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The John Cooper Interview
with Walter W. J. Walker
Where are you from?
I am British, born in the north-west of England in a old town (now a
city) called Preston, which is about 30 miles from the larger cities
of Liverpool and Manchester.
What's your occupation/profession?
I am a Chartered Surveyor - perhaps a little-known job title in the
US. There are several types - I'm a Quantity Surveyor - which
essentially means working closely with architects and engineers in
the cost control of building design and construction.
How old are you?
48: now older than Oscar Wilde who lived until the age of 46,
as did his only brother Willie Wilde.
How long have you lived in America?
Over the last 15 years I had been a frequent visitor to the States,
as I was resident conveniently off-shore in Bermuda. But I have
lived here more or less for last five years with my American
wife.
What is your educational background?
After gaining my diploma at the (now) University of Central
Lancashire, I graduated as a fully qualified member of the Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
When were you first taught Oscar Wilde at public/private school
or University? Or did you discover him on your own?
I remember reading The Importance of Being Earnest in high school. I
would have been about 13 or 14 and the class took turns at reading
the play out loud. I couldn't believe how sharp and consistently
witty the repartee of the dialogue was. Especially after just
reading George Eliot. This stuck with me for years
until I rediscovered Wilde's life and other works many years later.
Is there a favorite play, novel, story, essay or poem?
The letters. Wilde was a prolific letter writer and over 1,500 of
them survive. They are essentially the autobiography he never wrote.
This is not to diminish any of his works - it's just that I feel that
in the letters you get all the ingredients of great literature:
character, incident, comedy, drama, tragedy, prose and poetry; plus,
of course, his catastrophe and denouement.
What inspired you to start researching Wilde's time in New York?
Well the walking tour is the driving force. I wanted to be able to
build a definitive body of knowledge about a specific area of
Wilde's life. New York was the logical choice because I am resident
nearby and Wilde spent a lot of time here, on a year-long lecture
tour, a fact little known even in America.
Why do think he took up the tour?
The result of a potent cocktail: he had something to say, a talent
for saying it, and someone prepared to pay him for saying it.
Is there a well documented account of his time here?
Not really. I believe it was a formative period for Wilde, and well
worth capturing, not only for the scholar, but for anyone interested
a great period story. But successive biographers have recycled one
or two familiar stories. And there was one book (now out-of-print)
that dealt anecdotally with the whole tour of America and Canada.
But there is no definitive source book for the year-long lecture
tour, and certainly no single account of Wilde's time in and around
New York, where Wilde lived and to where he returned.
Do you think this guided walking tour will fill this void?
I hope so. It has taken several years traversing leafy streets and
dusty corridors to assemble the jigsaw. The canvas is growing
however, as occasionally I unearth pieces that weren't in the
picture before. Also there is the possibility of a new book on the
subject in the near future.
From your research, how do think New Yorkers received him?
It was a mixed reception. Wilde's arrival was much anticipated and
from the moment he stepped off the boat he didn't disappoint. Wilde
was received warmly by polite society, especially by ladies of
fashion, and receptions and dinners were given in his honor.
Conversely, he was subject to the ridicule of the press and the
abuse of one or two paragons of Victorian virtue. Generally, people
didn't know what to make of him, as he was, in many ways, ahead of
his time.
Did he make friends here?
Most certainly. Wilde came with many letters of introduction and
made friends of his own along the way; for example, he got along
famously with Walt Whitman. Many people went out of their way to
make Wilde's visit enjoyable and he shared their homes in the city
and at the shore in the summer. Some friendships became quite
lasting, particularly literary ones, and he had a lifelong
association and respect for the pioneering New Yorker, Elisabeth
Marbury, who was his agent in America.
How do you think they would receive him today?
Well he and they wouldn't be the same today. He'd certainly be a
television celebrity - as Wilde was probably the first to realize
the virtue of fame for its own sake. And I believe he would be
immensely popular - for his still-quotable wit, and still-popular
works. But the world is now used to a lot worse than Oscar, and his
kind and dignified personality would prevent him from generating the
same vitriol or scandal today.
What was the New York of Oscar's time all about?
It was a time of enterprise and immigration; of gaslight and
horse-drawn carriages: but mostly it was time of cultural
and social change: the Brooklyn Bridge was being completed,
Edison as introducing electric lights, elevators were being
installed in buildings, and fortunes were being made in
railroads, steel and oil by names still famous today. But it
was also a time of great poverty as well. At the opening of
the Metropolitan Opera in 1883 the audience was estimated to
be worth more than $500 million when the average daily wage
in the tenements was no more than a dollar. But the gilded
age was about to peak, and the growth of a commercial
district downtown was to lead to a residential displacement
of the wealthy. It was the beginning of the post-industrial
era.
Is anything about New York today holds with Oscar Wilde's
time?
While some would say there is the same divide of wealth and
poverty it is still a place of opportunity. It is still a
great center for culture and entertainment, and it's an
iconic place to arrive. I maintain that day-to-day life in
Oscar Wilde's New York much the same as it is today; people
still had jobs to go to, and families to come home to. But
maybe the traffic jams had more horses.
Do you think he had an influence on the city?
He certainly had an impact at the time: there were articles
about him in the newspapers, cartoons of him in the
periodicals, advertising featuring him and even songs
written about him. But Oscar Wilde's lasting influence is
far wider than that. He crucially influenced social and
sexual diversity, and as New York has always prided itself
on those traits, you could say that it is the city he has
influenced the most.
Is there any comparing Oscar to other colorful artists
that New York has played host to over the past 100 plus
years --- Dickens, James, Poe, Dylan Thomas, Scott
Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs?
Unlike those you mention who made their names in, or before
they came to, New York, Oscar was not established as a
writer at the time of his visits. He was a fledgling artist
trying to promote himself and his early plays, and his most
famous works lay some way ahead. So while Wilde was not a
New York writer in any sense, I do believe he visited the
city at a very formative time.
It is interesting note however, that Wilde did not become
a writer of any specific place, and unlike the New York
school, was more eclectic. He cannot be labeled. His poetry
relied heavily on Greek learning, but his early plays are
set in Russia and Italy. His Victorian novel is Gothic. And
while the social comedies are utterly British, he also wrote
a Biblical play in French. His children's stories are
universal, as are the themes of his essays and criticism.
And throughout his life he penned letters wherever he went,
finally, writing in prison about life and in France about
prison. So comparisons are not easily made.
Would Oscar have an appreciation for theatre that
Broadway has become?
You have to remember the Broadway that Wilde knew was still
very much Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence. At his lecture
on the Decorative Arts at Wallack's Theater in May of that
year, Wilde's buttoned-down audience contained many
debutantes and their maternal chaperones. I'm sure no one
who was there that night listening to Wilde's view that vine
leaves look noble in wallpaper, could have have predicted
The Vagina Monologues.
But it was Wilde, in defense of his only novel (The
Picture of Dorian Gray) who said he did not recognize any
morality in art. Just a sense of what was good or bad. So, I
think he would have approved, although he'd be more likely
to be patronizing the Fulll Monty.
And as for the proliferation of the musical - I sense a
reversal of morality. While today's blockbusters are purely
good-natured entertainment, in 1882 Wilde himself was
parodied and ridiculed by Gilbert & Sullivan in their comic
opera Patience. So all-in-all, despite the change in times,
there is surely enough diversity as well as classical
theatre, for Wilde to appreciate, as long as he thought it
well done. |