Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas
Comments Page

(L) Oscar and Bosie; (R) Bosie posing with his boyfriend, Maurice Schwabe,
who was sent to Australia in 1893 by his family due to the Wilde "Scandal"



Thank you to all who have taken the time to comment on the Unofficial Website of Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas. Below are a selection of comments received since the establishment of the page in 1998. Some may be edited for brevity and purposes of anonymity, but not for content. Email addresses, names, and other contact information has been removed unless specific permission was granted to list that information in this forum. Additionally, I have attempted to answer any questions posed, in the form of notes located just below select emails. If you have comments about the page or about Bosie, feel free to email them HERE.











Thought you would like to know that another person contacted me a couple of days ago having seen my message on your site. The first person didn't continue to contact me but this last one is very excited to find more information about Alfred O. Wilde. She has two oil paintings bought forty five years ago by her mother in a second-hand shop in the State of Washington, US! Many thanks for your site. Best wishes, Elisabeth Bush.

(Note: I think it's wonderful that someone else has contacted you about paintings by Alfred O. Wilde. It sure would be interesting to get background information on this artist - and indeed, I would be interested in putting up some info on a sub-page to the Douglas site along with a scan or two of images of his paintings. Please keep us updated as more information comes to light! For anyone with more info on the painter Wilde, please contact Elisabeth Bush HERE).




Thank you so much for your site on beloved Bosie!! I have read all the books and various information about Oscar and Lord Douglas. I have an 8 by 10 framed photo of Bosie in my living room and have become very enamored of him. Is it strange to feel deep affection for someone gone over 50 years? Thank you again!

(Note: No, I don't believe it is in any way strange to admire or be interested in historical figures. I too admire Bosie and his poetry, and while - like all of us - he had his share of faults, I believe that he was essentially a good man.)




I was researching last week in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) on the papers of Montgomery Hyde, the North Belfast Unionist MP who lost his seat in 1959 (actually he was deselected) largely because of his liberal views and campaign to reform the law on homosexuality. He also wrote books on Oscar Wilde, one excellent gay history volume The Other Love, and as I was becoming aware, one on Lord Alfred Douglas... PRONI has a file of photographs that Hyde used for his Lord Alfred Douglas book which I viewed... Those new to me included a posthumous portrait of Bosie's brother Lord Drumlanrig, one of Robert Ross and Reggie Turner together, a Max Beerbohm caricature of Oscar and Bosie, Lord Alfred in mortar board (seen it since), Oscar and Bosie at lunch in Naples (two cut-up photographs), Bosie's wife and young son aged about 9 (I think, separately), Herbert Moore Pim (who came from Ulster and had a chequered political and religious career much like Bosie...), Bosie in top hat at the Old Bailey, Bosie aged 48, and another in his 60s, Bosie with Marie Stopes and others (inc. Briant and Roe), and Bosie in 1944 ("the last picture")... Perhaps you need to display more such photographs and maintain a list of those that exist of Bosie on your enjoyable website.
~Jeff Dudgeon (author of a book on Roger Casement), email.

(Note: Jeff, many thanks for the info on the photos! I think a comprehensive listing of all known photos of Bosie is great idea and I will *try* to work on that and add it as a page to the website. There aren't a great many - hence the repetition on book covers - but just enough to make it a bit of a task! It could be divided into sections, such as Solo, With Oscar, etc.)




The current so-called lord is NOT the rightful heir. I am.
~Lord Douglas

(Note: Interesting. I'm curious to hear Lord Gawain Douglas's take on that claim!)




I came across your Douglas Website... I am writing a biography of the French writer Alfred Jarry who knew Douglas between about 1894 and 1896 and in order to situate certain events in Jarry's life I am trying to work out fairly precisely when Douglas was in Paris in those years: I wonder if you can help in any way. As a gift in return, are you aware that a chapter in Jarry's novel Days and Nights describes a strange homosexual sort-of-orgy in which all the characters were real and Douglas appears under the name of Lord Bondroit? Because Bon = good in French and reversed gives Doug, and droit = law, which in some scottish names was pronounced "lass": yes I know it's elaborate!

(Note: That info is new to me. The best resources for specific info like you need are the Douglas Murray and H. Montgomery Hyde biographies, respectively. Caspar Wintermans' new biography, Alfred Douglas: A Poet's Life and His Finest Work may also offer clues and perhaps specific dates. Thanks!)




It's pleasure for me to contact you. I'd like to express my thanks for your work on this wonderful web-page. It's really a very hard thing to find out something interesting about Bosie in internet so your page is actually the only source for me. My interest at first was the logical consequence of interest on Oscar Wilde. But now I'm properly keen on Lord Alfred's life and work, finally on his as a personality. Unfortunately in Russia (I`m lucky to live in St. Petersburg...) we don't have any noteworthy information about Lord Douglas, in Russian I mean. Only a few magazine articles. But I consider it as a thing of no importance. Nobody can tell exactly who actually Bosie was. "Wilde's lover" - that's all you may hear. Or "I hate Bosie! - "Why?" - "He's a murderer!". I don`t find it really funny. Bosie is considered only as an "addition" to Wilde. It's evident from all the conversations on our web-communities and forums dedicated to Wilde, Victorian area, England and so on. Also it's impossible to find (the) books you mention on your page in our book-stores (in English as well in Russian). The only avaliable thing is the Wilde movie. Anyway it's a ficition...partly...well, I can't judge the degree of verity of this remarkable movie. And there are a few translations of Bosie's poetry, but I prefer (the) original of course. That is why I was glad to find your site. Many thanks again.

