The Definitive Resource Of Oscar Wilde's Visits To America

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Amherst

Nova Scotia


Academy of Music

Friday, October 6, 1882


The Decorative Arts

VERIFICATION

Newspaper report

St John Daily Sun, October 7, 1882


Oscar Wilde lectured here last night to a good audience composed of the elite of Amherst. No lecturer has

appeared before a better audience here. Parties present seemed all much pleased and greatly enjoyed his discourse on "Decorative Art." So far as the outward and visible effects of Mr. Wilde's teachings have become apparent in our social life, they have only manifested themselves as yet in an exuberance of flowers. There is nevertheless something more in the lectures of the man than he is generally credited with.


Interview

The Morning Herald (Halifax, NS), October 10, 1882, 2


There was a long interview held with Wilde at Lamy’s Hotel in Amherst entitled “The Apostle of Beauty in Nova Scotia” in —reprinted in Mikhail, ‍E. ‍H., ‍ed. ‍Oscar ‍Wilde: ‍Interviews ‍and ‍Recollections. ‍2 ‍vols. ‍London: ‍MacMillan, ‍1979, which concludes: “Mr. Wilde had never spoken in so small a place before. He had a good house and good hearing”.






Venue

Academy of Music
Amherst, NS


Record of Wilde venue in Amherst comes from Amherst Gazette, October 13, 1882 (unseen) as noted by Kevin O’Brien in Oscar Wilde in Canada: An Apostle for the Arts, 1982, p. 128.


Accommodation

Wilde almost certainly stayed in Lamy’s Hotel in Amherst, where he was interviewed.


Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2024