Oscar Wildes America

In 1881, Oscar Fingal O?Flaherty Wilde embarked on a journey to America for a one-year lecture tour on aestheticism and the decorative arts. With the celebrity status that preceded him, thousands flocked to Wilde?s speaking engagements. Craft societies and museum patronage blossomed in the wake of his lectures on the supremacy of art. Letters home had Wilde boasting that he was more popular than Charles Dickens. This book is a collection of Wilde's thoughts on his visit to America, and on the receptiveness of American audiences to his lectures on art and aestheticism.