How Oscar Became Wilde

Join us for How Oscar Became Wilde, a free presentation in celebration of Pride Month! Karin Suni, curator of the Theatre Collection of the Free Library of Philadelphia, begins the presentation with one-of-a-kind manuscripts in the Library’s collection written by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)‎, followed by Michèle Mendelssohn, professor of English and American Literature at Oxford University, who will discuss how gender and racism impacted Wilde during his tours of North America in 1882 and 1883 and helped shape the celebrity he became. Mendelssohn’s book Making Oscar Wilde was a semifinalist for the PEN America Biography Prize, a finalist for the Biographers’ Club Slightly Foxed First Biography Prize, and a finalist for the LGBTQ Polari Prize.

Michèle Mendelssohn is a Professor of English and American Literature and Tutorial Fellow at Oxford University. Her book Making Oscar Wilde was a semifinalist for the PEN America Biography Prize, a finalist for the Biographers’ Club Slightly Foxed First Biography Prize, and a finalist for the LGBTQ Polari Prize. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, and other scholarly journals. In 2020, she co-curated Making History: Christian Cole, Alain Locke, and Oscar Wilde at Oxford. The exhibition, event series, and interactive website showcase the shared history of Oxford’s trailblazing Black and Queer undergraduates through archives and personal testimony spanning the 19th c. to the present day.

Registration is free but required. Click here to register.