Adventure

What a movie this experience would make!

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com Wilde in America On this day in 1881 Oscar Wilde embarked for America and a year-long lecture tour on such topics as "The House Beautiful" and "The Decorative Arts." He may or may not have told passengers that "the roaring ocean does not roar," or told a customs agent that "I have nothing to declare except my genius," but the captain did apparently express his regret at not having Wilde "lashed to the bowsprit on the windward side." Thousands flocked to see and hear him, and many so took to heart his proclaimed mission "to make this artistic movement the basis for a new civilization" that craft societies and museum patronage blossomed in his wake.