UW-Stout Professor of English and Oscar Wilde scholar, Joan Navarre, will introduce and moderate an Oscar Wilde Birthday Event: live streaming from the British Library. Merlin Holland, the grandson of Oscar Wilde, will be speaking with noted actor Rupert Everett about Oscar Wilde’s life and legacy.
Oscar Wilde’s life in the limelight is well known. He continues to be celebrated for his sparking comedies and timeless wit. What is not well known are the myths and legends that arose after his death. Oscar Wilde died in November 1900. He had been exiled in Paris, chased by scandal, and broken by prison life. A new book, After Oscar: the Legacy of a Scandal, written by Wilde’s only grandson, sheds light on the legacy of Oscar Wilde. This British Library event, taking place on Oscar Wilde’s birthday, features Merlin Holland in conversation with Rupert Everett. They will discuss details of the remarkable posthumous life of one of our most celebrated literary and cultural figures.