Oscar Wilde and the 1890s
The library's collection of materials by and relating to Oscar Wilde is the most comprehensive in the world. Based on Clark's early purchases from Wilde's son Vyvyan Holland, bibliographer Christopher Millard, and executor Robert Ross, the holdings include a remarkable group of autograph letters and drafts by Wilde and his circle, supported by a nearly complete collection of printed editions of his works. Photographs, original portraits, caricatures, playbills, and news cuttings provide a depth of holdings which cannot be found elsewhere. Most of the important Wilde studies in recent years have drawn heavily upon the Clark's resources. Other books and documents relate to Wilde or to the decadent and modernist movements of the 1890s. They include literary periodicals, most of the important editions of Yeats, an archive relating to the English publisher John Lane, caricatures by Max Beerbohm, and books and manuscripts of George Moore, Ada Leverson, and George Egerton.
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