Oscar Wilde – His Life and Confessions. With Memories of Oscar Wilde by Bernard Shaw. Two Volumes. New York: The Author, 1918. Second Edition. Pp (1), vii, 320; (2) 292, [32]. Original green cloth board, title lettered in gilt to upper covers & spine. Age-toning to contents pages but overall a nice bright set. Additional material including newspaper cuttings, pasted to preliminary leaves.

Presentation copy Signed by the Author to H.B. Satcher dated Oct. 1918. With Satcher’s book-label to front pastedowns.

Regarded as a foundational, albeit controversial, biography that offers an intensely personal portrait of the author. Harris, a contemporary and friend of Wilde, aimed to present a candid narrative that ventured beyond the public scandal, attempting to capture Wilde’s genius and tragic downfall.

The Irish-born journalist Frank Harris (1855-1931) led a dissolute life that some observers believed to have been redeemed only in his loyal support of the disgraced Wilde, as demonstrated by this biography, of “impressionistic value despite factual vagaries” (ODNB).

Herbert Boyce Satcher (1890-1966) was a notable collector of Oscar Wilde books and manuscripts.