WILDE (OSCAR) Autograph letter signed ('Oscar Wilde') to Alsagar Vian, editor of The Court & Society Review ('My Dear Vian'), asking him to return '...my wife's story - she wants to publish it...', one page on a bifolium, dust-staining and marks, some spotting, creased at folds, remains of old tape on reverse where previously mounted, 8vo (166 x 123mm.), Tite Street, Chelsea, [n.d. but possibly 1887/1888] Footnotes: 'PLEASE RETURN MY WIFE'S STORY': AN UNPUBLISHED NEWLY-DISCOVERED LETTER FROM WILDE CONCERNING CONSTANCE'S LITERARY ASPIRATIONS. Alsagar Vian (1863-1924) was the young editor and assistant to Charles Gray Robertson at The Court & Society Review, a sixpenny weekly magazine which had gone under several iterations before taking that name in October 1885 (see lot 46). Wilde contributed several articles to the magazine during 1887, his first offering being The Canterville Ghost, which appeared over two issues in February and March, followed by Lord Arthur Savile's Crime in May, as well as various reviews and articles on the arts. He made his final contribution to the Christmas number, after which his association with the Review ended, partly in consequence of a scathing review of the Grosvenor Gallery exhibition by Lady Colin Campbell in the same pages, to which he took great exception. To add insult to injury she had referred to him as 'The Great White Slug' after being seated next to him at a Society of Authors banquet. From our letter it would appear that Vian was in possession of the manuscript of a story by Constance Wilde, which may have been one of the children's stories which was to be published as There Was Once: Grandma's Stories in 1888. Whether Vian had declined to publish the story or whether Wilde asked for its return in a fit of pique is not known. However, his year-long association with the Review (and thus the majority of his correspondence with Vian) of 1887, and the publication of Constance's book the following year may indicate a likely date for our letter of late 1887 or early 1888. Our letter appears to be unpublished, although three letters to Vian are published in the Letters. For more on the known letters from Wilde to Vian and his relationship to the Review, see Donald Mead's article, 'Oscar Wilde, Alsager Vian and The Court and Society Review', The Wildean, no.38 (January 2011), pp.6-15. Provenance: Discovered in an album compiled by Gerald Caldwell Siordet (1885-1917, artist, critic and poet). Educated at Balliol, he worked for several art institutions such as New English Art Club, the Fine Art Society and the V&A, wrote for The Studio, and numbered John Singer Sargent, Glyn Philpot and Jane Morris among his circle. He died with the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force in February 1917; his sister Vera Ritchie (née Siordet); thence by descent. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing