Decades ago I published a short piece correcting an error in Richard Ellmann’s biography of Oscar Wilde; Ellmann had Wilde speaking in Williamsburg VA instead of Williamsburg (Brooklyn) NY, an error that was then repeated elsewhere:
Terry L. Meyers, Oscar Wilde and Williamsburg, Virginia, Notes and Queries, Volume 38, Issue 3, September 1991, Pages 328–329, https://doi.org/10.1093/notesj/38.3.328
Years previously, I had thought myself that Wilde might have visited Williamsburg; he spoke one day in Norfolk and travelled the next to Richmond.
When I discovered that Wilde did not visit Williamsburg, I published (April 1, 1978) a tome on the subject; quite understandably, it has been virtually forgotten and undiscoverable.
But it is newly available at W&M’s Scholarworks:
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/aspubs/2140/
A note on the illustration: it shows the Wren Building (purportedly designed by Sir Christopher Wren) tricked out in Victorian, Italianate style, as it was between 1859 and 1862. And the series the piece appeared in? The W&M English Dept. was at that time moving towards requiring “a significant monograph” for tenure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry L. Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English, Emeritus, The College of William and Mary, in Virginia, Williamsburg 23187
Offset Your Carbon Footprint? Choose at https://tinyurl.com/5546274z
Control Methane? https://earthworks.org<https://earthworks.org/>
————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Have we got a college? Have we got a football team?....Well, we can't afford both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college. --Groucho Marx, in "Horse Feathers."
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
https://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
This list is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
|
