Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on Oct. 16, 1854. Oscar attended the Portora Royal School at Enniskillen, where Oscar excelled at studying the classics, taking top prize his last two years, and also earning a second prize in drawing. In 1871, Oscar was awarded the Royal School Scholarship to attend Trinity College in Dublin. Again, he did particularly well in his classics courses, placing first in his examinations in 1872 and earning the highest honor the college could bestow on an undergraduate, a Foundation Scholarship. In 1874, he won the college's Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek and was awarded a Demyship scholarship to Magdalen College in Oxford.

Oscar's father died on April 19, 1876, leaving the family financially strapped. Henry, William's eldest son, paid the mortgage on the family's house and supported them until his sudden death in 1877. Meanwhile, Oscar continued to do well at Oxford. He was awarded the Newdigate prize for his poem, “Ravenna,” and a First Class in both his "Mods" and "Greats" by his examiners. After graduation, Oscar moved to London to live with his friend Frank Miles, a popular high society portrait painter.  In 1881, he published his first collection of poetry. “Poems” receiving mixed reviews by critics, nevertheless, it helped to move Oscar's writing career along.

On May 29, 1884, Oscar married Constance Lloyd. Constance  was four years younger than Oscar and the daughter of a prominent barrister who died when she was sixteen. She was well-read, spoke several European  languages and had an outspoken, independent mind. Oscar and Constance  had two sons in quick succession, Cyril in 1885 and Vyvyan in 1886. With  a family to support, Oscar accepted a job revitalizing The Woman's  World magazine, where he worked from 1887-1889. The next six  years were to become the most creative period of his life. He published two collections of children's stories, The Happy Prince And Other  Tales (1888), and The House Of Pomegranates (1892). His first and only  novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, was published in an American  magazine in 1890 to a storm of critical protest. He expanded the storyl  and had it published in book form the following year. Its implied homoerotic  theme was was considered very immoral by the Victorians and played a considerable part in his later legal trials.

Oscar's first play, “Lady Windermere's  Fan,” opened in February 1892. Its financial and critical success prompted him to continue to write for the theater. His subsequent plays  included “A Woman Of No Importance” (1893), “An Ideal Husband” (1895), and “The Importance Of Being Earnest” (1895). These plays were all highly acclaimed and firmly established Oscar as a playwright.

In the summer of 1891, Oscar met Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas. They soon became lovers and were inseparable until Wilde's arrest four years later. In April 1895, Wilde sued Bosie's father for libel as the Marquis had accused him of homosexuality. Wilde withdrew his case but was arrested and convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years hard labor.

Upon his release, Oscar wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a response to the agony he experienced in prison. It was published shortly before Constance's death in 1898. He and Bosie reunited briefly, but Oscar mostly spent the last three years of his life wandering Europe, staying with friends and living in cheap hotels. Sadly, he was unable to rekindle his creative fires. When a recurrent ear infection became serious several years later, meningitis set in, and Oscar Wilde died on November 30, 1900.