The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-08-03

oNDoN, August Especial.
Lord Alfred Douglas is going t.
4---< speak out at last The man
who. as Oscar wilde's most intimate
and best beloved friend. knew him bet
ter than anybody else ever did, and
whose name. since Wilde's downfall,
has been coupled with his in evil no.
toriety, at last is going to tell the
fun story of their acquaintance in a
book which, when published is likely
to provide one of the biggest literary
sensations of recent years. This book
which its author declares. will reveal
Wilde In an entirely new light, will be
he asserts the first biography of Wilde
that has been written by one who had
his confidence, OF whom, by the remot-
est chance, would have been selected
by him as his Boswell Incidentally
Lord Alfred lays claim to the distinc-
tion OF being about the only biographer
of Oscar Wilde in whose arms the
author of Lady Windermere's Fan" did
not die
1t viii not be surprising, by the way,
II one OF the bitterest and most SEN
sational controversies in literary an
nails follows the publication of Lord
'Alfred's book. for in it he Will make
some pretty severe comments on the
administration of Oscar Wilde's liter
airy estate by the writer, who. accord :
Ing to Lord Alfred, constituted himself
Wlldes executor without a shadow of
authoflzation from the writer who left
no Will In this connection too Lord
Alfred will tell for the first time what
ne claims to be the secret history OF
the suppressed portion of Wilde's "De
Froiundls the passionate human doc
ument written by Wilde in prison.
which was addressed by him to Douglas.
Ihis was first made public in the libel
action recently brought by Lord Alfred
against Arthur Ransome an English
writer, and to gain possession of it the
FORMER had already begun proceedings
against the authorities of the British
museum, TO whom 1t was handed over
without his knowledge
Lord Alfred Douglas. who was 21
when first he met Oscar Wilde. and is
now AZ. is, of course, the second son
of the eighth Marquis of Queeensberry.
and the younger brother OF the present
marquis who recently spent some time
In America, and it was the effort made
by his father to put an end to Lord
Alfred's friendship with Oscar Wilde
that led to the famous trial which
ended in the latters Imprisonment and
disgrace. The two men first met in
1892, or while Lord Alfred Douglas,
who already had become known as a
poet, was still an undergraduate at
Magdalen college, oxford. For the
three years that intervened before the
exposure that wrecked Wildes career
the young sonneteer and the brilliant
dramatist and poet, then at the top of
his powers and at the apex of his
fame, were inseparable. often sharing
the same establishments and meeting
regularly for dinners, suppers and sim
liar entertainments and it has been
asserted that more than once that If
Justice had been done, many of Wilde's
most famous works would bear on their
title pages the legend. ''By Oscar Wilde
and Alfred Douglas"
Lord Alfred is writing his book about
Wilde in a comfortable, but far from
luxurious house. which he has inhabited
for some time in Church row. Hamp-
stead. little, old-world street in Lon
dons most '1iterary' historic, and in
cidentally, most beautiful suburb, which
until quite recently, also was the abid-
ing place of another literary celebrity
In the person of II. G. Wells, the nov
elist. Shelley also lived in this street.
Almost ever since one can remember,
Lord Alfred has been mived up in one
litigation or enthusiastically in con-
nection with the old Wilde scandal, and
one confidently expected to find him
an embodiment of fussiness and pet