On May 19, 1897, Irish author, playwright, and poet Oscar Wilde (October 16, 1854 – November 30, 1900) was released from Reading Prison, where he had finished, in ill health, his hard labor sentence for “gross indecency.” His “Ballad of Reading Gaol,” first published pseudonymously in a periodical with wide circulation amongst criminals, quickly achieved the status of a
He died less than three years later, in exile in Europe. His most famous works include the play The Importance of Being Earnest, the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the fascinating essay “The Soul of Man Under Socialism.”
One reply on “Oscar Wilde Released”
The truth of the episode reflects badly upon many, including Wilde.
The father of Wilde’s lover denounced Wilde to others as a sodomite.
Things could have been allowed to stand there; but Wilde, against the advice of friends, sued the aforementioned father for libel and broke with those friends. Under the law of the time, had Wilde won the suit, the father would have been sent to prison. The father defended himself in court, and won.
And, with so much attention drawn to the matter, the authorities felt politically compelled to bring charges, instead of looking away, as they would otherwise have done.