Oscar Wilde's Last Work

Made Available to Public

LERO

By RAYMOND E. PALMER to inspection is that it was LONDON (A)--The manu-written in prison at a time script of Oscar Wilde's last when prisoners were allowed to write only one letter every work, written when he was i in three months. prison, has been opened to the When he had served little public by t the British Museum more than a year in prison, trustees after 50 years. Wilde appealed to the home But it was something of an secretary for writing materials anticlimax, for the contents to "help distract the mind.” were one of the worst-kept Otherwise, said Wilde, he feared literary secrets in centuries. he would lose his reason.

Part was published as "De Materials were supplied and Profundis" in 1905, five years the prison governor was orafter Wilde's death in his self-dered to allow Wilde one sheet imposed exile in France. of paper at a time, each com"De Profundis" was an apol-pleted page to be held by the ogy, couched in terms of re-governor. morse, for Wilde's life.

Wilde finished the manuscript Wilde's literary executor, in March 1897 and was freed Robert Ross, presented the two months later.

manuscript to the British MuWithin 24 hours he sailed seum in 1909 on condition it across the Channel to France. should remain unopened for 50

years.

No Rush to View It

The trustees of the museum made the original manuscript available for inspection New Year's Day. But there was no rush to examine it.

The first of the manuscript's secrets was revealed in 1912. This was the name of the friend. to whom it was, addressed Lord Alfred Douglas. It was Wilde's homosexual association with Douglas that brought him to two years in Reading Jail, eventual bankruptcy and selfimposed exile.

Arthur Ransome, engaged on a literary study, of Wilde at the time, learned the facts from Ross. In his book on Wilde, Ransome without mentioning Douglas by name, said the manuscript was addressed "to a man to whom Wilde felt that he owed some, at least, of the circumstances of his public disgrace."

Lord Alfred promptly sued for libel. The manuscript was brought into court from the British Museum strong room and a jury found for Ransome and dismissed the case.

Son Publishes Text Douglas died in 1945. Four years later, a year before the copyright expired, Wilde's only surviving son, Vyvyan Holland, published the entire text of the manuscript.

The most interesting thing about the manuscript now open