"DID YOU EXPECT ME TO SIT ON THE STAIRS ON THE OFF CHANCE OF YOU COMING IN?" DOUGLAS (Lord Alfred, 1870-20th March 1945, Poet, friend of Oscar Wilde)

Autograph Letter Signed signed in full to Mr Calvert saying "You are the 'limit'. I called in accordance with your own suggestion last Friday exactly at 1 o'clock. I left The Rossiad & a note for you & I called again at 1.45 and 2.30. Now you say you came in at 1.10 & 'as there was no letter' from me you went out to lunch. How do you mean 'no letter'? I left a letter in the office opposite. Where else was I to leave it, or did you expect me to sit on the stairs on the off chance of yr. coming in? It is most annoying as I came up on purpose to see you on business connected with The Rossiad. Could you come down here next Sunday to talk it over. There is a train leaving Victoria at 11.15 arriving Lewes 12.39. I would send motor for you & you could lunch here & spend two or three hours & get back to London in time for dinner. Let me know if you can manage this. See Daily Express advt. day after tomorrow ...", with a few annotations, presumably in Calvert's hand, relating to the train times between London and Lewes, 4 sides 8vo., Shelley's Folly headed paper, 4th April 2 filing holes on second sheet barely effecting the text

In 1911, Douglas embraced Roman Catholicism as Wilde had done earlier. More than a decade after Wilde's death, with the release of suppressed portions of Wilde's De Profundis letter in 1912, Douglas turned against his former friend, whose homosexuality he grew to condemn.
The Rossiad is a privately published poetic satire by Douglas attacking Robert Ross (1869-1918). Ross was a Canadian-British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde, to whom he was a devoted friend and literary executor. He was a pivotal figure on the London literary and artistic scene from the mid-1890s to his early death. The Rossiad first appeared in 1916.

Item Date:  1916

Stock No:  41622