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"He is quite like a narcissus - so white and gold...
he lies like a hyacinth on the sofa and I worship him."
- Oscar Wilde, describing Bosie
CURRENT
The new play "Bosie" starring award-winning actor Rik Barnett will play at The Old Rep Theatre in Birmingham, UK from Wednesday, April 1 through Saturday, April 4, 2020. "Bosie" is an original dramatic work from award-winning actor Rik Barnett and is a one-man show about Oscar Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. Synopsis: Lord Alfred Douglas: the illicit love affair with Oscar Wilde, a disastrous family and destruction left in his wake. The scandal and outrage of this overshadowed character in Wilde's downfall is finally examined through the delicious and intoxicating perspective of the lover himself. Utterly irreverent, charming and venomous, his story demands to told. And he will tell it. In his own way. As Oscar stands trial in London, we find Bosie in self-exile, in Paris; battling with his own tour de force of personal philosophies and salacious thoughts. How could he, a gentleman of Victorian High Society, have become so degraded?" Website: Bosie - The Play
The latest film about Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas is "The Happy Prince" starring Rupert Everett and Colin Morgan. Released to DVD and Blu-Ray in 2019, it is available from major retailers. It was written and directed by, and stars Rupert Everett. The film also stars Colin Firth, Emily Watson, Edwin Thomas and Tom Wilkinson. The film's title is taken from the children's story by Oscar Wilde, "The Happy Prince and Other Tales", which Wilde read aloud to his children.
Historically significant letters written by Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas have been discovered in the archive of the State Library of New South Wales, in Australia. Two loving and affectionate letters, penned by the hand of Bosie Douglas, were written to his boyfriend Maurice Schwabe in 1893. One letter ends with, "Goodbye now my dear darling beautiful Maurice; I send you all my love and millions of kisses all over your beautiful body. I am your loving boy-wife, Bosie." Due to the Wilde "Scandal", Maurice Schwabe had been banished by his family to Sydney, Australia. At the same time Maurice was banished to Australia, Oscar Wilde was being blackmailed by a rent boy, Alfred Wood. In his first letter to Schwabe, Bosie writes: "That boy is the worst blackguard of all the renters in London. He is trying to rent [blackmail] Oscar with letters which Oscar had written to me and which AW [Wood] stole from my pocket."
Maurice Schwabe accompanied Oscar Wilde and a rent boy to Paris. But Schwabe's name has been virtually airbrushed from history - largely because of his uncle, Frank Lockwood, who was Solicitor-General. In his first letter, Bosie wrote: "I went to the Savoy [hotel] with Oscar for two nights; and I was sentimental enough to go down to the old room 123 next to the restaurant where we used to sleep together." He continued, "My darling pretty boy, I do love you so much & miss you every minute... I really love you far more than any other boy in the world, & shall always be your loving boy-wife, or your 'little bitch' if you prefer it."
Please click HERE to read an article printed in The Sydney Morning Herald. Click HERE to visit the website of the State Library of New South Wales. On March 16, 2011, the Australian ABC radio network broadcast the story on their programme "The Book Show". The 13-minute story is here at the following links in four parts:
Letters - Part 1
Letters - Part 2
Letters - Part 3
Letters - Part 4
Caspar Wintermans' somewhat controversial biography of Lord Alfred Douglas sets out to defend Oscar Wilde's beloved 'Bosie' from over a century of false accusations, lies and misinformation. Wintermans makes the case to prove that Alfred Douglas was in fact a supportive and kind lover who worshipped the playwright and whose subsequent life was destroyed. The biography is also accompanied by a long overdue anthology of Douglas' poetry, Alfred Douglas: A Poet's Life and His Finest Work and is available at all major booksellers and directly from Peter Owen Publishers. The book is ISBN: 0720612705. Please click HERE for more information on the volume and how to obtain it.
Anthony Wynn, the playwright of Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship, has written the Foreword for the new hard cover volume of the classic novel The Green Carnation by Robert Hichens. First published anonymously in 1894, this brilliant, biting novel (whose leading characters were based on Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas, whom the author knew personally), was an instant 'succes de scandale' on both sides of the Atlantic. Withdrawn from circulation in 1895, the book has been brought out again in hardbound format for the first time in many years in a special collector's edition. Click the following link for more information and to purchase this book:
Click this button to purchase your copy of The Green Carnation.
