The Definitive Resource Of Oscar Wilde's Visits To America

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San Francisco

California


Platt's Hall

Saturday, April 1, 1882

The House Beautiful

The Decorative Arts

Verification

Newspaper report

San Francisco Chronicle, April 2, 1882


A special hybrid matinee lecture for ladies.


Newspaper Advertisement

San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 1882

Venue

Platt's Hall

216 Montgomery Street, east side, just north of Bush Street, San Francisco, CA


Built: 1875 (George B. Post)

Demolished: 1901

Accommodation

Wilde's base while in the Bay Area was The Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Ephemera

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:

The Modern Messiah

The Wasp, March 31, 1882


Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2023