Author: Lord Alfred Douglas
Profile: Lord Alfred Douglas was a British poet and journalist. He was born in Powick, Worcestershire, England and died in Lancing, Sussex, England. He completed his education at Wixenford School and Winchester College. While completing his studies at Oxford, Douglas edited, The Spirit Lamp, an undergraduate journal, containing a homoerotic subtext. It was at this time that a stormy and close relationship developed between them both. Douglas was well known as the lover of Oscar Wilde. Douglas’ father disapproved and humiliated Wilde of his homosexuality after which he sued the father. Subsequently Wilde was jailed after his intimate notes were found. After Wilde’s death in 1900, Douglas married Olive Custance and had a son named Raymond. In 1911 Douglas converted to Roman Catholicism and renounced homosexuality of Wilde openly.
Writing style: Douglas has written many volumes of poetry and two books related to his relationship with Oscar Wilde.
Published Texts:
Poetry
1896 – Poems
1898 – Tails with a Twist ‘by a Belgian Hare’
1899 – The City of the Soul
1899 – The Duke of Berwick
1906 – The Placid Pug
1907 – The Pongo Papers and the Duke of Berwick
1919 – The Collected Poems of Lord Alfred Douglas
1928 – The Complete Poems of Lord Alfred Douglas
1935 – Sonnets
1935 – Lyrics
1943 – The Sonnets of Lord Alfred Douglas
Non-fiction
1914 – Oscar Wilde and Myself
1925 – Foreword to New Preface to the ‘Life and Confessions of Oscar Wilde’
1928 – Introduction to Songs of Cell 1931 – The Autobiography of Lord Alfred Douglas
1932 – My Friendship with Oscar Wilde
1933 – The True History of Shakespeare’s Sonnets
1933 – Introduction to the Pantomime Man by Richard Middleton
1937 – Preface to Bernard Shaw, Frank Harris and Oscar Wilde 1938 – Without Apology
1938 – Preface to Oscar Wilder: A Play
1939 – Introduction to Brighton Aquatints
1940 – Ireland and the War Against Hitler
1940 – Oscar Wilde: A Summing Up
1941 – Introduction to Oscar Wilde and the Yellow Nineties
1943 – The Principles of Poetry
1944 – Preface to Wartime Harvest
Awards and Acknowledgements:
The Lord Alfred Douglas prize is awarded to current graduate and undergraduate students for writing best English sonnets or other poems in strict rhyming metre after which the winning entries are deposited in the Bodleian Library.