Oscar Wilde letters are sold at auction
source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-11403512
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The five letters, sold as separate lots, reached a total of £33,900 and were all bought by one bidder.
Auctioneers, Bamfords of Derby, said the letters appear to reveal Wilde propositioning a magazine editor at a time when homosexuality was illegal.
They were written to Alsager Vian, during the Society Magazine era, and were sold off by his descendants.
It is thought it was family tradition that the letters were kept under lock and key in a bureau until Vian's death in 1924.
In the letters, Wilde continually invited the magazine editor to visit him. In the final letter he went to great lengths to encourage a meeting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-11403512
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Ian_Judge_Lord
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"Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilisation.
One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."-Oscar Wilde
- 1 year ago
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Ian_Judge_Lord
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Ian_Judge_Lord
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"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.
People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all.
Cultivated leisure is the aim of man.
Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things.
As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them. They have made private terms with the enemy, and sold their birthright for very bad pottage. They must also be extraordinarily stupid.
It is grossly selfish to require of one's neighbour that he should think in the same way, and hold the same opinions. Why should he? If he can think, he will probably think differently. If he cannot think, it is monstrous to require thought of any kind from him."-Oscar Wilde
- 1 year ago
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Ian_Judge_Lord
