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Oscar Wilde was just ten weeks past his twenty-seventh birthday when he boarded the S. S. Arizona on December 24, 1881, destined for America and a year of lecturing as an expert on art and literature.

Wilde saw himself as a representative of the Aesthetic Movement and hoped to encourage an appreciation for beauty in an America that was largely devoted to industrialization. The tour was promoted to exploit Wilde’s reputation as an aesthete. The Arizona arrived in New York on January 2, 1882. Local newspaper reporters were so eager to get a quote from Wilde that several of them hired a launch boat to bring them aboard Wilde’s ship before it docked. In an interview the next day, Wilde welcomed his role as defender of the arts: “I am here to diffuse beauty, and I have no objection to saying that.”

The timing of the tour had everything to do with the recent success of a Gilbert and Sullivan play Patience; or Bunthorne’s Bride, which had opened to enthusiastic reviews at the Standard Theatre in New York in September 1881. Patience satirized the Aesthetic Movement and presented a character named Bunthorne who personified the popular stereotypes of the aesthete. The caricature featured long hair, knee breeches, silk stockings, and effete mannerisms. Bunthorne was fond of gazing at lilies and sunflowers. The play recalled one of many legends that Wilde delighted in cultivating. Supposedly he had walked down Piccadilly dressed in such a costume and carrying a flower. Wilde’s son Vyvyan later quoted his father’s comment on the story: “Anyone could have done that; the difficult thing to achieve was to make people believe that I had done it.” As usual, perception was more important than reality for Wilde.

Despite an impressive resonant voice, Wilde made no claim of being a great orator; however, he tried to give the audiences what they expected in appearance as well as a certain degree of enlightenment. He noted on one occasion...