Controversial author Oscar Wilde has sparked a row from beyond the grave at his alma mater, Oxford University, where the famous Bodleian Library has been forced to return a rare collection of unpublished letters and first-edition works to its original home.
The Robert Ross Memorial Collection, which was named after Wilde’s first male lover, contains more than 1,000 first-edition books, including The Happy Prince — which was made into a film starring Rupert Everett — as well as correspondence and original manuscripts.
I can reveal it has now been returned to University College Library after it was handed to the Bodleian some 80 years ago owing to lack of space.
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet, writer and prominent aesthete in the 19th century
‘It’s an incredible collection of all the first editions of his works in all languages,’ Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland, tells me.
‘University College Library realised that it was just sitting at the Bodleian not being properly promoted or catalogued and demanded it back — much to the Bodleian’s fury.’
Canadian art critic Ross helped rehabilitate Wilde — who died poverty-stricken in 1900 in Paris — and boost his reputation after his incarceration in Reading Jail for gross indecency.
The collection was originally donated to University College Library in 1930, but has now been returned after criticisms the archive was not easily accessible at the Bodleian.
University College librarian Elizabeth Adams says: ‘We decided that we wanted it back and were concerned the Bodleian would just warehouse the material during its refurbishment.
Oxford's Bodleian Library has been forced to return a rare collection of Wilde's unpublished letters and first-edition works to its original home
‘It’s better it is kept here. Researchers will have greater access. And now it is here, it will stay here.’
Bodleian librarian Richard Ovenden retorts: ‘During the Bodleian’s refurbishment, we continued to provide ready access to all our collections . . . The cataloguing and conservation of lent collections falls to their owner, rather than the borrowing institution.’
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