a retelling of the lies told by Harris and Ross that were recognized to be just that. My “Autobiography,” published this year in London by Martin Secker Publishers, puts an end to all those calumnies. In my letter addressed to you at the Flammarion Publishing House, I offered to send you a copy of the book. The French translation is not finished but should appear soon. If you want to read my book in English, you will see the cruelty of your calumnies. Also, should you want to learn more from Miss Lowther, who knows the whole story and also has a copy of my “Autobiography,” you will become convinced, I am sure, of the terrible injustice you have done me… PS. I have also written two letters to Flammarion Publishers that you will surely hear about. Frank Harris does not dare set foot in England. If he came to that country, he would be arrested on the spot and thrown in prison. Before his death, Ross was exposed as the worst of scoundrels, a briber and a thief. He stole my letters to Wilde.”
Douglas was the third son of the 9th Marquess of Queensbury, the Scottish nobleman known for being the namesake of the Queensbury Rules of boxing. While at Oxford, Douglas penned poetry on homosexual themes and edited the student journal, The Spirit Lamp, a pastime of which his father disapproved. In 1891, Douglas praised Oscar Wilde’s Salome in The Spirit Lamp, and they began their relationship the same year. In 1893, Douglas dropped out of Oxford, further upsetting his father.
The Douglas-Wilde relationship was tempestuous and marked by frequent quarrelling and breakups. Like Wilde, Douglas was vain and arrogant and expected his lover to clear his gambling debts and cover his profligate spending. He exposed Wilde to blackmail by carelessly leaving his love letters in clothing he gave to the male prostitutes he frequented. Nonetheless, their love affair endured for six years.
Eventually, Queensbury accused his son of carrying on a homosexual relationship with Wilde and threatened to make a scandal. Douglas brushed his father off leading the latter to harass Wilde at home and in the theater. In 1895, he famously left his card at Wilde’s club adding a note accusing him of being a sodomite. Wilde sued Queensbury for libel forcing the latter to prove the accuracy of his charge by providing evidence of Wilde’s homosexuality. During the resulting trial, Douglas’ poems and letters to Wilde were used as evidence. Wilde was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment, destroying both his health and reputation. After two years in jail, the frail Wilde lived out the remainder of his days in impecunious exile in France under a pseudonym, where he briefly reunited with Douglas.
Following Wilde’s death in 1900, Douglas recanted his homosexuality, married, fathered a son, and converted to Catholicism. He announced his regret at knowing Wilde while aggressively pursuing publishers and authors he felt were libeling him by publishing accounts of their relationship. In 1920, he founded an anti-Semitic, conservative Catholic magazine called Plain English, on the pages of which he attacked Wilde’s friend, British writer, journalist and publisher Frank Harris (1855-1931), whose 1916 Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions Douglas succeeded in banning from English publication on grounds of libel. Douglas, himself, was found guilty of libel after alleging a Jewish conspiracy involving Winston Churchill in the pages of Plain English. Douglas had to pay Churchill damages and served time in prison.
Our letter also mentions Canadian journalist and art dealer Robert “Robbie” Ross (1869-1918), who Douglas perceived as a rival for Wilde’s affections. Ross likely began a romantic relationship with Wilde in 1886 and the pair remained close. Douglas’ jealousy of Ross was ongoing and even resulted in an altercation between the two men at Wilde’s funeral. After Wilde’s death, Ross acted as his literary executor, editing the definitive edition of Wilde’s works and fighting against black market editions.
Lucie Delarue-Mardrus was a prolific poet and novelist who wrote extensively on lesbian themes. “She was one of the most popular authors of the 1920s, and many of her novels began as serials in such widely read newspapers as the Journal and Revue de Paris. Delarue married Joseph-Charles Mardrus… the Franco-Egyptian translator of the Arabian Nights, and it was he who introduced her to the literary and artistic opinion-makers of the day… despite this high-profile marriage, Delarue-Mardrus reserved her passion for women. Natalie Barney… introduced her to the lesbian aristocracy of Paris, and she was a frequent visitor at Barney’s salon,” (Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures). She was also “a personal friend of Lord Alfred Douglas, Wilde’s lover, and it was her friendship for Douglas that inspired her to write the biography” Les Amours d’Oscar Wilde in 1929, (“Introduction,” The Angel and the Perverts, Delarue-Mardrus, transl. Livia). Delarue-Mardrus sent a pre-publication copy of the work to Douglas, prompting our near-hysterical letter. Despite his objections, the work was published by Flammarion with a few changes made to avoid a lawsuit. Douglas’ own Autobiography, published earlier in the year, mentions Delarue-Mardrus.
English athlete Toupie Lowther (1874-1944) was the sister of actress Aimée Lowther, to whom Wilde is purported to have said, “Aimée, if you were only a boy I could adore you,” (Truly Wilde: The Unsettling Story of Dolly Wilde, Oscar’s Niece, Schenkar). An award winning tennis player, Lowther also fenced, practiced jujitsu, lifted weights, and crossed the Alps on a motorcycle. Well-known in lesbian literary circles, Lowther counted among her close friends authors Radclyffe Hall and Romaine Brooks, who nicknamed her “Brother.” During World War I, she organized a female ambulance corps known as the Hackett-Lowther Ambulance Unit active on the front lines in France. Among the ambulance drivers was Oscar Wilde’s niece Dolly Wilde, whose romantic partners included famed expatriate, lesbian salon hostess and writer Natalie Clifford Barney.
Written from Hove, near Brighton, where Douglas lived out his final years in penury. Folded with light creasing and some scattered toning. In very good condition. Accompanied by an orange Flammarion flyer advertising the publication of Les Amours d’Oscar Wilde.
Item #19849