£3,750
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs | 630
Auction: Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
London: Methuen and Co., 1905. First edition, 8vo, original blue cloth gilt, with a gift inscription to free-endpaper: "Arthur Symons, Feb:07:1905. (from Robert Ross)" [the inscription does not appear to be in Ross's hand], with many annotations and corrections to the text in pencil, and 15 leaves of additional notes in the same hand bound-in
Note: Robert Baldwin Ross (1859-1918) was the partner, lifelong friend and literary executor of Oscar Wilde. De Profundis was a letter, written by Wilde to another former partner, Lord Alfred Douglas ('Bosie' - with whom Wilde's relationship famously led to his conviction and imprisonment for 'gross indecency'), as a form of catharsis and was never sent during Wilde's incarceration. Following his release from prison, Wilde entrusted the manuscript to Ross. In 1900, several years after Wilde's death, Ross published the letter in its present form. This volume appears to have belonged to Ross - and subsequently seems to have been gifted to the poet, critic and magazine editor, Arthur William Symons. Symons has added manuscript text extracts which were suppressed from this edition and published in 1913.