In my hands, on stack 9 of the New York Society Library, I hold an early printing of Oscar Wilde’s poem, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” C.3.3 was his cell number when a prisoner at Reading. On the title page the author is identified by cell number, not by name.
On May 25, 1895, then age 39, a jury found Wilde guilty of committing indecent acts. Within minutes of the verdict, the trial judge sentenced him to two years at hard labor. From the courthouse, he was taken to Newgate prison in London where a warrant authorizing his detention was issued, and then taken by prison van to Holloway where, “An officer noted down a minute description of his appearance, distinctive marks, color of his eyes, hair, complexion, any scars,” writes Richard Ellmann in his magisterial biography, “Oscar Wilde” (1988, Alfred A. Knopf). Wilde changed from his own clothes to prison clothes, the prison rules were read to him, and he was led to a cell.
