The copy inscribed by Oscar Wilde. UPDATE: IT MADE £55,000.
A specially printed copy of The Importance of Being Earnest inscribed by Oscar Wilde to Major James Nelson, the Governor of Reading Gaol during the writer’s term of imprisonment there is to be sold at Bonhams Books, Atlases, Manuscripts and Photographs sale in London on June 18. It is estimated at £40,000 – 60,000. Numbered 13 out of a presentation edition of 100, it is inscribed “To Major Nelson: from the author. A trivial recognition of a great and noble kindness. Feb, 99.” Elsewhere, Wilde was to describe Nelson as: “The most Christlike man I ever met.”
After being found guilty of gross indecency in May 1895 Wilde was transferred from Wandsworth prison to Reading Gaol in November of that year. There, the draconian regime of the then Governor, Henry Isaacson – a man with “ the soul of a rat” according to Wilde – had a drastic effect on his mental and physical health. Isaacson was replaced in July 1896 by Major James Nelson who immediately gave his most famous prisoner access to books – his first words are said to have been: “The Home Office has allowed you some books. Perhaps you would like to read this one. I have just been reading it myself.” Crucially, Nelson allowed Wilde to begin writing creatively again. The result was De Profundis – an extended letter to his lover and the main author of his misfortune, Lord Alfred Douglas. Under prison rules, all written material had to be handed over each evening and retained by the authorities but Nelson permitted Wilde to consult previous work to help him keep his thread. On Wilde’s release in May 1897 Nelson gave him back the entire manuscript.
Bonhams Head of Books, Matthew Haley, said: “This inscribed edition of The Importance of Being Earnest is a poignant reminder of the very real hardship which Wilde suffered in prison and the enormous difference which Major Nelson’s acts of common humanity made to the writer’s morale and health. It is arguable that the Governor saved Wilde’s life and almost certain that without him there would have been no De Profundis.”
UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £55,000.