andrew rimby

Department of English PhD Candidate/Instructor
Guiliano Fellow, 2019 - Fall 2018 Inaugural Recipient

The Kiss of Walt Whitman: Oscar Wilde Reading Whitman From England to America

Part One:

It’s All Wilde to Me: A Journey into the Oscar Wilde Collection

At the end of July, I immersed myself in the Lady Eccles Oscar Wilde Collection at The British Library. When first arriving at the library, I was overwhelmed with the immensity of the building itself, and the surrounding neighborhoods where the library is situated, including St. Pancras, and King’s Cross. I knew that my main goal was to delve into the collection and see if Wilde had written any letters to Walt Whitman who he had a deep admiration for after having visited Whitman twice in Camden, NJ, in 1882. I take Wilde’s first meeting with Whitman as the opening to my dissertation since Philadelphia journalists were enamored with what might have happened when Wilde was in close quarters with Whitman. Wilde happened to be in the Philadelphia area for his American lecture tour on the topic of Aestheticism. When none of Wilde’s fellow Victorian practitioners of Aestheticism elected themselves to speak about the philosophy in America, Wilde rose to the challenge to educate Americans about all matters relating to Aestheticism. Wilde used this opportunity to promote not only the principle of “art for art’s sake” (a key tenet of Aestheticism) but also to promote himself and his future literary work.

Wilde first arrived in New York City and lectured about Aestheticism in Chickering Hall (Union Square area) and then took the train to Philadelphia where a reporter for the Philadelphia Press asked Wilde mostly questions about poetry. Wilde responded by stating that he was so happy to be going to Philadelphia since he knew that Whitman lived just over the Delaware River in Camden, and he really hoped to meet one of his favorite American poets. As soon as Wilde arrived in Philadelphia, his press team sent letters to Whitman, who agreed to meet with Wilde, but Wilde would have to visit him in his brother George’s house in Camden since Whitman was recovering from a stroke. When Wilde came over to visit Whitman, he was enthusiastically greeted by Whitman on “thee and thou” terms. Luckily, a large portion of this conversation was recorded by a journalist for the Philadelphia Press since the journalist interviewed Whitman the day after the meeting between him and Wilde. Whitman went on to explain that he was impressed by Wilde’s frankness and outspokenness as well as his manly demeanor. Wilde, said of Whitman, that he had never met a stronger and more charismatic person before Whitman. He went on to write that Whitman is “the closest approach to the Greek we have yet had in modern times.”

The motive behind Wilde’s desire to meet with Whitman was to learn how to make a name for himself and learn the art of self-promotion from one of the greatest American literary celebrities. A few days after the meeting, Wilde wrote to his friend George Ives, an early advocate of queer rights, that “the kiss of Whitman was still on his lips.” The sexual nature of the meeting between Whitman and Wilde is ambiguous, but the press and literary community continued to speculate what had occurred during the meeting as Whitman and Wilde had drank elderberry wine without anyone else around. Helen Gray Cone, a poet and professor of English at Hunter College in 1882 was so enamored with this meeting that she published “Narcissus in Camden.” A poem that explored possible topics shared between Whitman and Wilde. Instead of naming Whitman and Wilde directly, she turned Whitman into “Paumanokides” or “the ruler of Long Island” and Wilde into Narcissus. Narcissus was the Greek youth who was punished by a goddess to fall in love with his own image after he had ignored the flirtation of a mythical woman named Echo. Helen Cone tapped into how Wilde viewed Whitman which was as a reflection of himself, in both his desire towards male beauty and in his ambitions. 

When I discovered Cone’s “Narcissus in Camden,” my scholarly thirst for figuring out why Hellenism was a through line for her to imagine the meeting between Whitman and Wilde could not be quenched. Even though my dissertation prospectus began with the premise that Greek mythology was an important allusion for Whitman and Wilde, I now knew that Cone and the Philadelphia press were starting to see similarities between Whitman and Wilde’s relationship and Greek myths that center on male homoerotic desire, especially the myth of Narcissus. To fully research the role Hellenism played in shaping Whitman and Wilde’s male homoerotic poetics, I knew that I had to travel to one of the largest Wilde collections, the Lady Eccles Oscar Wilde collection at The British Library. I had a few research questions I was seeking when I entered the library, and they were:

1. To what extent did Wilde and Whitman communicate with each other after their two meetings in Camden?
2. When did Wilde first express an interest in studying ancient Greek culture?
3. How does Wilde’s interest in Hellenism compare/contrast to Whitman’s? 

