British Library Reinstates Oscar Wilde’s Reader Pass After 130 Years
Trustees papers from May 1889 to April 1896 with the entry on Oscar Wilde
More than a century after he was officially excluded, the British Library plans to symbolically reinstate the revoked Reader Pass that belonged to Oscar Wilde.
As revealed in a Trustees’ entry in the British Museum’s Standing Committee Papers, on June 15, 1895, Wilde was officially excluded from the Library (at the time known as the British Museum’s Reading Room). The decision was made following the trial and conviction he faced as a result of the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 which criminalized acts of "gross indecency" between men. Following the trial, Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labour and was released from prison in 1897.
The Library holds a collection of Wilde’s works, including the handwritten love letter written by Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred Douglas from Reading Gaol titled De Profundis, and handwritten drafts of his most famous plays including The Importance of Being Ernest, An Ideal Husband, A Woman of No Importance and Lady Windermere’s Fan.
The physical pass will be officially handed over to Wilde’s only grandson Merlin Holland in October at a special event at the library. The moment will also celebrate the launch of Holland’s new book After Oscar, a study of the rise and fall of Oscar Wilde after his death published by Europa Editions that month to coincide with Wilde's 171st birthday.
"Oscar had been in Pentonville prison for three weeks when his ticket to the British Museum Reading Room was cancelled," said Holland, "so he wouldn't have known about it, which was probably as well. I think it would have just added to his misery to feel that one of the world's great libraries had banned him from books just as the law had banned him from daily life. But the restitution of his ticket is a lovely gesture of forgiveness and I'm sure his spirit will be touched and delighted."
Dame Carol Black, Chair of the British Library Board, said: "Through this tribute we hope to not only honour Wilde’s memory but also acknowledge the injustices and immense suffering he faced as a result of his conviction."