(Note: You're very welcome! Thank you for your nice comments. I'm happy that you're enjoying the website. I do hope that you disabuse people of the notion that Bosie was a murderer! I think you'll have the best luck in trying to order books from used bookshops in the UK and USA. There are now many hundreds that list and sell on the web. One of the best resources is Bookfinder. P.S. If you read this comment, please email us again.)




My name is Elisabeth Bush and I am writing in reply to a query about someone having a painting by Alfred O. Wilde. I have photographs and knew him well�Alfred O. Wilde was my great uncle and he was a painter who lived in Cumberland (now Cumbria), England. A search on Google came up with the following comment:

�I have an old painting dated 1902�painted by an Alfred O. Wilde...
I have tried to see if I can find an artist by that name and keep
running into Lord Alfred Douglas and Oscar Wilde... this painting
was framed in England and is a painting of Cumberland...Do you know
if by any chance, did Lord Alfred paint?�

I would love to trace the owner of the painting but it may not be possible. If anyone has information, please contact me HERE).

(Note: No, Lord Alfred was not a painter and he never referred to himself using the name 'Wilde'.)




The site is not only interesting, but also aesthetically pleasing to navigate, with its simplicity in design and choice of background colors. Were both Bosie and Aesthete Oscar alive in our Internet Age, I am sure that they would have been pleased with it themselves. Were he alive - I can imagine Oscar, particularly, critiqueing tastelessly designed websites as bad art! Hehe. But surely approving of this one. When I read Gawain Douglas speak (in your website) about Bosie's contrarian nature, and (when) I noticed in Oscar's writings his attitude of challenging convention, I then understood that they were meant for each other. Perhaps, in part, because they were in a time and place where few could understand them, individually. Because they were more concerned with self-realization, Bosie and Oscar were, in some ways, in antithesis with their times. Because, in fact, they were more interested in themselves, than they were in their times. And therefore, they were less the product of their times, than they were the product of their individually driven natures. This strive for originality at the expense of defying temporal convention, makes for the enduring appeal of their story, since they trascend their own time by being - corny as it may sound to say - themselves. This may suffice to make their story appealing. Often, historical figures are appealing. But I think that Bosie and Oscar's story goes even further from mere historical appeal to being charmingly human, following the claims of the film in adding an element of human depth to their historical relief: by recreating in it Bosie's adventureous and forward nature in his love for Oscar, against Oscar's own poised, mature, and yet sweet love for Bosie... Congratulations, and thanks again for maintaining a website on Bosie Douglas. It is tastefully well done!




I am writing foremost to congratulate and thank you for the phenomenal website you have assembled and presented concerning the life and works of Lord Alfred Douglas. Having studied literature throughout my university career, I am a passionate admirer of Lord Alfred's poetic works, and I consider his work - along with the works of some few others - to represent a turning-point in the progression of poetry in English language which led from the overripe decadence of Pater-tinted Victorianism to the stark realism of the early twentieth century as epitomized by Wilfred Owen and his contemporaries (though, of course, Lord Alfred offered a lecture in criticism of T.S. Eliot). Your site is an exceptional resource for both the novice and the scholar interested in Lord Alfred and his extraordinary and ultimately tragic life. Furthermore, I am greatly impressed by the foreword by Lord Alfred's great-nephew Lord Gawain Douglas. At the risk of impropriety, I would... express my admiration for the work of his great-uncle and for his own efforts to bring Lord Alfred the recognition and, sadly, resurrection from indignity which he so poignantly deserves... Thank you most sincerely for all of your efforts on the behalf of Lord Alfred Douglas and his poetic voice. It is a voice which struggles to be heard in our own time when even the most prestigious anthologies overlook Lord Alfred's poetry in favour of lesser works by more known poets. I remain yours most sincerely.




Thank you again for your considerable kindness, as well as for your exceptional work on behalf of Lord Alfred and his poetry. It is exceptionally fortuitous that someone as competent, dedicated, and congenial as you has undertaken these efforts.




I live in San Antonio, originally from Birmingham, AL. What I am writing you about is that I truly love the site... I have a picure of Bosie that I have digitally restored and colorized. I am attaching it to this message. I would like to be able to talk to others who like myself, are enamoured with the Bosie mystique.

(Note: Many thanks for the photo - it's posted to the "Latest News & Info" page.)




Do you know anything about works that Bosie produced while at Winchester? I read that he co-edited a magazine called Pentagram in his last year.

(Note: Yes, a bit. According to Douglas Murray in Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas, Bosie and two friends founded a school magazine, at Winchester, to rival the Wykehamist. They produced ten issues total. The boys wrote under pseudonyms, Bosie's was "The Lost Chord." The magazines included everything from poetry, school matches, and a lot of public-schoolboy humor. Douglas noted, later, that the Pentagram was his only one of his five papers to turn a profit).




