LEADER 03623nam 2200565 a 450 001 9910786153203321 005 20230803025322.0 010 $a0-674-07139-5 010 $a0-674-06787-8 024 7 $a10.4159/harvard.9780674067875 035 $a(CKB)2670000000330037 035 $a(StDuBDS)AH24970293 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000803524 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11428287 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000803524 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10811498 035 $a(PQKB)11127812 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3301185 035 $a(DE-B1597)178038 035 $a(OCoLC)979967839 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674067875 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3301185 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10642231 035 $a(OCoLC)819323263 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000330037 100 $a20120516d2013 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aDeclaring his genius$b[electronic resource] $eOscar Wilde in North America /$fRoy Morris, Jr 210 $aCambridge, Mass. $cBelknap Press of Harvard University Press$d2013 215 $a1 online resource (248 p., [16] p. of plates )$cill., ports 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-674-06696-0 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aToo too utterly utter -- More wonderful than Dickens -- Those who dawnce don't dine -- What would Thoreau have said to my hatbox? -- No well-behaved river ought to act this way -- A very italy, without its art -- Don't shoot the pianist, he is doing his best -- You should have seen it before the war -- The Oscar of the first period is dead. 330 $aArriving at the port of New York in 1882, a 27-year-old Oscar Wilde quipped he had "nothing to declare but my genius." But as Roy Morris, Jr., reveals in this sparkling narrative, Wilde was, for the first time in his life, underselling himself. A chronicle of the sensation that was Wilde's eleven-month speaking tour of America, Declaring His Genius offers an indelible portrait of both Oscar Wilde and the Gilded Age. Wilde covered 15,000 miles, delivered 140 lectures, and met everyone who was anyone. Dressed in satin knee britches and black silk stockings, the long-haired apostle of the British Aesthetic Movement alternately shocked, entertained, and enlightened a spellbound nation. Harvard students attending one of his lectures sported Wildean costume, clutching sunflowers and affecting world-weary poses. Denver prostitutes enticed customers by crying: "We know what makes a cat wild, but what makes Oscar Wilde?" Whitman hoisted a glass to his health, while Ambrose Bierce denounced him as a fraud. Wilde helped alter the way post-Civil War Americans-still reeling from the most destructive conflict in their history-understood themselves. In an era that saw rapid technological changes, social upheaval, and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor, he delivered a powerful anti-materialistic message about art and the need for beauty. Yet Wilde too was changed by his tour. Having conquered America, a savvier, more mature writer was ready to take on the rest of the world. Neither Wilde nor America would ever be the same. 606 $aBIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary$2bisacsh 615 7$aBIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary. 676 $a828/.809 700 $aMorris$b Roy$cJr.$01572499 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910786153203321 996 $aDeclaring his genius$93847493 997 $aUNINA