OSCAR WILDE'S LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 247, 18 October 1928, Page 7

OSCAR WILDE'S LIFE.

Friendly Peer Gains Damages

For LibeL

FELLOW AUTHOR'S CHARGE.

(" Times " Cables.')

(Received 10 a.m.)

LONDON, October 17.

Tlie "Times" states that Judge Hor- ] ridge awarded Lord Alfred Douglas 100 damages against Harrods, Ltd., for libel contained in Mr. Frank Harris' book, "Oscar Wilde, His Life and Confessions," a copy of which Harrods sold to plaintiff's agent. Evidence was given that Lord Douglas was happily married and supplemented his

private income By

authorship. Thi book frequently re-

ferred to plaintiff, in which it wrongly described Oscar Wilde's downfall by asserting that Lord Douglas had left him in misery and starvation in Paris.

Lord Douglas met Mr. Harris at Cannes, after which they collaborated in a new preface, in which Mr. Harris withdrew the allegations.

,Sarrods. Ltd.. had three copies of the preface when they sold the book, of which they, had only one copy. It was originally purchased for £1.

It held up Lord Douglas to odium and contempt, -whereas he had generously befriended Oscar Wilde.

The jury suggested the destruction of tlie copies of tie book produced in Coui t.

Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, son of the eighth Marquess of Queensberry. was born in October. 1870, and educated at Winchester. and at Magdalen College, Oxford. He was editor of the "Academy" from 1907 to 1910, and was the founder of Plain English and Plain Speech. He was re? ceived into the Catholic Church in 191 L He has published many works which constitute chiefly novels, poetry, light verse, biography and satire. In the biography class comes "Oscar Wilde and Myself."

Mr. Frank Harris, the late editor of "Vanity Fair," formerly editor of the "Fortnightly Review," then editor of the "Saturday Review," and later still the founder and editor of the "Candid Friend." was born in February, 1856. He was educated at American and German universities and in various cities. He has many publications, which include several works on Shakespeare. He published in 1920 "Oscar Wilde. His Life and Confessions. ' He is a lover of books and he takes pleasure in the past by travelling and in the future by dreaming.