And, the pivotal question that I am still working out while writing my dissertation:

Why is Whitman and Wilde’s interest in Hellenism essential for understanding their male homoerotic aesthetic?

Part Two:

The Secret Key to Whitman and Wilde’s Relationship

This is the part where I disclose that my utopic quest to find extensive letters exchanged between Whitman and Wilde did not occur. I searched through all of the Wilde letters in the collection at the library, but I was not able to find any letters written to Whitman. When I realized that I would not encounter the secret key unlocking a hidden romance between Whitman and Wilde, I began to look through the collection to turn to another one of my research questions. To what extent did Wilde explicitly connect ancient Greek culture/literature with his queer literary aesthetic (especially his exploration of male homoeroticism)?

In March 2019 at NeMLA, I presented “The Poisonous Yellow Book in The Picture of Dorian Gray” which is part of my dissertation chapter that provides a queer theoretical reading of Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. I had already looked through how Wilde scholars approached the male homoerotic encounters in The Picture of Dorian Gray, but I was not familiar with why Wilde even became so invested in studying ancient Greek literature and language. I began to discover in the Wilde collection many letters that disclosed Wilde’s fascination with ancient Greece. I soon began to trace the timeline which began with Wilde’s undergraduate work at Trinity College, Dublin, starting in 1871 (Wilde was born in Ireland). While at Trinity College, Wilde studied Classics which introduced Wilde to the study of Hellenism (the culture of Greece, especially ancient Greek culture), ancient Greek literature, and Greek language. Wilde was so well versed in Greek language and culture that he won the Berkeley Gold Medal in Greek during his finals. A reason why Wilde became so enamored with ancient Greek literature and history could be due to forming a close bond with his mentor, J.P. Mahaffy who was writing Social Life in Greece from Homer to Menander. While Wilde was his student, Mahaffy was so impressed with Wilde’s skills in Greek language that he had Wilde help him work on his book. I read many entries in Wilde’s journal, while at Trinity, that made mention of how lasting an impression Mahaffy made on Wilde. 

 The Picture of Dorian Gray 1890 first edition, courtesy of The British Library

I discovered in Wilde’s journals, while he was at Oxford, that his love for Hellenism only deepened when continuing his studies at Magdalen College, Oxford. He won a demyship, an Oxford scholarship, right after graduating from Trinity College and moved to England in 1874. At Oxford, Wilde met Walter Pater, a Victorian essayist who had just published The Renaissance. Pater, like Wilde, was drawn to Hellenism and especially the idea of male homoerotic themes in Greek literature. His love for Hellenism led him to temporarily leave Oxford, in 1877, to travel with his former mentor, Mahaffy to Greece (Mycenae and Athens). Wilde began to attach himself to Victorian writers and thinkers who were interested in ideas around male homoerotic desire, and many of those in Wilde’s circle were devotees of Hellenism. 

Even though I was still disappointed in not finding a deeper relationship between Whitman and Wilde, I soldiered on and came across a manuscript of an essay Wilde had written while attending Oxford. There in Wilde’s own penmanship was the title “Hellenism.” I would provide an image of the manuscript, but I am not able to due to copyright laws around Wilde manuscripts. However, I have begun reading through the manuscript, a transcription project that is difficult due to Wilde’s cursive penmanship, and can disclose a few key points. First, Wilde begins the essay by arguing against those who discuss ancient Greek thought and art as united ideas since ancient Greece had so many self governing towns that differed in political and philosophical thought. However, Wilde argues that this separation still allows for a “unity of spirit” to occur amongst the Greeks. This spirit is what Wilde lays out in his essay. Since I am still working on the transcription, my hope is to have permission from The British Library to publish my transcription of Wilde’s “Hellenism” in an upcoming essay that provides the foundation for why Wilde turned to Hellenism for thinking about male homoerotic relations. 

 

Part Three:

My Transatlantic Project Deepens 

Traveling to The British Library, thanks to the Guiliano Fellowship, has helped me chart out my dissertation project and see the stakes of my project in a clearer light. By physically coming face to face with Wilde’s journals, letters, and manuscripts, I have been able to explain why Whitman became such a popular poet amongst Wilde’s circle. Whitman’s poetry contains just enough Hellenic signals in his poetry to allow for Wilde’s circle to see the circulation of male homoerotic desire. Whitman is read through a Hellenic frame of mind with Wilde’s circle because Hellenism has become the signpost to signal to Victorian readers that male homoeroticism is to come. 

 

Rimby in front of Oscar Wilde’s flat in Chelsea

The Guiliano Global Fellowship Program offers students the opportunity to carry out research, creative expression and cultural activities for personal development through traveling outside of their comfort zone.

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