(CUE POINTS BELOW)

Although Wilde is mostly associated with London at his zenith as a playwright, New York City also deserves a special place in his history. It was in New York, in fact, that his first two plays—Vera and The Duchess of Padua—had their worldpremiere performances. During his yearlong tour of the United States in 1882, when he was a littleknown poet associated with the comic character Bunthorne in Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera Patience, he sojourned in New York several times, establishing important social and artistic connections. Prompting newspaper stories wherever he went, he returned to Europe a genuine celebrity.

MATTHEW STURGIS, author of the recent major biography Oscar Wilde: A Life, is the voice of Oscar Wilde.
JOHN COOPER, author of the vast website Oscar Wilde in America, hosts Part Three, giving us a sample of his celebrated Wilde Walking Tour of New York.
ERIK RYDING, an awardwinning author and for years a professor of English literature, is the principal narrator.

Other Voices
SAM TSOUTSOUVAS and DEBORAH BESHAWFARRELL
with JONATHAN FLUCK

Music by Rodrigo Espina, Étienne Goepp, Christina Kay, Howard Lew, Randall Love, Rebecca Pechefsky, Erik Ryding, Mitchell Vines, John Taylor Ward, Melanie Williams

For John Cooper’s Wilde Walking Tour:
Videographer: Erik Ryding
Audio assistant: Dennis Cembalo

Copyright © 2024 by Quill Classics | Erik Ryding

00:00 Introduction
02:04 PART ONE: The 1882 Lecture Tour
02:57 Aestheticism and Patience
11:37 Arrival in New York
20:52 The English Renaissance lecture
39:04 Lillie Langtry in New York
46:58 Hungry Joe
52:06 PART TWO: Oscar's First Plays
54:29 Vera
1:04:06 Meeting with Thomas Edison
1:07:25 Guido Ferranti (The Duchess of Padua)
1:17:27 PART THREE: John Cooper's Wilde Walking Tour