ALS, one page, 4.25 x 7, personal letterhead, no date but circa 1887. Letter to "Mrs. Ewing," the much-admired children's writer Juliana Horatia Ewing. In full: "If it would not be too much trouble to you, would you let me have the addresses of Mrs. Pfeiffer, and Miss Marie Corelli. We were so sorry you could not come to us yesterday." Double-matted and framed to an overall size of 9 x 12. In very good to fine condition, with slightly irregular toning, and several small pin holes near the top edge. Marie Corelli was one of the most popular female English novelists of the period, and Emily Jane Pfeiffer was a Welsh poet and philanthropist.
This significant letter has a strong feminist link: Wilde, named editor of The Woman's World magazine in May 1887, almost assuredly reached out to Ewing for the addresses of writers Emily Jane Pfeiffer and Marie Corelli in order to solicit contributions from them. In another Wilde letter to Ewing of October 1887, also written on 16 Tite Street letterhead, he asked if she would write something for the women's magazine. In Wilde's ‘Literary and Other Notes’ column in the January 1888 issue of The Woman’s World, he praised Pfeiffer's essay 'Women and Work' as 'a most important contribution to the discussion of one of the great social problems of our day.' Corelli would indeed contribute to the periodical for its June 1889 issue, penning an article entitled 'Shakespeare's Mother.' A superb letter linking Wilde to some of the United Kingdom's most important female authors of the Victorian era.
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