Documents associated with: plagiarism
Record 16 of 20
System Number: 05339
Date: 21 January 1890
Author: James Runciman[1]
Place: Kingston-on-Thames
Recipient: JW
Place: [London]
Repository: Glasgow University Library
Call Number: MS Whistler R234
Document Type: ALS
'Runciman[2]'
19 Grange Road
Kingston-on-Ths
21 / 1 / 90
Dear Mr Whistler
Thank you for the papers. I shall send the Magazine soon, as I know the article thoroughly. I read the "Ten o'clock[3]". Cecil Raleigh[4] told me about it on the day after the first trial. It is very witty & very wise, & I can see now exactly the genesis of the "Decay of Lying[5]". It is probable that this fat chap[6] was soaking your talk without your knowing it, & he fixed up [p. 2] his paper from a long series of borrowings. By the way I had a good spell of fun with Oscar in Vanity Fair about 2 weeks ago in a note on the magazines. He dreads me fearfully, though I am sure I shd not hurt him if he did not do wrong to good writing & good art. By the way, my brother[7] is a painter who lives not far from you. I think him a genius, but he will not speak to anyone, nor advertise.
Yours truly
James Runciman
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. James Runciman
James Runciman (1852-1891), writer [more]. Runciman had written two days previously (see #05338).
2. Runciman
Added in another hand.
3. Ten o'clock
Whistler, James McNeill, Mr. Whistler's 'Ten O'clock', London, 1888.
4. Cecil Raleigh
Cecil Rowlands (1856-1914), pseudonym 'Cecil Raleigh', dramatist [more].
5. Decay of Lying
O. Wilde, 'The Decay of Lying', The Nineteenth Century Review, January 1889.
6. fat chap
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wilde (1854-1900), writer, critic and playwright [more].
7. brother
Thomas Runciman, watercolour painter, brother of James Runciman.