A sizable and enthusiastic audience gathered at the Clark Library on the afternoon of Saturday, February 21, for the biennial Oscar Wilde Lecture. 
Margaret D. Stetz, the Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women’s Studies and Professor of Humanities at the University of Delaware, gave an informative and entertaining talk about the importance and influence of a female audience on the success of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales. The popularity of this type of storytelling at the end of the nineteenth century in turn influenced a group of “New Woman” authors who used the genre to share their political and feminist views with an adult audience. Dr. Stetz reminded us it was authors such as George Egerton, Lady Florence Bell, and Mabel Nembhard who kept Oscar Wilde’s name in the spotlight. Director Bronwen Wilson gave special acknowledgement to Lee Walcott and the Ahmanson Foundation, thanking them for their ongoing support in sponsoring this series. The full talk is available on our YouTube channel.
The Clark Library recently purchased a significant collection of “New Women” writers from the collector Phil Cohen. Most of the books and manuscripts are discoverable in the library’s catalog and through the Online Archive of California.
-Nina Schneider, Rare Books Librarian, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library