Books

London: Leonard Smithers, 1898. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is the limited issue of Wilde’s poem resulting from his incarceration for “gross indecency” in Reading Gaol, which caused Wilde’s “utter social destruction” and hastened his death. The poem, 109 stanzas of six lines, was published by Leonard Smithers on 13 February 1898 under the name "C.3.3.", which stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3. This limited first printing of 800 copies swiftly sold out. It was bound in quarter white cloth over mustard cloth sides with a wide, blank rule transition, the contents of 770 of these 800 copies printed on hand-made, laid paper with untrimmed fore and bottom edges. Condition of this copy is very good overall. The binding is tight and square with bright spine gilt print, though the spine is typically toned, the binding soiled overall with some shelf wear to extremities, and some delamination spots to the mustard cloth of the rear cover and fore edges. The…

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.

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