Wilde, Oscar

8vo (190 x 125mm.), FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, LIMITED TO 250 COPIES ON DUTCH HANDMADE PAPER, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR ("To George Fleming, | in art, as | in friendship, | noble and sincere. | from | Oscar Wilde"), original white parchment gilt, large gilt prunus blossom design on corners of covers and the length of the spine, top edge gilt, collector's folding box, offsetting to endpapers, slight browning to edges, slight staining and spotting to binding

Mason 304; Ellmann pp.131-141

A RARE PRESENTATION COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION OF WILDE'S POEMS, WITH A VERY ATTRACTIVE INSCRIPTION BY THE AUTHOR TO HIS CLOSE FRIEND AND FELLOW WRITER JULIA CONSTANCE FLETCHER.

The 'New Woman' novelist Julia Constance Fletcher, who wrote under the pen name "George Fleming", was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1858, but spent most of her life in Italy. She and Wilde met on Wilde's first visit to the Mediterranean in 1877, and soon afterwards spent time together in Italy, where they developed an intimate friendship. Soon after arriving in Britain Fletcher completed a three volume novel, Mirage, in which Wilde appears as the character Claude Davenant. This was the first time Wilde had been represented in fiction. Wilde reciprocated by dedicating Ravenna to her, and publishing her in Woman's World in 1889. Wilde's copy of Mirage was still in his library at the time of his bankruptcy. Fletcher was also a close friend of the artist and critic Eugene Benson.