Books

London: Leonard Smithers, 1898. First edition. Hardcover. Orig. quarter cream and light brown cloth, spine darkened. Very good. 31 pages. 23 x 14 cm. "Of this Edition eight hundred copies have been printed on hand-made paper, and thirty copies on Japanese vellum." The last edition to identify the author as "C.3.,3." -- Wilde was imprisoned in cell block C, landing C, Cell 3. This narrative, a tale of Charles Thomas Woodbridge's 1896 execution at Reading for the murder of his wife. Three small fade spots front cover, and slight crinkling at back cover toward head at fore-edge. Nicks to spine head and foot.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, after his release from Reading Gaol (/rɛdɪŋ dʒeɪl/) on 19 May 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour in prison. During his imprisonment, he witnessed the events leading up to the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, for the murder of his wife; these events inspired the poem.

Look for the publisher Leonard Smithers, the year 1898.