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Roy Morris Jr.

Declaring His Genius: Oscar Wilde in North America Hardcover – Illustrated, January 7, 2013

by Roy Morris Jr. (Author)

13 ratings

3.4 on Goodreads

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Arriving at the port of New York in 1882, a 27-year-old Oscar Wilde quipped he had “nothing to declare but my genius.” But as Roy Morris, Jr., reveals in this sparkling narrative, Wilde was, for the first time in his life, underselling himself. A chronicle of the sensation that was Wilde’s eleven-month speaking tour of America, Declaring His Genius offers an indelible portrait of both Oscar Wilde and the Gilded Age.

Wilde covered 15,000 miles, delivered 140 lectures, and met everyone who was anyone. Dressed in satin knee britches and black silk stockings, the long-haired apostle of the British Aesthetic Movement alternately shocked, entertained, and enlightened a spellbound nation. Harvard students attending one of his lectures sported Wildean costume, clutching sunflowers and affecting world-weary poses. Denver prostitutes enticed customers by crying: “We know what makes a cat wild, but what makes Oscar Wilde?” Whitman hoisted a glass to his health, while Ambrose Bierce denounced him as a fraud.

Wilde helped alter the way post–Civil War Americans―still reeling from the most destructive conflict in their history―understood themselves. In an era that saw rapid technological changes, social upheaval, and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor, he delivered a powerful anti-materialistic message about art and the need for beauty. Yet Wilde too was changed by his tour. Having conquered America, a savvier, more mature writer was ready to take on the rest of the world. Neither Wilde nor America would ever be the same.

Print length

264 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Publication date

January 7, 2013
Dimensions

5.82 x 0.92 x 8.38 inches
ISBN-10

0674066960
ISBN-13

978-0674066960
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Oscar Wilde's year-long lecture-tour of America was a major cultural event―a Victorian precursor to the British Invasion of the 1960s. Wilde came like an apostle, preaching the gospel of Art, and he left an indelible mark on America, just as America did on the mind of Wilde himself. Morris's is a much-needed and highly enjoyable account, distinguished by wit and insight as much as by his singular command of rarely-told facts.”―Nicholas Frankel, editor of The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition

“Morris chronicles a year in the life of Irish dandy and belletrist Wilde, who, at age 27, was bent on invading America the way Dickens had a generation before… Wilde was a self-promoting genius, Morris writes, 'created, cultivated and commodified,' like celebrities today. He hadn't yet written his famous works or openly embraced gayness, but in his elaborate, precious outfits, sporting sunflowers and lilies, dropping affected bons mots for journalists to scoop up as he instructed American audiences with authority on 'The Beautiful' and 'The Artistic Character of the English Renaissance,' Wilde was challenging traditional notions of masculinity and also creating his celebrity… A fondly erudite look at a young, likable celebrity in the making.”―Kirkus Reviews

“[A] delightful account of the tour.”―Anthony Paletta, Daily Beast

“When he arrived in New York in January 1882, Oscar Wilde is supposed to have told customs officials: 'I have nothing to declare except my genius.' Roy Morris's contention is that the then 27-year-old Wilde's American tour marked the beginning of the modern cult of celebrity. Wilde, Morris writes, made quite an impression on his American hosts, 'who were naturally predisposed to appreciate rugged individualism in even its most exotic forms.'”―New Statesman

“Declaring His Genius...is as entertaining a tour through Gilded Age America as Wilde's own journey must have been.”―Adam Kirsch, Barnes and Noble Review

“[A] terrifically engaging biographical study...Though a rigorous historian, Morris is at heart a storyteller, and Declaring His Genius is so packed with 19th-century curiosities that it at time reads like an oral history by a contemporary of Twain's, if not by Twain himself. The book is full of digressions, creating a colorful tableau of American characters and their stories.”―Martin Riker, Wall Street Journal

“A panorama of life on the road in the Gilded Age.”―Owen Richardson, Sydney Morning Herald

“If we think of Wilde in America, it is of a preening show-off announcing at customs that 'I have nothing to declare but my genius'; and going on to epigrammatize his way across the continent. The valuable point made by Morris is that beneath the performance--and it was one, with Wilde conscientiously playing the mocker's role the public paid to see, and the public collecting its due of pleasurable annoyance--there was something deeper. Elaborate mask aside, Wilde possessed an eye that was both avid and innocent; and if there was much in America and Americans to criticize, there was much that surprised, instructed, and pleased him.”―Richard Eder, Boston Globe

“[A] delightful romp.”―Fred Setterberg, San Francisco Chronicle

“Morris tells the story with verve. It is difficult not to be amused by Wilde's encounter with the ebullient Leadville miners or the dour Jefferson Davis...It is delightful and in depth. Recommended both for those new to Wilde, and for his well-informed fans.”―David Azzolina, Library Journal

“Enlightening and entertaining.”―Brooke Allen, New Criterion

“Roy Morris Jr.'s exhaustive narrative chronicles everywhere [Wilde] went [in America], everyone he met and (almost) everything he ate. While this is very much a book for Wilde devotees, it still contains valuable insights into the media event that quickly became a blueprint for aspiring celebrities in all walks of life...Wilde may have been an incurable show-off, but Morris's blow-by-blow account shows that he was also an unusually kind man. He never used his wit to humiliate people, only to entertain them. Many Americans came along expecting to jeer at him and were quickly won over by his warm and robust personality...[The book] deserves credit for shedding new light on a period which many Wilde biographers have treated as a frivolous curtain-raiser before the main event.”―Andrew Lynch, Business Post

