This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/12/2023
WILDE, Oscar (“C.3.3.”) (1854-1900). The Ballad of Reading Gaol. London: Leonard Smithers, January 1898.
8vo. Half-title. Original cream and tan cloth, gilt-lettered spine, uncut (spine sunned, soiling and spotting to covers). Provenance: Elliott Y. Shepard (early ownership signature with the notation below reading “original copy”).
FIRST EDITION, LIMITED ISSUE, one of 800 copies on hand-made Dutch Van Gelder paper by the Chiswick Press, from a total edition of 830. Wilde wrote this work while being in exile upon his release from Reading Gaol on 19 May 1897 after his 2-year incarceration for gross indecency with other men. The poem was published under the anonymous name “C.3.3.” which stood for the location in the prison where Wilde was held (cell block C, landing 3, cell 3). Wilde’s name would not be printed on the title until the 7th printing in 1899 which revealed his authorship for the first time. The work was an immediate success and has remained popular for over a century with the famous quote: “Yet each man kills the thing he loves”.