New Preface to "The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde" Frank Harris & Lord Alfred Douglas

Publication: London, The Fortune Press, 1925.

Formatting: 8vo, pp. 55.

Condition Report: Very Good. Publisher's original black cloth binding remains tight and structurally sound. Displays only mild shelf-wear to the extremities, including faint rubbing to the spine ends and subtle bumping to the corners. The paper title label affixed to the upper board remains fully intact and legible, showing only slight characteristic toning consistent with a century-old paper element. Internally, the hinges are perfectly secure without any splitting to the endpapers. The pages themselves are notably clean and bright, largely free from foxing, and the original uncut edges display no damage. A standard previous ownership signature is present on the front free endpaper, but the text block remains entirely unmarked by the reader, thoroughly crisp, unfaded, and highly well-preserved overall.

Catalogue Note: First Edition of the highly sought-after secondary preface, born out of the bitter public dispute between Lord Alfred Douglas and Frank Harris. Issued as a standalone text, it addresses the intense controversy surrounding Harris's infamous 1916 biography of Oscar Wilde. Following the disintegration of their temporary reconciliation in the South of France, Douglas insisted on this separate publication to aggressively correct the record and distance himself from the more scandalous implications of Wilde's lifestyle depicted by Harris.

Contemporary ownership signature serves as a factual marker of its early post-publication circulation. Books from the Fortune Press during this era, helmed by the notoriously eccentric Reginald Caton, were often produced in limited or suppressed runs, with some being outright pulped or destroyed due to the controversial subjects they housed. Consequently, surviving early printings of this incendiary text have grown increasingly scarce on the open market, particularly when found retaining their original, fragile publisher's binding without extensive modern repairs.

A fascinating artifact of literary history, New Preface to "The Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde" is the direct result of a spectacular falling out between two of Wilde's most prominent contemporaries: his former lover, Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas, and his biographer, Frank Harris. Originally intended to bridge the ideological gap between the two men regarding Wilde's legacy, their uneasy collaboration instead imploded, resulting in this fiercely contested manifesto. Essential reading for Wilde scholars and enthusiasts of Edwardian literary drama, the volume offers a blistering, unfiltered glimpse into the recriminations, bruised egos, and enduring controversies left in the wake of Wilde's tragic demise.