After Oscar: A Conversation with Merlin Holland about Family, Scandal, and Legacies
Mon 4/13 • 4PM - 5:30PM PDT
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Oscar Wilde died in November 1900, exiled in Paris and exhausted by scandal and prison life. The details of his life in the limelight are well known; what has regularly been ignored are the reverberations of the scandal for decades after his death: the challenges his descendants faced, the myths and legends, the quarrels between his friends and enemies, and the court cases.
During this special event, Wilde’s only grandson, author and editor Merlin Holland, will speak with Rebecca Fenning Marschall, Manuscripts & Archives Librarian, about his new book, "After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal," which details the remarkable posthumous life of one of the most celebrated literary and cultural figures. With pathos, humor, and his grandfather’s signature wit, Holland charts the extraordinary afterlife of the legendary writer and thinker, tracing the dramatic fluctuations in Wilde’s posthumous reputation and exposing a century of bigotry and hypocrisy within the cultural establishment.