André Gide (1869-1951), Oscar Wilde: In memoriam (souvenirs) Le “De profundis”. Avec une héliogravure. 4e. éd. (Paris: Mercure de France, 1913). Rare Books: Sylvia Beach Collection (Beach) 3254.789.369

Princeton University Library offers 36 different options for studying Oscar Wilde’s De profundis, the letter he wrote during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol to Lord Alfred Douglas. You can read the transcription, enjoy a fine press edition, hear it sung, or research it with annotations. Now we have another.

On Sunday 30 October 2016, Patti Smith read Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis in the former chapel of Reading Prison, Reading, and that reading has now been made available to all (approximately 3 hours). Something to do over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Event: Patti Smith reads De Profundis (2016) from Artangel on Vimeo.

“De Profundis,” writes Colm Tóibín, “cannot be read for its accurate account of their relationship, nor taken at its word.” This is in part because Wilde had no other choice but to write a letter, or write nothing at all. The succession of prisons in which he was held between 1895 and 1897 allowed no writing of plays, novels, or essays.

Over the last four months of Wilde’s incarceration, he and the governor of Reading prison came up with a scheme. Since “regulations did not specify how long a letter should be,” Wilde would be given pen and ink each day and be allowed compose correspondence as long as he liked. The letter would then be his personal property when he left. Despite its literary density, the letter remains, writes Tóibín, “one of the greatest love letters ever written.”

Reading prison has just been opened to the public for the first time this year. Since July, artists, writers, and performers have gathered with audiences inside the prison to celebrate and commune with the spirit of Wilde. Among the events have been readings of De Profundis by Tóibín, who read the letter in its entirely last month, as did Patti Smith.–Josh Jones, http://www.openculture.com/2016/11/patti-smith-reads-from-oscar-wildes-de-profundis.html

For more information on this series, see Artangel: https://www.artangel.org.uk/

The American Whig-Cliosophic Society is Princeton University’s largest and oldest student organization, based in Whig Hall.

Tonight the American Whig-Cliosophic Society will host an Election Night Extravaganza starting at  7:00 p.m. until election results are announced. According to the Daily Princetonian the event is open to all students of the University community. There will be 270 bubble teas, representing the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, 1000 Dunkin’ Donuts, pizza, a photo booth, a raffle for a grand prize of Beats Headphones, and more. There will also be screenings on all four floors, with MSNBC showing in the basement, CNN on both the first and second floors, and Foxon the third.

Additionally, a Cannon Green photo booth will be open all day between Whig Hall and Clio Hall. A photographer will be present to take photos of people with Nassau Hall in the background as well as balloons that spell “VOTED.” A Snapchat filter will also be available on the spot.

Each fall for the last twenty years, an Antiquarian Book Fair has been held in the historic Chelsea Old Town Hall on The King’s Road. Completed in 1886, the building’s architecture and decoration rival the exhibitor’s offerings for a visitor’s attention.

The Chelsea Old Town Hall is at the junction of Sydney Street and the King’s Road, which was just that, Charles II’s private road to Hampton Court. Visitors to the fair walk down a long marble-floored corridor and through carved mahogany doors that open to the grand Main Hall. Topped with a vaulted ceiling, candelabra chandeliers, stained glass windows, and grand marble columns, the Hall features a series of wall murals commemorating celebrities who lived in “the Royal Borough,” including George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, Thomas Carlyle and many others.

There was no information in the hall identifying the mural artists but according to The Women’s Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, having won a competition in 1912, Mary Sargant Florence (1957-1954) decorated in tempera the “Literature” panel in Chelsea Town Hall.” Other sources speculate that Sargant-Florence may have completed more than one work for the Hall.

Regardless of the setting, the fair itself is relatively casual, with piles of prints open to anyone willing to pick through them. No wonder long lines stood in the rain this week for the pleasure of attending this fair.

Our sincere thanks to everyone who turned out for our program “Wild Lives: Catesby, Audubon, Lear, and Ford” on Sunday afternoon. We were treated to a fascinating series of talks by Robert M. Peck, Class of 1974; Aaron M. Bauer; Neal Woodman, and Walton Ford. Each one, captivating on its own but surprisingly interconnected.

We recommend you look further into the work of each of these remarkable speakers, their books and catalogues, as well as Walton Ford’s upcoming exhibitions. Here are a few images from the day.

Thanks also to our colleagues in Guyot Hall, the perfect spot for these talks and for a break together with the dinosaurs.

“Karin Trainer got her first job as a librarian in the cataloging department of Firestone Library in 1972. Twenty-five years later, she came back to run the place.”–Sally Freedman, “University librarian defines priorities,” Princeton Weekly Bulletin 86, no. 22 (March 31, 1997).