The Wilde album
(Book)

Originally published: London : Fourth Estate, 1997.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [189] and index.

Oscar Wilde was one of the first and unquestionably one of the greatest self-publicists ever. Above all, and with that exceptional streak of modernity which characterises much of Wilde's life and works, he understood the power of the image in his campaign of promoting himself. As early as his Oxford days he had himself photographed with his contemporaries in loud check suits of the latest fashion. Later, when he toured America to lecture on aesthetics in 1882, almost as soon as he landed he commissioned Napoleon Sarony, the best portraitist in New York, to photograph him in fur coat and velvet suit; and in not one or two poses but at least twenty-seven. The Wilde Album now publishes more of these images of Oscar than have ever been seen together before, as well as later photographs (some previously unpublished) from the family archive, showing Oscar, his family and his friends. There are also rare snapshots of Oscar in his last years in Italy, taken most probably by a friend using Oscar's own camera, which we know he owned from a letter of 1900