With great interest I visited your website today. Being a Dutch student, it was very hard to find the famous poem Two Loves, in The Netherlands. That's why I was quite glad to discover your site. Recently, I saw an English documentary on the Dutch television entitled Two Loves, concerning Wilde's and Bosie's lives. In this programme, a poem was read outloud by a kin of Lord Alfred Douglas. The poem made a great impression on me, though I can't remember all the phrases...




I'm a history student who's fascinated by what makes people tick. I have to confess that I haven't done any in-depth research on Bosie (although I've come across his name in various places and seen the movie Wilde). I came across your web page, and it was so well done that the two questions that remained in my head were puzzling. 1) Who is Sheila Colman? Yes, she's the executor of his estate, but how is she connected to him? 2) One of the letters posted on the website mentioned that Bosie "renounced his homosexuality'? I do realize you aren't all-seeing, but any clue why, and was it sincere?

(Note: In answer to your questions: 1) During the last year of his life, Bosie's health deteriorated and it became more difficult for him to live on his own. A young couple - Sheila and Edward Colman - who lived in the English countryside and had a small estate called Old Monk's Farm had been 'fans' of Bosie's poetry, and became friends with him in the early 1940's. By late 1944, Bosie's money situation was tight and good food was becoming scarcer and more expensive. The Colman's, knowing of Bosie's situation and having extra room in their countryside home, invited Bosie to live with them. It was hoped that the fresh country air, more abundant fresh foods, and calmer atmosphere would be beneficial to Douglas -- as indeed they were for a time. Bosie remained with the Colman's until his death in March 1945. He willed the rights to his literary works to Edward and Sheila. Both have now passed away and all literary rights are held by lawyers in London. 2) At different points in his life, Bosie said many different and conflicting things. This was the result of a number of factors, including the period (late 19th and early 20th centuries), his relationship with his wife, son, and father-in-law; and his involvement in several court actions over the years. I personally believe that Bosie was most likely bisexual. In his final autobiographies (Without Apology and Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up). Bosie admits to physical relationships with other boys during his school years and to an intimate - albeit short - relationship with Oscar Wilde. This was extremely daring stuff for that timeframe (late 1930s). I believe he probably realized that by that point in his life, when he was entering his seventh decade, that he had little to lose with such admissions).




I love this site about Bosie, even if I'm not very fond of him. I deeply love Oscar for the love he felt for Bosie but, above all, for his great mind and heart. I live in Italy, and here is very difficult to find any translation of Bosie's poems, or biographies he wrote about his relationship with Oscar.




One is grateful to you for your attempt to redress the balance within an area which generates so much heat and emotion.




Up to now I wasn't very fond of Bosie as I considered him to be the one who destroyed Oscar's life. And I deeply love and adore Oscar. Now I've changed my mind, I still think it was partly Oscar's and Bosie's own fault, but mainly it was the fault of that deseased society - they were blamed for something one just cannot be blamed for. I read Bosie's Two Loves for the first time here and I love it, just like most of his other works. He was a great poet himself. And after all I can understand Oscar very well... nowadays everyone says that physical beauty shouldn't be estimated too high, but Bosie was such a darling. He was incredibly sweet and so was Oscar. I really admire that kind of love they had.




Your page was wonderfully created for a man who certainly engenders a great amount of curiousity. I have no criticisms but an opinion that there are two swinging opinions of Lord Alfred Douglas, one being he was a selfish brat and the downfall of Oscar Wilde, and the other that he sadly was unable to stop from becoming his father's son and that he was at no fault at all. I think your site comes so far the closest to being the equal ground, especially since you have wisely chosen not to have ill words regarding Robert Ross. I enjoyed this site very much and have visited many times since I first came across it. Congratulations and thank you.

(Note: Apparently, Bosie's relationship with Robert Ross was complicated. It is said that Wilde had his first physical male relationship with Ross, prior to Oscar meeting Bosie. Later, Bosie maintained - to the end of this life - that he never received the "De Profundis" letter written by Wilde, which was supposed to be sent to him by Ross. Therefore, as the years went on there was much miscommunication and varying jealousies.)




I just wanted to congratulate you on a fabulous web site. I do agree with your opinions on how Lord Alfred is villified. The movie Wilde portrayed him as childish and uncaring. As we do not know the complete nature of the romance between Bosie and Oscar I think that it is safer to remember and treasure the great literary works that they have left behind instead of dwelling on an ill-fated romance. Though their relationship defined their personalities and work I do not believe that Lord Alfred and Oscar should be remembered and classified for their "crimes". Their affair is not the sum total of their years together or their work or their lives. Thank you again.




