ALS, four pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.75 x 6.5, personal letterhead, no date. Letter to journalist Frank Harris, editor of the Fortnightly Review. In part: “Why don't Chapmann and Hall send a copy of the Fortnightly to each author who contributes to the number in question? They should do it, not merely as a matter of courtesy, and of custom, but because it enables the author to see if his work has been properly produced, and if not, to send something for an errata slip, or for incorporation, if that is possible. In the present case I came across the Fortnightly in the Club on Saturday, and found that an entire paragraph had been misplaced, to the confusion of the sense and the reader. It is possible that the fault may have been originally mine, but I should have been given the earliest opportunity of correction. Don't you think so? I wrote off at once to them, but received no acknowledgment of my letter. This seems to me to be wrong. What do you think? I have read Grant Allen and find myself conspicuous by my absence. I think you should have let his criticism of me stand, but that is, of course, entirely a matter of your own judgment as Editor. I don't interfere, I need hardly say. You are an individualist, as I am.” In fine condition, with toning to the left edge of the first page.
The piece Wilde refers to was his essay The Soul of Man under Socialism, first printed in February of 1891 in the Fortnightly Review, edited by Harris. Although Wilde was upset by the misprint, the ordering of the paragraphs remained the same in numerous subsequent publications. Wilde’s essay is famous for his arguments against capitalism in favor of a socialistic individualism, saying: ‘With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.’ It is only appropriate that Wilde closes the letter with the words, “You are an individualist, as I am.” An absolutely stunning piece regarding one of Wilde’s essays that still resonates today. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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