[WILDE, Oscar; GROLLEAU, Charles; DOUGLAS, Alfred]
The Trial of Oscar Wilde, from the shorthand reports
Paris, privately printed, 1906
large 8vo, contemporary scarlet morocco binding, gilt titles, 134 + 4 pp.; very good copy, joints slightly rubbed and lower right joint splitting across ca. 4 cm, original wrappers preserved, 4 pages of adverts at the back.
One of 50 numbered copies on Japanese Vellum. In 1895 Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was prosecuted for ‘acts of gross indecency’ with other men. Parts of his trial were covered in newspapers of the day, but because of British censorship laws, this fuller account was not published in English until 1906. Even then, it was printed in Paris, ‘For Private Circulation Only’. It contains Wilde’s passionate defence of ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ – a phrase which has become famous. Wilde celebrated the ‘deep spiritual affection’ between ‘an elder and younger man … such as was sung in the sonnets of Shakespeare and Michelangelo’. His speech prompted a ‘medley of applause and hisses’ from the court gallery (p. 58).