First let me begin by saying that I came across Alfred Douglas first through his sonnets, then through the films re.Wilde and finally through various biographies (including Montgomery Hyde). So I started by admiring him, but gradually the more I discovered, the more he repelled me - now I feel pity for him. Who can doubt the essential truths contained in 'De Profundis' when the actions of Bosie's later life (subsequent to Wilde's death) reveal just how accurate Oscar was about him. I refer to Bosie's endless libel actions (against his father-in-law , Winston Churchill and most despicable of all, against Robbie Ross) - throughout his life he was constantly seeking to humiliate and destroy people (much the same as his father before him). I actually think that his actions after Wilde's death were worse than those before, as a young 24 yr old he cannot be held entirely to blame in the Wilde tragedy - though remarks in his own hand such as 'enjoyed being a bone of contention between Oscar and his wife' and 'the sweetness of borrowing money from Oscar' reveal all too well the personality portrayed in De Profundis. Who can doubt the vile scenes and letters referred to by Oscar when so many others were subjected to the same. His vilest and most hypocritical act (and the lowest point in an unpleasant ife, aside from his denunciation of Wilde as 'the greatest force for evil in Europe for 200 years' or the abandonment of his son, Raymond) was his merciless persecution of Ross (doing exactly to him what his father had done to Wilde), which prompted Bernard Shaw to write 'let Ross alone'. His one saving grace was that in his lonely old age he actually repented of some of the dreadful things he had said and done (particularly in relation to Wilde) - the irony is , that had he read and understood 'De Profundis' when it was handed to him in 1897, instead of burning it in a typical childish act after reading just a few lines, it would have saved him from the miserable life he subsequently lived. As a spiritualist I am sure that Wilde and Bosie have long made up, but Bosie must have had to go through tremendous pain as he was confronted by his true self for the 2nd time - this time though, there was no running away or denying it - he would have had to face up to it - only then, as Oscar said could he be happy, as I am sure he now at last is. I hope you will respond to my points as I have respect for your knowledge and your desire to further Bosie's literary achievements (which are quite considerable).

(Note: To be honest, it becomes tiresome to continually respond to a barrage of the same inaccurate statements that are put forward as fact time and again. However, here we go once more: 1) Wilde wrote his prison letter, later titled De Profundis, under the immense stress and strain of imprisonment. The document does not stand up to scrutiny as being completely accurate, and is certainly no unbiased piece of penmanship. 2) Lord Alfred maintained unto his dying day that he never received his copy of De Profundis, which was supposed to be forwarded to him from Robbie Ross. 3) The record stands that Lord Alfred gave many hundreds, nay thousands of pounds to Oscar over a several year period. Following Oscar Wilde's release from prison and reconciliation with Bosie, he had little to no income and was no longer writing. Lastly, 4) Bosie NEVER abandoned his son, Raymond. In fact, he fought his father-in-law through the courts for the right to raise him. I urge you to read the biography of Bosie, written by Douglas Murray).




I think you should read the New Yorker (July 24, 2000) review of Mr. Murray's recent biography, and especially the reviewer's comments on Douglas' periodical Plain English, as well as the quotations and the poem presented in it's entirety. Seems as if Alfred lived and died a raging Jew baiter and Jew-hater. No mention of this in your hagiographic web site, though.

(Note: I do not believe that Lord Alfred was not a "Jew baiter" or a "Jew-Hater". As has been noted previously, he held some odd views, in mid-life -- well before the Second World War, concerning the role of a "Jewish conspiracy" affecting the decisions of the then British government. He obtained these views mainly from his association with a Mr. T.W.H. Crosland whom he hired to edit The Academy. He later ended his relations with Crosland and repudiated these views. I tend to side with historians and writers who have studied Lord Alfred's life and writings, to newspaper critics.)




Hi there, I just love your site. I am a great admirer of Lord Alfred Douglas and I am thrilled that such a wonderful site is devoted to him.




As a fan of Wilde and Bosie, I have enjoyed your website very much. The information it contains is also quite useful. Again, smashing job on the webpage!




I am so glad to have found this web-site. I have been researching Oscar Wilde all my life... I have always felt that Bosie has received an unwarranted "bad press"; so many Wilde biographers have perceived him as one of the "villains of the piece" (I have my own theories about why this happened...). It is high time that the balance was redressed; Rupert Croft Cooke's publications have gone some way to address this, and Douglas Murray's "Bosie", just published (a good read!), seeks to restore his reputation as a poet. It is my opinion that Lord Alfred Douglas was a better poet than Wilde (Wilde's true metier was the drama and the novel/short story, and, of course, conversation!). He was more restrained, more rigorous and less mesmerised than his mentor by the fine-sounding phrase for its own sake. Speaking as one who reads verse aloud for a living, I find Douglas' verses rich and moving. Audiences are always surprised and delighted to discover a true poet who has been underrated, overshadowed and unjustly neglected.




I ran across your site on Alfred Douglas while surfing the net. Very interesting! A friend loaned me a movie about his relationship with Oscar Wilde, so I typed his name into my computer to see what I could find about him. His is certainly a tragic story, isn't it? Thanks for the opportunity to learn more about this fascinating and complex historical figure.




