Allen (from a letter to the author (M.G.Roy) and the editors of the “Beat Generation” Monarch Notes, December 5, 1966 (“Dear Messrs Roy, Cooperman, Leavitt and Violi..”))
“…Accusations of “phony” madness against Oscar Wilde, whom I find an immensely sympathetic figure of letters, run through the book, as if it were important to the subject at hand. It isn’t.”
born October 16, 1854, in Dublin, Ireland.
Today – and a day we celebrate – is Oscar Wilde’s birthday.
We know it’s been since proven a fraud but we’re happy to share this wax-cylinder recording (from 1900) of purportedly the authentic voice of Oscar Wilde reading from
“The Ballad of Reading Gaol“ (Reading Gaol, as we previously reported, is currently [2016] hosting Inside – Artists and Writers in Reading Prison, Sunday readings from Wilde, through to the end of the month)