ABSTRACT
James (1843-1916), who had met Wilde briefly in 1882 in Washington, D.C., during the latter’s lecture tour of America, thought of him as merely a fatuous poseur, but later found himself overshadowed by Wilde’s striking success in the theatre. On 2 February 1895, James’s play Guy Domville closed after an unsuccessful run (it had opened on 5 January)—which James alludes to in his letter to his brother. The play that followed James’s into the St James’s Theatre was, of course, The Importance of Being Earnest, ‘a great success’, wrote James to his brother after it opened.