I was so pleased to find this page on the web! I was looking for more information about Bosie and Oscar. Having read alot of books about Oscar Wilde I understood that there is an obvious lack of truthful facts about Bosie! The story of love of these two people touched me deeply and I was really moved by the powerful emotions. Unfortunately in Russia one can't find a biography of Lord Alfred Douglas... and I dream of reading The Selected Letters of Lord Alfred Douglas. And I know that there are his autobiographies... Please let me know if I can find the above mentioned books on the web or how I can find... more information about Bosie's life after Oscar left prison and England. I'm very interested in Bosie's mother and her part in the tragedy...

(Note: I highly recommend to you The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde edited by Wilde's grandson, Merlin Holland. The web is one of the best sources to look for books by and about Lord Alfred. Currently, there are reprints of his 1929 The Autobiography of Lord Alfred Douglas, and one of two other volumes, available through Amazon.com and their sister site in England, Amazon.co.uk. Another good source for used books is Bookfinder. The biography by Douglas Murray is available currently, and further books will be forthcoming.)




Thank you for a wonderful web site dedicated to one of the world's greats. Sincere Thanks.




WOW! What an excellent source of information. Thank you so much. I am currently researching Lord Alfred Douglas as I am portraying him in a production of Gross Indecency (I gather not your favorite play). I do agree with your statements about the inaccuracies in the script, so it was very nice to find a site dedicated to the truth about Bosie. I just finished reading De Profundis, so it was also great to get some info from the other point of view! Your inclusion of poems was also an inspiring touch. Thank you so much for the work that you have done - keep it up! And my best to you!

(Note: I should clarify that yes, I did enjoy Gross Indecency! The staging and the acting in the production I saw were both superb -- it's a well written piece. Unfortunately, though, Bosie still comes off as more the 'villian' of the piece than not. I really prefer Eric Bentley's play Lord Alfred's Lover. But thank you for your wonderful comments about the site!)





I welcome the author so remarkable site! I'm Russian, living in Moscow. I know my English is very bad and I ask you to excuse me beforehand. In drawing up this letter I used the automatic interpreter. I'm a researcher. Now I work on material about transformations of great people. I search for the people, believing, that they were famous in the last life and were known to the whole world. You have made site devoted Bosie. Maybe, some people, who wrote to you, were Robert Ross, Bosie or even Oscar Wilde. I can tell them many interesting things. I thank you for the help.

(Note: I don't particularly believe in reincarnation - if that's what you're referring to - but I do believe that both Oscar and Bosie live on through their works. Thanks for looking at the site and for your interest in Lord Alfred!)




Your Bosie website is the best internet source of information on this fascinating poet! I have a question for you concerning a book possibly authored by Douglas. A professor of mine recently told me that Douglas had written a book on the tarot. I have come across several books on the occult by someone named Alfred Douglas, but have been unable to find out much more about the author than his name. I have never heard from any other source that Douglas was interested in the occult. Due to his ardent Catholicism, I cannot see Douglas writing publicly about a subject that church frowned upon. Do you know anything of Douglas' connections (or lack thereof) to THE TAROT by Alfred Douglas?

(Note: This is a good question. Yes, there is a different Alfred Douglas out there who has published books on the occult and tarot cards. This author is not Lord Alfred Douglas and you have every right to be skeptical! It would have gone against Lord Alfred's character to endorse and legitimize those subjects).




Your page is excellent and contains many interesting items and collections.




I have just been cast as Bosie in the San Diego premiere of "Gross Indecency". I will visit your sight often as it is a wonderful way to learn about the man. THANK YOU!

(Note: Thank YOU for coming by the site and researching the life of Lord Alfred. Break a leg! It is my hope, however, that eventually the body of Bosie's work - his poetry - will eclipse the sometimes sorrid and sullied legend of his involvement with Oscar Wilde).




Your website has proven a goldmine of information about "Bosie". I came upon it in a most unusual way. You see, I was researching my genealogy and discovered that I am a direct descendent of William Douglas the 3rd, Marquess of Queensbury (1637-1695). I would be most interested to find out the exact details of how Bosie and I are related. Are there any genealogies you know of for the Douglas family? Funny how I had always found the Oscar Wilde/Lord Douglas story interesting and now have discovered this link. By the way, I thought the movie Wilde was excellent and most likely caputured their relationship perfectly. Jude Law was perfect. I can't wait to track down some of those bios.




This is rather pedantic, but you should refer to "Lord Alfred" or "Lord Alfred Douglas", but never "Lord Douglas".

(Note: Thank you! I do honestly appreciate all of the help and assistance from readers of the Unofficial Website of Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas. As a U.S. citizen, I'm not always aware of customs and curtesies pertaining to titled persons and royalty - but I'm learning!).




Congratulations on an excellent website on Lord Douglas, I have often wondered about him and what became of him.




I have certainly enjoyed your excellent web site on Lord Alfred Douglas. I am currently researching the life... of one of Bosie's friends (in mid to late life) the ever irrepressible and eccentric Welsh aristocrat - Evan Morgan (1893-1949) who in 1934 became Lord Tredegar. Evan was a member of the Catholic Poetry Society with Lord Alfred; and indeed, appears to have become one of Bosie's most loyal and thoughtful of friends in Lord Alfred's last few difficult years. Evan provided the stage for Bosie's swansong in 1943; the well-received lecture "The Principles of Poetry" - this was the Tredegar Memorial Lecture for the Royal Society of Literature. Also, Evan helped Bosie financially whenever possible and attended his funeral carrying a typical Evan-esque gigantic wreath (the only person to do so). Evan Morgan (Lord Tredegar) was an incredible and fascinating character.

