-Oscar Wilde

The Irish writer Oscar Wilde is best known for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), his dramatic comedy The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), and for being at the center of a public court case where he was found guilty of “gross indecency” for sexual relationships with men. Wilde was among a number of gay British men at the turn of the twentieth century who were drawn to the moments in Whitman’s poetry that celebrated physical and emotional intimacy between men. Wilde traveled to the United States to meet Whitman on two separate occasions, and in the 1882 photograph on display here he recreated the iconic author’s portrait from the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass.