Oscar Wilde's library card reinstated after 130-year 'indecency' suspension
Published in News & Features
The British Library has reinstated the suspended library card of revered Irish author Oscar Wilde, who died in 1900.
Wilde’s access to the British Museum Reading Room was revoked in 1895 after the gay writer was convicted of “gross indecency” and sentenced to two years in prison. Sexual relationships between men were illegal in the U.K. until 1967.
Wilde’s newly issued card was expected to be collected Thursday — on what would have been his 171st birthday — by his grandson, author Merlin Holland, according to the BBC.
Holland said his grandfather had been in prison for three months when his library privileges were revoked and wouldn’t have been aware of the insult, which is probably just as well.
However, “the restitution of his ticket is a lovely gesture of forgiveness and I’m sure his spirit will be touched and delighted,” Holland said in June when the library announced its intentions to honor Wilde.
The British Library boasts a collection of the influential dramatist’s works. That includes a handwritten copy of his 1895 play “The Importance of Being Earnest” and a love letter Wilde penned to fellow poet Lord Alfred Douglas from prison.
Wilde’s fall from grace followed an ill-fated libel case in which it was proven that he and Douglas were in a relationship. The writer hoped to salvage his reputation by presenting an argument to the contrary. He was soon after arrested on indecency charges, according to History.com.
Wilde died at 46 from meningitis, shortly after emerging from captivity and relocating to Paris.
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