(Note: Lord Tredegar indeed was another interesting man from the late Victorian era and I look forward to seeing more information about him on the web and in print in the future).




I know very little of either Lord Alfred or Oscar Wilde, but have become more interested of late in Wilde's works which has lead me to your fine website. I am now trying to obtain a copy of Lord Alfred Douglas' poetry, but can only find two very expensive copies... Can you tell me if there is a more recent--and less expensive--edition of Bosie's works? Is there a better chance of finding a reasonable copy in Britain, than here in the United States? I am hoping that there is some edition that has recently been printed or is about to become available and that I have simply missed it in my search. Any help you might can provide would be most welcomed.

(Note: There are not many editions of his various poetry volumes that are currently in print. Copies may of older editions can be found on the internet).




I am writing as I was looking at your site on the famous Lord Alfred Douglas and wanted simply to know whether Douglas was a member of the Roman Catholic Church, or whether, like Wilde, he converted to the Catholic Faith on his deathbed or earlier in life. I noted that both he and his mother are buried in the Franciscan Monastery at Crawley, which made me guess that he was close to Catholicism in some way. Do you know anything about this?

(Note: Yes, Lord Alfred converted to Catholicism in mid-life, therefore he was considered a member of the church.)




Could you look for me the book written by Bosie in 1929, titled Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up. A xerox copy will do. If you have some to spare, I don't mind paying.

(Note: Sorry, I'm unable to provide copies. However, volumes of Bosie's autobiography and his poetry can be found, if you are willing to search, through used book shops. You can also search for his works on the web. See links up above.)




Thank you for the wonderful contribution. You may be familiar with life action roleplaying and/or mIRC roleplaying. A friend and I lay 'Oscar 'and 'Bosie.' Oscar is an aesthetic vampire of a clan that appreciates art called the Toreadore. Bosie is kept alive through drinking the imortal's blood. Your site has been very helping in fleshing out some of the true to history aspects of our story.

(Note: Verrrrrrrry interesting).




Your site on Lord Alfred Douglas is just great! Since I love Oscar Wilde very much I was very interested in his bio. After reading about his relationship with Alfred I looked for some info about him. But I guess that unfortunately most of the things that deal with him on the web are the things that have to do with Oscar. Thanks to your wonderful site I discovered many interesting things about Lord Alfred Douglas. I never heard of him as a poet, and I just discovered his magnificent poems. I would like to read more about Lord Alfred Douglas.




Hi, I stumbled upon your website today whilst doing a search on Oscar Wilde. You have given me a wonderful insight into the life of Bosie. I would like to know if there is any work written on the later life of Bosie before he died, ie: him as a Nazi sympathiser?

(Note: Lord Alfred was not a Nazi sympathizer, as is stated in the play Gross Indecency. He held some odd views, in mid-life - well before the Second World War, concerning the role of a "Jewish conspiracy" affecting the decisions of the then British government. He obtained these views mainly from his association with a Mr. T.W.H. Crosland whom he hired to edit The Academy. He later ended his relations with Crosland and repudiated these views.)




Hello, I'm researching Bosie's life and his role in Oscar's drama. Needless to say, I was both surprised and delighted to find your fascinating LAD page. Until now I thought I was one of the only people who really didn't think Bosie a monster. I'm happy to find you don't either. Thanks again for all you've done for Bosie.




I really loved your page and I would like to thank you very much for writing it. I am an admirer of Lord Alfred Douglas and sometimes I feel he is not appreciated as much as he should be. If it wasn't for the Internet I would think nobody ever heard of him, especially book-shop assistants.




Let me first say that I am glad to have happened upon this particular website -I have been looking for information about Bosie Douglas online for some time, and not been able to find much. I will return to it so that I can jot down the titles of his works and those written about him which are of particular interest to me, as a great fan of Oscar Wilde I am interested in everything and everyone that interested Oscar. I am at a loss, however, to understand how anyone who knows the story of Oscar Wilde could hold Lord Alfred Douglas in high esteem. Bosie may have written a few good things, but his character where Oscar Wilde was concerned cannot be excused! And if he wrote anything good, what can that be when Oscar Wilde's genius, and what more it might have produced, were lost forever because of his quarrel with his father? Given that, the mind certainly boggles at the manner in which he is thus here immortalized.

(Note: The most popular stories that people believe are those promulgated through Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, which was written while Wilde was under great stress and strain, and those passed on as fact in plays, television dramas, and films. While the complete truth of their relationship will never be known, one should read and gather information from a variety of sources, including Wilde, Bosie, Robert Ross, and other contemporaries; as well as biographers Rupert Croft-Cooke and H. Montgomery Hyde, etc. Only then does a more compassionate and less one-sided portrait of Bosie begin to emerge).




I would like to suggest that this excellent web page on Bosie to be updated with say links or excerpts of his books or books written about him.

