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California
Platt's Hall
Saturday, April 1, 1882
The House Beautiful
The Decorative Arts
Newspaper report
San Francisco Chronicle, April 2, 1882
A special hybrid matinee lecture for ladies.
Newspaper Advertisement
San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 1882
Platt's Hall
216 Montgomery Street, east side, just north of Bush Street, San Francisco, CA
Built: 1875 (George B. Post)
Demolished: 1901
Wilde's base while in the Bay Area was The Palace Hotel in San Francisco.
The Wasp, March 31, 1882
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842—c. 1914) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. The day before Wilde's lecture he published this bitter attack of Wilde in his column entitled "Prattle".
The fact that many people today might ask "Ambrose who?" suggests that he was on the wrong side of history about Wilde, and the relentlessness of his polemic, particularly on the eve of Wilde's special lecture to a female audience, probably says more about his own prejudices than it does about Oscar Wilde.
However, what he said is worth recording as it is, as Karl Beckson has described it, "unparalleled as an example of creative vituperation".
Related:
Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2024
