Author David Friedman to Discuss New Book on Oscar Wilde in Free Public Lecture

Author David Friedman will deliver a free public lecture on his latest book, Wilde In America: Oscar Wilde and The Invention of Modern Celebrity, which details Wilde’s American lecture tour of 1882, at 12:20 p.m. Thursday, March 12 on the Rutgers University–Camden campus.

Friedman’s talk, hosted by Rutgers–Camden’s departments of fine arts and English, will be presented in coordination with the theater program’s spring production of Wilde’s most famous play, “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

The lecture will be held in the Stedman Gallery, located in the Fine Arts Complex on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers–Camden campus. Following the talk, guests will be invited to participate in an informal question-and-answer session.

Friedman argues that Wilde more or less invented our modern notion of celebrity, especially during his American lecture tour of 1882. As part of that tour, Wilde famously made a stop in Camden, just a few blocks from the future site of the Rutgers–Camden campus to pay a visit to the revered poet, Walt Whitman. The two shared a bottle of Whitman’s homemade elderberry wine and bonded quickly, according to sources of the time. Friedman’s insight into this moment of Camden literary history is a key element of his book, which was recently praised in The Boston Globe and The New York Times Book Review.

Friedman was a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and New York Newsday before he began writing books. In addition to his latest book, he is the author of A Mind of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis, which was published in 20 countries, and The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever.

“The Importance of Being Earnest” will run from April 15 to 19 in the Walter K. Gordon Theater, located in the Fine Arts Complex.

For more information regarding the lecture or play, visit rutgerscamdentheater.com or contact Jake Hufner at 856-225-2870 or jhufner@camden.rutgers.edu, or Maria Buckley at 856-225-6176 or maria.buckley@camden.rutgers.edu.

Tom McLaughlin
Rutgers University–Camden
Editorial/Media Specialist
(856) 225-6545
thomas.mclaughlin@camden.rutgers.edu