A chronology of Oscar Wilde's life and works

by Jörg W. Rademacher (up-dated: 18/02/2019)

1854	16th October	Birth of Oscar Fingal O’fflahertie Wills Wilde at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, as second son of an eye and ear specialist and a famous woman writer.
1855		The family moves to 1 Merrion Square North.
1857	2nd April	Birth of his sister Isola Francesca Emily.
1864-1871		The two Wilde brothers attend Portora Royal School, Enniskillen.
1864	January	Father William Wilde is knighted;
	December	The Wildes are sued for libel in Dublin.
1867	23rd February	Death of Isola Francesca Emily, Glebe, Edgeworthstown, Ireland.
1871-1874		Wilde student at Trinity College Dublin, winning prizes among which the Berkeley Gold Medal for Greek;
1871	10th November	death of Emily and Mary Wilde, his half-sisters in Monaghan, Ireland.
1874		Oscar wins a scholarship for Magdalen College, Oxford where he studies Greats from 1874 through 1878.
1875		Travels to Italy with his tutor at TCD, John Pentland Mahaffy.
1876	19th April	Death of Sir William in Dublin.
1877	March-April	Travels to Italy and Greece with Mahaffy;
	May	present at the opening of the Grosvenor Gallery, London;
	13th June	death of Henry Wilson, his half-brother, in Dublin;
	July	Publishes his article on the Grosvenor Gallery in the Dublin University Magazine.
1878	10th June	Winner of the Newdigate Prize at Oxford with his poem “Ravenna”;
	26th June	Public reading of “Ravenna” in the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford;
	19th July	Wilde completes his degree in Greats at Oxford University with a “Double First”.
1879		Lady Wilde moves to London;
	Autumn	Oscar Wilde shares rooms in London with the painter Frank Miles.
1880		Removal to Keats House, Tite Street, Chelsea, shared with Miles; September: private printing of Vera; or the Nihilists, a play.
1881		Meets Constance Mary Lloyd in London.
	June	Private printing of his Poems; 17th. December: first performance of “Vera” cancelled, allegedly for political reasons;
	24th December	Leaves for New York to start a speaking tour of the United States.
1882		Successful tour of the US and Canada.
1883	January-May	Paris, completion of “The Duchess of Padua”, a drama in verse – rejected by the actress who had commissioned it; meeting with Victor Hugo;
	August-September	In New York for the first performance of Vera, which flops;
	Autumn	Speaking tour of Great Britain and Ireland;
	26th November	Engaged to be married with Constance Lloyd in Dublin.
1884	29th May	Wedding with Constance Lloyd in London;
	June	Honeymoon in Paris; reading of À Rebours, a novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans.
1885	January	Removal to 16 Tite Street, Chelsea, “The House Beautiful”;
	May	“The Truth of Masks. A Note on Illusion” issued as “Shakespeare and Stage Costume” in The Nineteenth Century;
	5th June	Birth of his first son Cyril. As a journalist, like brother Willie (born 26th September 1852), Wilde publishes articles for The Pall Mall Gazette and Dramatic Review:
1886		First meets Robert Ross;
	7 August	Passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act [1885-1967], in which the initiator Henry du Pré Labouchère (1821-1912) had asked for sexual contacts between men to be punished by up to two years of imprisonment, originally it was to have been seven years. (Complete Letters, p. 788; The Labouchère Amendment – labouchere_amendment_S.pdf [Access: 2 November 2018]).
	3rd November	Birth of his second son Vyvyan Oscar Beresford.
1887-1889		Editor of the magazine The Woman’s World.
1888	May	Publication of The Happy Prince and other Tales, illustrated by Walter Crane and Jacomb Hood.
1889	January	“The Decay of Lying. An Observation” as “The Decay of Lying. A Dialogue” and “Pen, Pencil, and Poison. A Study in Green” as “Pen, Pencil, and Poison. A Study”, both in The Fortnightly Review;
	July	“The Portrait of Mr. W. H.” in Blackwood’s Magazine;
	30th August	Commission for The Picture of Dorian Gray.
1890	20. June	The Picture of Dorian Gray (13 chapters) issued in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine;
	June-August	controversial debate in the British press on ethics and æsthetics in Wilde’s novel;
	July	“The Critic as Artist” (I) as “The True Function and Value of Criticism; with some Remarks on the Importance of Doing Nothing: a Dialogue” (I) in The Fortnightly Review; September: “The Critic as Artist” (II) in The Fortnightly Review.
1891		First meets Lord Alfred Douglas;
	26th January	Anonymous production of “The Duchess of Padua” – “Guido Ferranti” in New York;
	February	“The Soul of Man under Socialism” in The Fortnightly Review;
	March	Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray issued in The Fortnightly Review;
	April	The Picture of Dorian Gray re-issued in book form, extended to 20 chapters, revised and subject to self-censorship, title page and binding by Charles Ricketts;
	May	Publication of Intentions, a volume of essays;
	July	Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and other Stories, book design and decoration by Ricketts and Charles Shannon;
	Summer	Wilde writes “Lady Windermere’s Fan”;
	November	The House of Pomegranates, book design by Ricketts and Charles Shannon;
	November-December	Wilde writes “Salome” in French when visiting Paris.
1892	20th February	“Lady Windermere’s Fan” first performed at the St. James’s Theatre, London, in a production by George Alexander;
	June	“Salome” stopped while being rehearsed with Sarah Bernhardt in the title role when Her Majesty’s Censor, a civil servant working for the Lord Chamberlain, bans the play because of its biblical subject matter;
	August-September	Wilde writes “A Woman of No Importance”.
1893	February	Salome is published in French;
