Oscar Wilde

Wilde, an attention-seeker, made many passing acquaintanceships in Britain, France and the U.S. Yeats was a friend of his mother, and had Christmas dinner with him. Stoker and he knew each other from Dublin. Whistler was a mentor, friend and competitive sparring-partner. Daudet, Degas, Verlaine, Zola, Goncourt, Toulouse-Lautrec and Schwob (a helpful friend) were among those met in Paris. He procured a boy for Gide in Algiers, and met Longfellow, Alcott, Holmes and Whitman on an American lecture-tour. Morris said he was an ass (but clever); James called him an unclean beast, but nominated him for a London club.