Cambridge, MA: Oscar Wilde Themed Cemetery Walk

Members are invited to join an Oscar Wilde themed walking tour of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge at 3pm on Saturday October 26. This is a reprise of a popular event.

Participation is limited to fifteen, please register no more than one additional guest. When you sign up, you will be sent directions to our meeting point and parking information. The cost of the event is $15 per person (which will be donated to Mount Auburn Cemetery). We will finish around 4:30pm.

After winning the prestigious Newdigate prize for his poem Ravenna at Oxford in 1878 and achieving a rare double first in Mods and Greats, Oscar Wilde knew he did not want to be a “dried-up don.” Instead he set his sights on becoming famous—and if not famous, notorious––as a poet, a writer, a dramatist. A lack of money was an impediment, however, and when a lucrative offer came from Richard D’Oyle Carte in 1883 to lecture on aestheticism in America Wilde jumped at the chance. D’Oyle Carte was staging Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience in New York and needed to provide his audiences with some understanding of the art for art’s sake movement. Wilde not only needed the money but also the fame that came from meeting notable Americans, particularly in New England. Six people who entertained Wilde now lie buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, and the people and their monuments will be the focus of a tour conducted by Meg Winslow, Curator of Historical Collections at the Cemetery, and Sasha Tipper, a Wilde scholar and former president of our Society, and author of the booklet Passages on Wilde and his relationships with Mt Auburn's 'residents'.

Date: Sunday, October 20, 2024 (rain date will be Sunday October 27 at 3pm, decision by 10am on October 26)

Time: 3:00pm - 4:30pm ET

Location: 580 Mount Auburn St, Cambridge MA 02138