The New York Times Book Review - Liesl Schillinger
In his new biography of the Irish playwright, novelist and provocateur…David M. Friedman argues that Wilde was among the very first to realize that celebrity could come before accomplishment…Oscar Wilde may indeed have deliberately made himself a commodity, as Friedman shows, and the reproducibility of his image and words can't be denied. What makes him irreplaceable, however, is what was inimitable in him: the genius he reputedly declared upon setting foot in New York Harbor on a January day in 1882—a genius that, whether he declared it or not, he possessed.
Publishers Weekly
06/30/2014
In 1882, Oscar Wilde’s American tour made him the second-most famous Briton in the States after Queen Victoria; in this biography, Friedman (The Immortalists) uses the occasion to make argument that “Wilde invented modern celebrity.” Before writing his widely acclaimed plays, Wilde first became “famous for being famous” by lecturing on Aestheticism to provincial audiences and being seen among established celebrities such as Walt Whitman and Ulysses S. Grant. His strived for fame or, at the very least, notoriety, such that even the lukewarm and negative press on his American tour served his purposes. (Later in the book, Friedman discusses the 1895 sodomy trials that made Wilde truly notorious and destroyed him in the bargain—there is indeed such a thing as bad publicity.) Friedman provides more insights on Wilde’s strategies on achieving celebrity than on the concept of celebrity itself. His claim that Wilde invented modern celebrity is overstated on its face, and it does not become more edifying once details are supplied. Wilde’s nine “principles of fame creation,” around which Friedman organizes his chapters are merely clichés about celebrity (“Work the Room”), and none of them can seriously be attributed to Wilde. However, Friedman vividly chronicles the early part of Wilde’s career—a little-known but crucial period. He may not show how Wilde invented celebrity, but he certainly shows how Wilde invented Wilde. 16 pages of illus. Agent: David Black, David Black Literary Agency. (Oct.)
Jennie Rathbun - Lambda Literary
Friedman argues his case unassailably, using well-chosen examples of Wilde’s genius for self-promotion… As Friedman draws connections between Wilde’s tour and our world of celebrity worship, what might have been merely an amusing series of nineteenth-century anecdotes takes on a compelling relevance for the modern-day reader… An extremely engaging, well-researched book.
Bob Blaisdell - Christian Science Monitor
Friedman is savvy and strong-minded; he enjoys and for the most part admires Wilde’s genius for publicity. Friedman always keeps the amazing soon-to-be dazzling author in the forefront, even as a thesis about celebrity drives the narrative forward… [A] swift, fascinating chronicle.
John Capouya
Oscar Wilde and Gorgeous George never met, of course, but, if they had, I’m sure they would have enjoyed each other immensely. Both understood the importance of image in marketing, and, equally relevant, each grasped the possibilities opened up by gender-bending in the creation of that image. What makes David M. Friedman’s book so fascinating is the way he chronicles how intelligently—and amusingly—Wilde worked to pioneer those connections while touring America in 1882, long before he became Oscar Wilde the famous writer. His goal then was to become Oscar Wilde the famous person. It’s a joy to read how he did it.
John Matteson
No one knows for sure whether Oscar Wilde really told a New York customs officer that he had ‘nothing to declare but his genius.’ But David M. Friedman’s new and spirited account of Wilde’s 1882 tour of the United States does some marvelous declaring of its own. Part homage to the high priest of nineteenth-century aestheticism and part how-to guide for celebrity wanna-bes, Wilde in America is riveting reading from cover to cover. Friedman’s account brims with lush descriptions and often glitters with a lightness of touch and acerbic wit that Wilde himself might have admired.”
Liesl Schillinger - New York Times Book Review
Friedman argues that Wilde was among the very first to realize that celebrity could come before accomplishment.
Roger Lewis
"...fascinating study...Not many biographers will have sifted through the archives of the St Louis Post Dispatch for February 1882, for example, yet Friedman yields interesting facts and figures about the itinerary."”
Ben Yagoda
David M. Friedman’s Wilde in America is hugely fun to read—lively, smart, and well-written. With insightful observations and deftly chosen anecdotes, details, and quotes, Friedman shows us a new side of an author we thought we knew well. Long before he started writing the plays and books for which he’d become famous, Oscar Wilde was working single-mindedly toward an unusual goal: he wanted to be famous for being famous. In the ultimate fish-out-of-water story, Friedman shows us the culmination of this effort: the breeches-wearing aesthete’s lecture tour of the United States in 1882, a yearlong self-marketing campaign that blazed a path that aspiring celebrities are following today—whether they realize it or not.”
Kate Tuttle - Boston Globe
Smart, entertaining.
Times (UK)
[F]ascinating… Not many biographers will have sifted through the archives of the St Louis Post Dispatch for February 1882, for example, yet Friedman yields interesting facts and figures about the itinerary.”
The Tablet
"...engrossing, entertaining gem of a book..."
The Independent
"...impeccably-researched and absorbing chronicle..."
Kirkus Reviews
2014-06-25
An account of the notorious author’s American tour.In 1882, Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) set out for a yearlong American lecture tour, backed by Richard D’Oyly Carte, whose production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettaPatiencehad just opened in the United States. Because its central character parodied an aesthete—a social type unfamiliar to Americans—Carte surmised that putting the young man on display would pique interest and increase ticket sales. As Friedman (The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever,2007, etc.) shows, Wilde was eager to comply. The 27-year-old, author of a single volume of poems that had garnered tepid reviews, lusted after fame. In London, he insinuated himself into circles of the rich and famous, convinced that stardust rubs off. An exhibitionist, he believed that “life is a performance,” and he enacted “an opera of opportunism” everywhere he went. Following Wilde through his American travels, Friedman focuses each chapter on one of Wilde’s revelations about how to become a celebrity: “Take Your Show on the Road,” “Build Your Brand,” “Work the Room,” “Strike a Pose,” “Celebrity is Contagious,” “The Subject is Always You,”“Promoteis Just Another Word forProvoke,” “Keep Yourself Amused” and “Go Where You’re Wanted (and Even Where You’re Not)”—i.e., “bad publicity is still publicity.” These ideas overlap, as do the chapters themselves, which detail Wilde’s foppish sartorial choices, from shoulder-length hair to patent-leather shoes, and describe a multitude of receptions, train trips, and delivery of each lecture on beauty, home decoration or the English Renaissance. In some cities, fashionable people filled the halls, but Wilde faced half-empty rooms in places where his reputation for being “the sovereign of insufferables” preceded him. Several amusing anecdotes stand out, such as Wilde’s first meeting with Walt Whitman, himself “a self-taught genius at self-promotion.”Although Friedman fashions a lively narrative, this book does not significantly embellish the already well-known image of the outrageous, self-aggrandizing Wilde.