“Roy Morris Jr. treats us to a lively account of Wilde's rollicking tour through post-Civil
War America, fleshing out the varied impressions of contemporary newspaper reports with fascinating digressions on the cast of characters Wilde met along the way.”―Justin Beplate, Literary Review

“Morris…paints a vivid portrait of Oscar Wilde’s 1882 tour of the U.S. His book is at once a scholarly and thoroughly researched text and an engaging--almost novelistic--narrative that academic researchers and the reading public alike can appreciate. It is replete with fascinating and amusing stories of Wilde’s encounters with Americans from all walks of life and social and economic classes; literature enthusiasts are likely to be particularly interested in tales of his meetings with the likes of Walt Whitman and Henry James. Stories of his ruffling feathers and winning admirers, challenging expectations and changing minds fill these pages of this captivating, must-read book.”―M. E. DiPaolo, Choice

About the Author

Roy Morris, Jr., is the author of numerous books, including Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; Illustrated edition (January 7, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674066960
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674066960
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.07 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.82 x 0.92 x 8.38 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,524,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,153 in British & Irish Literary Criticism (Books)
- #16,017 in Author Biographies
- #17,165 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies

Customer Reviews:
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Top reviews from the United States

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An "effete" visits the United States...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 21, 2013

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In 2013, the Irish playwright and wit Oscar Wilde is returning to the stage as the subject two new productions. "The Judas Kiss", the restaging of David Hare's 1998 play about Wilde's relationship with "Bosie" (Lord Alfred Douglas), is receiving rave reviews from theater-goers in London (including by me!) and the Santa Fe Opera is premiering a newly written opera about Wilde in their 2013 season. And along with the renewed interest in Oscar Wilde comes a small book, "Declaring His Genius: Oscar Wilde in North America", by Roy Morris, Jr.

Oscar Wilde made a trip lasting almost a year, in 1882, to North America. He was booked for a series of speaking tours all over the United States and eastern Canada. Wilde was gaining prominence in London as an enfant-terrible in literary and artistic circles. He had come down from Oxford with two "firsts" and was setting society abuzz with his pronouncements about life and beauty and general "stuff". Ahead were his days of acclaim as the witty author of drawing-room plays and notoriety as a perceived sexual deviate. In 1882, Wilde's trip of speeches - generally on the subjects of beauty and astheticism in society - were treated by the people living in small and large towns alike as a chance to know more about the world that could-be. This was the age of Chautauqua, where entertainment and the chance to learn from traveling speakers was becoming more and more popular. Wilde, while not traveling on the Chautauqua circuit, fit right into that mode of speakers.

In general a polite man, he was generous in giving interviews to local newspapers, praising what he'd seen in the United States in general and in the particular area he was speaking in, specifically. He was clever and witty in his speeches, while at times faced with unruly college students carrying sunflowers and lilies, who hoped to put him off his game. Most of his speeches were well-received by his audiences. But if Americans learned from Oscar Wilde on his tour, Wilde profited as well. He met the famous and the infamous in the many cities and towns he visited and was able to make contact with fellow poets, writers, and musicians. He returned to England after his almost-year in the US and Canada as a man seemingly even cleverer, but also appreciative of the nature and people he met while on his journey.

Roy Morris's book is a good compilation of Oscar Wilde's travels and the people he met along the way. If you're "into" Oscar Wilde this year and doing a lot of reading about him - as I am - this is a good book to read.

One person found this helpful

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Sunflower

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 15, 2013

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Almost more entertaining for its commentary on the America of the 1880s visited by Oscar Wilde than for its coverage of the flamboyant visitor himself.

This is a short, non-scholarly (but accurate) book that will be of interest to all Wilde fans and those with a desire to pick up stray facts on the many towns and cities that were part of Oscar Wilde's famous speaking tour of the United States and Canada.

If you are keen on the subject of this book by Roy Morris. Jr., you may wish to read "The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde" published in 2000.

3 people found this helpful

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Thor Albro

Fun little triffle

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 27, 2014

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This is a fun little triffle about Wilde's whirlwind tour of America. Not that much to it, but it is nevertheless a fun - brief - glimple into the man, at the beginning of his career. Also an interesting glimpse at many of the historical notables of the time he met with while lecturing across the country.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book would be much better if there were maps so the reader could follow Oscar Wilde's path across North America. I had to create one. It would also be nice to have a chronology of the stops.

But the book itself was interesting, and who knew that Oscar Wilde contracted malaria while on tour?

4 people found this helpful

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James C. Casterline

Not quite what I expected

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 5, 2014

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Oscar Wilde was a fascinating person. He wrote some great works. I understand he was a great lecturer and conversationalist. This book tells the story of a lecture tour. I feel it should be more interesting than it is in the book.

One person found this helpful

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Jane Doe

Fascinating read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 10, 2013

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Rather than a full-blown biography, the author presents a fascinating slice of Americana as we tag along on Oscar Wilde's schlepp across North America. He remained remarkably unfazed by the often mocking and even abusive treatment he received!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 6, 2013

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Only the intro is worth reading. Author suggests OW was the very first performance artist. What follows is a somewhat interesting laundry list.

One person found this helpful

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Janet B. Schmidt

Interesting