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Nova Scotia
Academy of Music
Friday, October 6, 1882
The Decorative Arts
Newspaper report
St John Daily Sun, October 7, 1882
Oscar Wilde lectured here last night to a good audience composed of the elite of Amherst. No lecturer has
appeared before a better audience here. Parties present seemed all much pleased and greatly enjoyed his discourse on "Decorative Art." So far as the outward and visible effects of Mr. Wilde's teachings have become apparent in our social life, they have only manifested themselves as yet in an exuberance of flowers. There is nevertheless something more in the lectures of the man than he is generally credited with.
Interview
The Morning Herald (Halifax, NS), October 10, 1882, 2
There was a long interview held with Wilde at Lamy’s Hotel in Amherst entitled “The Apostle of Beauty in Nova Scotia” in —reprinted in Mikhail, E. H., ed. Oscar Wilde: Interviews and Recollections. 2 vols. London: MacMillan, 1979, which concludes: “Mr. Wilde had never spoken in so small a place before. He had a good house and good hearing”.
Academy of Music
Amherst, NS
The record of Wilde venue in Amherst comes from Amherst Gazette, October 13, 1882 (unseen) as noted by Kevin O’Brien in Oscar Wilde in Canada: An Apostle for the Arts, 1982, p. 128.
Wilde almost certainly stayed in Lamy’s Hotel in Amherst, where he was interviewed.
Oscar Wilde In America | © John Cooper, 2025
