Alfred Douglas

Lord Alfred Douglas “Bosie” Autograph Letter Signed to Literary Critic Philip Page — Discussing His Poetry — 1940

Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945)
Autograph Letter Signed “Bosie”
Hove, Sussex, England
June 4, 1940
One page, approximately 7 × 9 inches

A compelling handwritten letter from Lord Alfred Douglas, poet, author, and the celebrated—and ultimately tragic—companion of Oscar Wilde, written to literary critic Philip “Peter” Page and signed with Douglas’s famous intimate nickname, “Bosie.”

Writing from his residence at 1 St. Ann’s Court, Nizells Avenue, Hove, Sussex, Douglas discusses two stanzas from his poem The Sella of the Pass, reflecting on work written more than two decades earlier and suggesting a slight alteration to the poem.

The letter is particularly desirable for Douglas’s distinctive closing:

“Yours ever, Bosie.”

The name “Bosie” occupies a singular place in literary history. It was the affectionate name by which Douglas was known during his relationship with Oscar Wilde, whose disastrous confrontation with Douglas’s father, John Sholto Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, set in motion the events leading to Wilde’s trials, conviction, and imprisonment in 1895.

Douglas was himself an accomplished poet and writer. Educated at Winchester and Magdalen College, Oxford, he met Wilde in 1891 while still a young man. Their volatile relationship became one of the most famous literary associations of the Victorian era.

Following Wilde’s death in 1900, Douglas’s life took a complicated course. He converted to Roman Catholicism, married poet Olive Custance, became increasingly involved in political and literary controversies, and spent six months in prison in the 1920s after being convicted of libeling Winston Churchill. His later years included continued writing, poetry, journalism, and repeated attempts to shape the historical account of his relationship with Wilde.

This June 1940 letter belongs to Douglas’s later period. By then nearly seventy years old, he was living in Hove and looking back upon poetry written decades earlier. Rather than merely a routine signature, the letter provides an intimate glimpse of Douglas considering and revising his own literary work.

Condition: Very good overall, with expected mailing folds, light handling and age toning, and scattered staining or spotting, principally toward the lower right. Handwriting and signature remain clear and strong.

An evocative literary autograph connecting the mature Lord Alfred Douglas with the young “Bosie” forever associated with Oscar Wilde.

Transcription

1, St. Ann’s Court,
Nizells Avenue,
Hove 2, Sussex.

June 4. 1940.

Dear Peter,

I discovered a day or two ago that
the 2 last stanzas of my poem “The Sella
of the Pass” (Lyrics, p. 68), though
written more than 20 years ago, are
most astonishingly applicable to the
teachings of Leopold, King of
the Belgians. I send them herewith with
a slight alteration (“who” instead of “where”)
in the fifth line of the first stanza.
Would the Daily Mail publish them?

Yours ever
Bosie.

P.S. I was sorry to miss you when I called in
London a week or two ago!

Leopold appears very likely to refer to King Leopold III of Belgium. The date is significant: on May 28, 1940, only a week before Douglas wrote this letter, Leopold surrendered the Belgian army to Germany, creating an enormous political controversy in Britain and France. Douglas’s reference to the “teachings of ___, King of the Belgians” therefore appears topical rather than incidental. That historical context makes the letter considerably more interesting than a routine discussion of poetry.

Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas

LORD ALFRED BRUCE DOUGLAS (1870-1945), was a British writer who first came to prominence in the 1890s as the young intimate companion of Oscar Wilde. After Douglas’ father, the 9th Marquess of Queensbury, publicly accused Wilde of sodomy, Wilde filed the libel lawsuit that led to his own conviction and two-year prison term for indulging in “the love that dare not speak its name.”

During the later part of 1897, Wilde and Douglas lived together near Naples, but for financial and other reasons, they separated. Wilde lived the remainder of his life primarily in Paris, and Douglas returned to England in late 1898. Douglas published several volumes of poetry, two books about his relationship with Wilde, and an autobiography.

Douglas in any form is quite rare, and with its association to Bosie’s friend the literary critic Philip Page, makes this fine letter a perfect collectible for fans of Oscar Wilde.

Accompanied by adjoining cut sections of an aged vintage newspaper clipping from The (London) Daily Mail dated July 4, 1941, of the published poem “Winston Churchill” by Lord Alfred Douglas, with notations in green ink beneath reading “P Page, affection, reconciliation.” Reverse side of the clipping features a story on the historic Nazi surrender of Palmyra to British forces.

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