Christopher Merlin Vyvyan Holland (born December 1945) is a British biographer and editor. He is the only grandchild of
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
, whose life he has researched and written about extensively.
Biography
Born in London in December 1945, Christopher Merlin Vyvyan Holland is the son of the author
Vyvyan Holland
Vyvyan Beresford Holland, (born Vyvyan Oscar Beresford Wilde; 3 November 1886 – 10 October 1967) was an English author and translator. He was the second-born son of Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd, and had a brother, Cyril.
...
and his second wife,
Thelma Besant. He is the only grandchild of
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
and
Constance Lloyd.
His mother Thelma was an Australian cosmetician who became the personal beauty adviser to
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
for about 10 years from the mid-1940s. His paternal grandmother, Constance, had changed her and her children's surname to Holland (an old family name) in 1895, after Wilde had been convicted of homosexual acts and imprisoned, in order to gain some privacy for the boys and distance from the scandal.
Work
Holland has studied and researched Wilde's life for more than thirty years.
He is the co-editor, with
Rupert Hart-Davis, of ''The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde''.
He is the editor of ''Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess'', the first uncensored version of his grandfather's 1895
trials. (The book is titled ''The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde'' for release in the US).
Holland has criticised
Richard Ellmann's 1987 biography, ''Oscar Wilde'', as inaccurate, particularly his claim that Wilde had
syphilis
Syphilis () is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium ''Treponema pallidum'' subspecies ''pallidum''. The signs and symptoms of syphilis vary depending in which of the four stages it presents (primary, secondary, latent, an ...
and transmitted it to Constance.
According to ''
The Guardian'', Holland has "unearthed medical evidence within private family letters, which has enabled a doctor to determine the likely cause of
Constance
Constance may refer to:
Places
*Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English
*Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada
* Constance, Kentucky
* Constance, Minnesota
* Constance (Portugal)
* Mount Constance, Washington State
People
* Consta ...
's death. The letters reveal symptoms nowadays associated with
multiple sclerosis
Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...
but apparently wrongly diagnosed by her two doctors. One, an unnamed German 'nerve doctor', resorted to dubious remedies and the other,
Luigi Maria Bossi Luigi Maria Bossi (Malnate, 30 December 1859 – Milan, 1 February 1919) was a gynecologist and Italian politician.
He was director of the Institute of Obstetrics in Novara and of a Genoese clinic.
In 1898, in Genoa, he operated on Constance Lloyd, ...
, conducted a botched operation that days later claimed her life."
Holland has also written ''The Wilde Album'', a small volume that included hitherto unpublished photographs of Wilde.
The book focuses on how the scandal caused by Wilde's trials affected his family, most notably his wife, Constance, and their children,
Cyril and
Vyvyan
Vivian (and variants such as Vivien and Vivienne) is a given name, and less often a surname, derived from a Latin name of the Roman Empire period, masculine ''Vivianus'' and feminine '' Viviana'', which survived into modern use because it is the n ...
.
In 2006, his book ''Oscar Wilde: A Life in Letters'' was published, and his volume ''
Coffee with Oscar Wilde'', an imagined conversation with Wilde, was released in the autumn of 2007.
Holland also wrote ''A Portrait of Oscar Wilde'' (2008), which reveals Wilde through manuscripts and letters from the Lucia Moreira Salles collection, located at
The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.
In addition, Holland has also worked as a wine writer and occasionally written features for
''Country Life'', and ''
The Oldie''.
In July 2013, Holland gave the keynote address for a symposium on Oscar Wilde presented by
The Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a new ...
. The address surveyed the popular and critical attitudes towards Wilde and his work from the end of his life to the present day. The symposium was given in conjunction with the opera company's world premiere presentations of ''
Oscar'', composed by Theodore Morrison with a libretto written by
John Cox and the composer.
Holland's play ''The Trials of Oscar Wilde'', co-authored with John O'Connor and re-enacting the 1895 trials of Lord Queensberry for libel and Oscar Wilde for gross indecency, toured the United Kingdom in 2014 in a production by the European Arts Company.
Personal life
Holland lives in
Burgundy
Burgundy (; french: link=no, Bourgogne ) is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. The c ...
, France, with his second wife. His son, Lucian Holland (born 1979 to Merlin's first wife Sarah), studied classics at
Magdalen College.
He occupied rooms that his great-grandfather Wilde had occupied. He is a computer programmer, living in London.
Merlin Holland briefly toyed with the idea of changing his name back to Wilde. He told ''The New York Times'' in 1998, “But if I did it, it would have to be not just for Oscar, but for his father and mother, too, for the whole family. It was an extraordinary family before he came along, so if I put the family name back on the map for the right reasons, then it's all right.”
Published works
*1998 – ''The Wilde Album''
*2003 – ''Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess: The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde''
[
*2004 – ''The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde''][
]
References
Citations
General references
*Holland, Vyvyan (Merlin Holland, Ed.), ''Son of Oscar Wilde''. London: Carroll & Graf, 1999. 2nd Edition.
* Nick Stafford (writer), David Hunter (director), ''The Real Trial of Oscar Wilde'', based on ''Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess'' and broadcast for the first time on BBC Radio 4 as a Saturday Drama on 28 June 2014.
External links
*Moss, Stephen
"The importance of being Merlin"
''The Guardian'' (London), 24 November 2000. (Profile of Holland on the publication of the new edition of Wilde's letters)
*Wheatcroft, Geoffrey
"''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is complete tosh"
''The Guardian'' (London), 24 November 2000. (Commentary on Wilde's importance)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Merlin
1945 births
English biographers
English people of Irish descent
Living people
Oscar Wilde
Writers from London
English expatriates in France