(Note: Thanks for your input. Please remember that we must keep copyright considerations in mind - but will add as much information to the Unofficial Website of Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas as we legally are able.)




There is a production called Gross Indecency and Bosie isn't portrayed horribly... He's actually a sweetheart in this play. And the actor that plays him is very beautiful - kind of like Jude Law in visage. I can't say that necessarily I am for Bosie... but then I do love Oscar Wilde more than the world so I may be a bit biased. All I can say was when he was a young lad he was beautiful and that alone is sometimes worth anything... I think Oscar thought that to worship beauty is sometimes more fascinating than the world itself.

(Note: While this play doesn't treat Lord Alfred too terribly, it does present a number of inaccuracies as fact. It is well documented that Bosie remained in England through the first two trials and visited Oscar in prison almost everyday. In addition, Bosie maintained friendly relations with Oscar following Wilde's release from prision and in fact they spent time together in Paris and three months together in Italy, where they shared a villa. Bosie was chief mourner at Oscar's funeral and payed all burial expenses.)




I think that your page on "Bosie" Douglas is a very informative and tastful compilation. I especially appreciated the Biograghical Time Line, as I have often found it difficult to find information on "Bosie" sans Oscar. Thank you.




Your site is really wonderful, thank you.




Hi - I think this is the only website of Bosie. Congratulations for the webpage!




Thank you for a wonderful site! I played Lord Alfred Douglas in the original New York workshops of the play Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. I just started rehearsals for the play at the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. I have yet to read all the wonderful poems and information on your web site, but I was wondering if you could give my e-mail address to the people doing research on Bosie. I'm interested in the specific reasons why Lord Alfred Douglas denied his homosexuality in his later years and became a Nazi sympathizer. I have not been able to find any biographies on him in the libraries or bookstores. Thanks for your help!
-G.R. Johnson, email: g-r-j@email.msn.com

(Note: Please see my response above, concerning this play - but I do think it's great that you're researching Lord Alfred!)




I did indeed enjoy this page very much, and will visit it again and again... One correction: I've read two biographies, Ellman's, and now The Stranger Wilde, both of which say that Bosie DID receive a copy of the letter that was later titled De Profundis, and destroyed it. Robert Ross had the foresight to know that would happen, and kept the original, giving only a copy to Bosie. I feel certain this is what really happened...

(Note: None of us were there at the time, and Bosie always maintained that he indeed never received the letter from Oscar.)




I would like to commend you on a brilliant site! I am hoping you could provide me with more information on Bosie, or perhaps point me to a site which has more detailed information about his life. See, I am in university and I am doing a thesis paper on Bosie.





A very interesting look at this man. I just saw Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. At the end of it the author alleged that Douglas was a Nazi sympathizer.

(Note: Please see my note above on this subject.)




Your website about Lord Alfred Douglas is really wonderful. This love story between these two men makes me always feel sad. The life of Bosie is really tragic too. He was a wonderful, sensitive poet, and the feelings he could not express in life he expressed through his verses. Did he love Oscar? Read The Dead Poet, one of the most beautiful works of European poetry.




Hello everybody! Best wishes to you from snowy Russia! Today we celebrate Bosie's birthday! I wish you good luck and everything you want to wish yourselves (I mean everybody who likes Bosie and feels responsible for these events in his life). I love you all!




I was deeply moved by the noteworthy work you did on Wilde, Bosie, their times and their relationship. The poems by Lord Alfred Douglas are touching... I live in Argentina and material is scarce around here. Many thanks!




Thanks for keeping alive the memory of these wonderful lovers, for helping them to survive in people's hearts, for giving them the chance to go on being the way they used to be when they were alive... They are living and loving each other through us, and we won't forget them.




I just wanted to write and say "THANK YOU"!!! For a long time now I have been searching the web for the complete, unedited, text of Two Loves. It's an incredible poem, and finally (thanks to you) I have found it.





Thank you very much - it was really exciting to find such a Web-page in the Internet. Though a hundred years separate us now from the fire and madness of this great love, still it echoes in the heart of everyone who have once discovered it. It was very pleasant to find out that there are so much people still fascinated by it all. Thank you for creating this wonderful page.





I was truly delighted to find this "Bosie" related site!!! I just saw Wilde and my fascination about these two beautiful men since high school rekindled... (Bosie's) photo on the top of the site almost made me stop breathing!! Indeed, he was one of the chosen people with femme fatale-like beauty who was loved by the genius like "Oscar Wilde". Oscar died for this beauty and he was willing to do so for it more than anything else... No one can love and live like them, therefore their names will never be forgotten and we would not stop loving and admiring them!!! I was also very happy to know there are some Oscar-Bosie fans who share the same thoughts just like me!!!




This website is delicious...! Bosie was most definitely an adorable little kitten, but was also subject to those mad/bad Douglas fits! His
father was a first rate cad, and it was he who should have gone to prison for the horrible things he did to his family! I also saw the Wilde film twice, and was mesmerized by how Stephen Fry made the character of Wilde come alive... Jude Law was delicious as Bosie, he portrayed Bosie exactly as he was! I enjoyed the movie immensely and cannot wait until it is released on video. Keep up the good work on the website, you're doing Purr-fect!!!!!