STILL AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE: A very few copies of the spoken word Compact Disk, Poems of Lord Alfred Douglas, recited by Lord Gawain Douglas, is available to all who would like to experience the poetry and sonnets of Lord Alfred Douglas in a more personal way. Click Here for full details on how to order. I highly recommend this CD, it's well worth the price.
The three-part article entitled Bosie's Gun was published in the September/October 2005, November/December 2005, and the January/February 2006 editions of Double Gun Classics. The article was written by John Campbell and details the history of a 20 guage hunting gun originally belonging to Bosie. All three parts are reprinted here - please "right click" your mouse and save these files to your hard drive. Please DO NOT click and open them directly, many thanks!
Part One
Bosie's Gun - Part One
Part Two
Bosie's Gun - Part Two
Part Three
Bosie's Gun - Part Three
Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship is the play written by Anthony Wynn. The piece was premiered at Conway Hall in London, England and in the USA at the University of South Florida in Sarasota. The play is a two-handed, two act play is based on the correspondence between playwright George Bernard Shaw and poet Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas over a decade and a half late in their lives. Click HERE for more information.
The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde has been been published in the USA by noted gay author Neil McKenna. The Manchester Evening News calls it "Extraordinary, intensely passionate and quite beautiful." His book is an uncensored account of Oscar Wilde's odyssey through the hotels, restaurants, bars and backstreets of 19th-century London's homosexual underworld, and his involvements with poets and students, rent boys and blackmailers. All of this is set against a fascinating and ultimately moving interpretation of the controversial sexual themes in Oscar's plays, poems, essays and novels - work which often shocked the press and polite society but won Oscar legions of adoring fans. The UK version of the book may be purchased at Amazon UK.
Oscar and Bosie: A Fatal Passion was published in the UK by author Trevor Fisher, who has also written several other volumes, including Prostitution and the Victorians. Oscar and Bosie is an in-depth and well balanced treatment of the entire Wilde-Douglas affair. Their meeting, relationship, the trials, and the aftermath are all carefully scrutinized in this enlightened reexamination. I recommend this book and it may be purchased in major booksellers throughout the UK, and on the web at Amazon UK.
Murray's biography of Bosie was also published in North America, with the altered title of Bosie: A Biography of Lord Alfred Douglas. The book is still available widely in both hardbound and in trade paperback form as well.
It is available through Amazon.com.
This biography of Bosie, written by Douglas Murray (touted as the youngest biographer in history) is the trade paperback version published in the UK with the title of Bosie: The Man, The Poet, The Lover of Oscar Wilde. He wrote the book during his 'gap' year at Magdelen, the same school Bosie attended more than 100 years ago. It is available on the web via a number of sources, but most notably through Amazon UK.
Another book to look for is The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde, edited by Rupert Hart-Davis and Merlin Holland (the Grandson of Wilde). The volume includes letters from Oscar to Bosie, as well as hundreds of other letters from Wilde to their contemporaries, covering the years 1868 to 1900. This book is extremely comprehensive and well researched -- it should be in every Douglas and/or Wildean library. It's available at Amazon.com.
This is a wonderfully put-together book -- and another 'must have' for any Wildean collection. It's the the delightful The Wilde Album by Merlin Holland (the grandson of Oscar). It's available everywhere, or you can order on the internet via Amazon.com.
The 1998 motion picture Wilde, arguably one of the best movies to have tackled the life and legend of Oscar Wilde, has been released on DVD in North America. Go to Click Here to order your copy today. It will include a number of extras, such as audio commentary with cast and crew, two featurettes, and DVD-ROM capabilities. Stephen Fry as "Wilde" and the luminous Jude Law as "Bosie" give wonderfully layered performances.
Have you ever wondered what Bosie may have looked like in color? Randy from San Antonio, Texas has digitally restored and colorized a photograph of Lord Alfred. Thanks for your contribution!
The Unofficial Lord Alfred Douglas Website is maintained
by playwright and author Anthony Wynn
have been reproduced and adapted by courtesy of John Rubinstein and John Stratford. All Rights Reserved.
No infringement of copyright is intended or implied, this site is provided for public informational purposes only.
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