	19th April	“A Woman of No Importance” first performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, in a production by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree;
	June-October	Wilde writes “An Ideal Husband” in Goring-on-Thames;
	November	Lady Windermere’s Fan published; binding designed by Shannon who would do the other comedies, too.
1894	February	Salome issued in English, with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley;
	May	In Florence with Lord Alfred Douglas; they meet André Gide;
	June	The Sphinx, a poem, issued, book design by Ricketts;
	August-September	Wilde writes “The Importance of Being Earnest”;
	October	A Woman of No Importance issued.
1895	3rd January	“An Ideal Husband” first performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, in a production by Lewis Waller;
1895	January	“Oscariana”, epigrams chosen by Constance Wilde, published by Arthur L. Humphreys (1865-1946), in a print run of 50 copies (“Complete Letters”, p. 604);
	January-February	On a trip to Algiers with Lord Alfred Douglas; again they meet André Gide;
	14th February	“The Importance of Being Earnest” first performed at the St. James’s Theatre, in a production by George Alexander – a resounding success;
	28th February	At the Albemarle Club, Wilde receives the card of the Marquess of Queens-berry, Lord Alfred Douglas’ father, that is, bearing the inscription “To Oscar Wilde, posing [as a] Somdomite” (sic); Wilde sues Queensberry for criminal libel;
	March	Travels to Monaco with Lord Alfred Douglas;
	3rd to 5th April	Trial for criminal libel against, and acquittal of, the Marquess of Queensberry; Wilde arrested in the Cadogan Hotel, London;
	24th April	Auction of Wilde's possessions in 16 Tite Street, Chelsea; “The House Beautiful” is sold off by Mr. Bullock, at low prices, with all things being dispersed (Jörg W. Rademacher, Oscar Wilde. A Writer Trapped by His Own Words. An Exhibition Catalogue, Coesfeld: Elsinor, 2017, p. 67);
	26th April	Regina vs. Wilde opens;
	1st May	A hung jury; a second trial is imperative;
	May	A. L. Humphreys re-issues “Oscariana” in a print run of 200 copies and publishes “a privately printed edition of Wilde's ‘The Soul of Man Under Socialism’” (50 copies) (“Complete Letters”, p. 604);
	25th May	Wilde convicted of indecency and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with hard labour; detained first at Newgate, then in Pentonville;
	12th June	R. B. Haldane, a member of the Gladstone Committee for prison reform, chooses to see Wilde in prison and makes sure he is provided with books (Oscar Wilde: Trial and Punishment, 1895-1897, p. 9);
	21st June	the Marquess of Queensberry places a petition in the Bankruptcy Court claiming his costs for the first trial;
	4th July	transferred to Wandsworth, following the visit by R. B. Haldane;
	26th August	first creditors’ meeting;
	21st September	first visited in prison by his wife Constance;
	24th September	public hearing in the Bankruptcy Court in Wilde’s presence, seven weeks’ adjournment granted;
	12th November	Wilde declared bankrupt in another trial in which “Step by step with the Bankruptcy Reveiver I had to go over every item of my life.” (Complete Letters, p. 688);
	21st November	Transferred to Reading Gaol.
1896	3rd February	Death of Lady Wilde in London;
	11th February	Salome first performed in a production by Lugné-Poe at the Théâtre de l’Œuvre, Paris;
	19th February	Constance Holland (formerly Wilde) visits Oscar in Reading Gaol, telling him of his mother’s death; last meeting of the couple.
1897	January-March	Writing of the epistle to Lord Alfred, which, suffering many cuts, is edited by Robert Ross as De profundis in 1905;
	19th May	Released from prison, Wilde goes into exile, from which he doesn’t return;.
	May-September	Mainly lives at Berneval-sur-Mer near Dieppe;
	September	Wilde moves to Naples;
	September-December	Lives in Naples with Lord Alfred Douglas; writing of the “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”;
	December	Finally separated from Lord Alfred Douglas.
1898	February	The Ballad of Reading Gaol published in book form, with C.3.3 named as author;
	7th April	Death of Constance Holland in Genoa.
1899	February	Wilde visits Constance’s grave at Genoa; The Importance of Being Earnest issued in book form;
	13th March	Death of Willie Wilde in London;
	July	An Ideal Husband issued in book form.
1900	April-May	Last trip to Italy: to Palermo and Rome;
	30th November	Following his conversion to the Catholic faith, Wilde dies in the Hôtel d’Alsace, Rue des Beaux Arts, Paris.

Compiled on the basis of my own illustrated biography of Oscar Wilde (Munich: dtv, 2000) and with the help of Oswald Sero, Der Fall Wilde und das Problem der Homosexualität. Ein Prozeß und ein Interview (Leipzig: Max Spohr, 1896), of H. Montgomery Hyde, Famous Trials 7. Oscar Wilde (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1962), The Cambridge Companion to Oscar Wilde, edited by Peter Raby (Cambridge: CUP, 1997), of Oscar Wilde, Œuvres, edited by Jean Gattégno (Paris: Gallimard, “Bibliothèque de la Pleiade”, 1996), of Oscar Wilde, Trial and Punishment 1895-1897 (London: Public record Office, n.d.), of Oscar Wilde, Complete Letters, edited by Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis (London: Fourth Estate, 2000), of Merlin Holland, Irish Peacock & Scarlet Marquess (London: The Fourth Estate, 2003), of Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray. The 1890 and 1891 Texts, edited by Joseph Bristow (Oxford: OUP, 2005), and of Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray. An annotated, uncensored edition, edited by Nicholas Frankel (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011) as well as of Oscar Wilde, The Uncensored Picture of Dorian Gray, edited by Nicholas Frankel (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012).