System Number: 02084
Date: [May/June 1895?][1]
Author: JW
Place: Paris
Recipient: William Heinemann[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler H185
Document Type: ALS
110. Rue du Bac. Paris -
My dear Heinemann -
What gulf of silence have you fallen into! - where are you? and what all have you bottled up during this long withdrawal from circulation? -
What of Oscar[3]? - and [p. 2] what of those who are left! - for I hear there has been a general bolting of every body! - and that London is left to the few without sin -
Write us a line -
Always
[butterfly signature]
Did you see an Interview in last week's Realm[4]?
And[5] did I send you the one in "Le Journal[6]" of April 15th? I[t] was called "Brun et Or"
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [May/June 1895?]
Dated from references to the Realm and Oscar Wilde (see notes below).
2. William Heinemann
William Heinemann (1863-1920), publisher [more].
3. Oscar
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wilde (1854-1900), writer, critic and playwright [more]. Wilde's libel action against the Marquess of Queensberry over his relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas opened on 3 April 1895. However, Queensberry was acquitted two days later and Wilde was arrested under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 for 'acts of gross indecency with other male persons.' On 25 May, Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years hard labour. Wilde's conviction would have greatly alarmed those in London society whose morals or sexual tastes lay outside conventional Victorian propriety.
4. Realm
The Realm was a short-lived journal which ran from 16 November 1894 - 20 December 1895. The interview article is unidentified (see JW to Herbert Vivian, 29 April 1895, #08157), but probably relates to JW's dispute with Sir William Eden (1849-1915), painter and collector [more], over possession of Brown and Gold: Portrait of Lady Eden (YMSM 408), which received extensive press coverage between 1894 and 1899.
5. And
Continued in left margin, p. 1, at right angles to the main text.
6. Le Journal
'Brun et Or', Le Journal, 15 April 1895; see also Le Journal, 24 March 1895.