I have come across this website purely by accident in searching for something else, which I have truly forgotten about when I began reading of Wilde and Bosie. I am sadly ignorant of this affair, only slightly familiar with Oscar Wilde; however, that changes as of today. I am haunted by the words of The Dead Poet and just astounded that a man wrote those words for another man. I am not anti-gay, but I admit to never having had the privilege, which is surely what this has become to me, to read the poetry the "forbidden love" one man has for another. I am in a twilight state at this very moment, so full of these words and this love they had for each other. I just have to know more about these men. Thank you, I am enjoying a discovery that one rarely finds in a life, one that stops thoughts on a dime, one that changes a life. I can't even describe this but I truly believe I have been detoured for an experience beyond my control; not something to hurt me, rather it will impassion my life.




Perhaps a little overdone, as he was!




As a complete Oscarphile (I have even named my son after him) I have always been very pro Oscar and not so pro Bosie, but I am beginning to mature! Bosie was as consumed by Oscar as Oscar was him but he just had a very unfortunate way of presenting himself. I was delighted to find your site, it was intelligent and informative and is a sign that Bosie is forgiven just as Oscar forgave him. Many Congratulations on taking the effort to produce this page.




Thanks for the Page. I've enjoyed reading and reading about Oscar Wilde for years, and have been curious about Bosie and his poetry which are not as easy to find. Thanks again!




Excellent page. Bosie, to me, is almost more interesting than Wilde himself, so you've provided those bits and pieces I couldn't find. Thanks.




Your Unofficial Lord Alfred Douglas Page is perfect. It is exactly what I was looking for after seeing the film Wilde. Though egotistic and manipulative, he (Jude Law) is irresistibly attractive. Seen from the picture on your page, the real Bosie seems to be more charming and imbued with tender feelings. If I were made to repeat the life of Oscar, I would still fall for him. Now I feel love is indeed blind. Rationality has no place in true love, and a genuine romance is only tragically beautiful.




I just saw the movie Wilde and decided to check out information on Lord Alfred Douglas and found your web page. I think it's very professional, and the background to Two Loves looks especially good. The thing with Churchill fascinates me. Lord Alfred seems to have had a subconscious desire to be publically humiliated. I'll go further and say that I think he wanted, somehow, to compensate for his part in Wilde's imprisonment by getting himself sent to prison. The fact that he published a poem praising Churchill at the outbreak of World War II shows me that, aside from the possibility that he genuinely wanted to make up for libelling Winnie, he was attracted to, and could not deal with, charismatic figures. Clearly, Douglas had great sensitivity, as shown in his graceful poetry. And yet, his experience with the Wilde trial, which I have to believe showed him something about bigotry, seems not to have kept him from being outspokenly anti-Semitic. There's a passive-aggressive aspect to his actions throughout his life. Thanks for putting up the web page!




I have an old painting dated 1902 - painted by an Alfred O. Wilde... I have tried to see if I can find an artist by that name and keep running into Lord Alfred Douglas and Oscar Wilde... this painting was framed in England and is a painting of Cumberland...Do you know if by any chance, did Lord Alfred paint?



(Note: No, Lord Alfred was not a painter. Alfred O. Wilde was a painter who lived in Cumberland (now Cumbria), England. His great niece is Elisabeth Bush and can be contacted at elisabeth@neosys.com).




I am writing to thank you for your 'resurrection' of Alfred, Lord Douglas on the internet. As a (lesbian) student of English literature, I am appalled at the way in which this fine writer has been overlooked. Although I don't think that there are any modules which cover Bosie's work... I am researching his poem Two Loves and his impact on other late 19th Century literature... Your page answered my questions, which no other source has, so many thanks!




Your page on Lord Alfred Douglas/Oscar Wilde is absolutely first-class, although I do believe that if I had been Oscar I would have wrung Bosie's neck. Anyway, congratulations for a job beautifully done.




Thank you for your page I liked it very much. I was wondering if you could help me: I can�t get hold in M�xico of a Ballad written by Douglas. I think it�s named "Jonquil and Fleur de Lys." Do you know where I could get a copy? I must urgently needed because I�m giving a lecture around the relation Wilde Bosie and they use to call themselves between them by those names. Hope to hear from you soon and I appreciate in advance your trouble.

(Note: This poem was originally published in Douglas' The City of the Soul, 1899. It contains some 32 verses. The first verse is written thusly:

Jonquil was a shepard lad
White he was as the curded cream
Hair like the buttercups he had,
And wet green eyes like a full chalk stream.

Isn't Bosie's imagery wonderful?!)




It's about time somebody set up a website for this much loved, much misunderstood, and much maligned character. Nice site. I liked the choice of quotes. I love The Dead Poet, but it always chills me. Keep up the good work.




Congratulations on an interesting page and by far the most sensible material on Lord Alfred Douglas, Bosie, I have yet seen on the Internet.







The Unofficial Website of Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas is maintained
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Letters, photographs and poems of Lord Alfred Douglas copyright the Lord Alfred Douglas Literary Estate and
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