DOUGLAS ALFRED: (1870-1945) English Author & Poet, the intimate friend and lover of Oscar Wilde. An excellent, long ...

DOUGLAS ALFRED: (1870-1945) English Author & Poet, the intimate friend and lover of Oscar Wilde. An excellent, long A.L.S., Alfred Douglas, sixteen pages, 8vo, London, 7th January 1930, to [Lucie Delarue-] Mardrus, on the printed stationery of the Royal Court Hotel. Douglas informs his correspondent that her letter is 'not quite so convincing as you would wish it to be' and continues his letter in a somewhat scathing manner, 'I certainly would wish to believe that in spite of appearances you did not mean to be so wickedly unfair and malicious as you seem to have been. But really you must not try to put the blame on me for your own reckless disregard of the ordinary precautions which you might have taken. You call yourself a “historian” & say you consulted the only documents available. But would the historian of Byron's life, for example, think it fair to take as his authorities Byron's wife & her family? Your “authorities” are all my enemies, & they….have been publicly refuted & exposed. When Ross prosecuted me at the Old Bailey in 1914 he was exposed to the whole world as a thief & a blackmailer….Gide is a self-confessed pederast & a half crazy pervert. His treacherous attack on me….stamps him as a cad….Moreover he has contradicted himself over & over again about me….But even if you had given fairly my replies to Wilde as they are given in “Oscar Wilde & Myself” from which you quote in your book, you would have more to say for yourself as an impartial “historian”. Why did you omit all mention of the fact that when I most reluctantly left Wilde at Naples I gave him £200? You print his wicked, lying, treacherous letter to Ross which I only saw twelve years after his death, but you say not a word about the £200 I gave him nor of my reasons….when my mother threatened to stop my allowance if I remained with him. Is this honest? (your word). Is it honest to give as my answer to Wilde's….accusation in De Profundis that I prevented him from writing the mutilated fragment of my answer which appears in your book? Everything he wrote from the time I first met him till his imprisonment was written while I was with him. All his accusations in De Profundis (most of them too idiotic & silly to need a serious reply) are answered in “Oscar Wilde & Myself”' and further stating that, as much as he wishes to avoid a public quarrel or lawsuit, he cannot agree to his correspondent's proposal and cannot consent to allow the book to be sold in its present form, adding 'As a historian, how is it that you did not know that about 18 months ago I obtained a verdict from a jury & £100 damages from Harrod's stores….for selling one copy of Harris's book “The Life & Confessions of Oscar Wilde”?.....When you started to write my history it was your duty to find out all the publicly recorded facts & not to rely simply on the obviously lying books of a criminal….like Harris, a fugitive from justice & a liar of European reputation as a liar & “faker”. From your letter you do not appear to have yet read my autobiography. When you have read it you will see that my case is a great deal stronger….There is a complete expose of Harris himself….' Accompanied by the original envelope hand addressed by Douglas. A letter of exceptional content for its references to Oscar Wilde. VG £1000-1500