Douglas died at the age of 74 from heart failure in 1945 as World War II was drawing to a close. Much of his poetry had been written prior to the start of World War I but his work after that suffered from the fact that people were starting to move away from the classical meters of the past.ĭuring his lifetime, Douglas was compared by George Bernard Shaw to Shelley and a number of biographies were written about him. Lord Alfred Douglas is remembered today for his tumultuous association with Oscar Wilde and as a minor poet. After his release from prison he had to cope with the deteriorating health of his son who had mental health problems but his attitude to Wilde’s legacy also softened considerably. Throughout his life, Douglas published a number of volumes of poetry that included The Placid Pug in 1906 and Sonnets in 1909. On October 22, 1870, Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas was born, the third child of John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry and his first wife Sibyl. There he began work on his last great work, In Excelcis, which he had to rewrite when the prison authorities refused permission for him to take the finished manuscript with him on release. With his religious conversion Douglas changed his stance about his friend Wilde, saying that the man was a force for evil.ĭouglas seemed to have become a lover of libel actions at this time and was even involved in a prosecution by Winston Churchill and, in 1924, he was sent to prison. They separated twelve years later after Douglas converted to Roman Catholicism although they cohabited for a time afterwards. In 1899 Douglas published The City of the Soul and two years after the death of Wilde married poetess and heiress Olive Custance with whom he would have one son. Wilde finally died in at the turn of the century and Douglas acted as his chief mourner.
John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, and his first wife, Sibyl Montgomery. Much of his early poetry was Uranian in theme, though he tended, later in life, to distance himself from both Wildes influence and his own role as a Uranian poet. Now, our friend Lord Alfred wasn’t the son of just any old noble house in fact, Lord Alfred came from one of the noblest and oldest families in Scotland. His 1892 work, Two Loves, contains perhaps one of the most well-known poetic lines in: “ the love that dare not speak its name.” Whilst Wilde’s other friends turned against him during this time, Douglas remained loyal and, on his lover’s release from prison, they lived for a while in Rouen in France though they separated later. Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas was born on October 22, 1870, in Powick, Worcestershire. Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas (22 October 1870 20 March 1945), nicknamed Bosie, was a British author, poet and translator, better known as the intimate friend and lover of the writer Oscar Wilde. On October 22, 1870, Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas was born, the third child of John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry and his first wife Sibyl. This eventually ended in Wilde taking the unwise decision of suing the Marques for libel, something that finally led to the writer’s imprisonment and two years hard labor for his homosexual conduct.ĭuring the trial, one of Douglas’ own poems was used as evidence against Wilde.
However, Douglas’ father, the Marques of Queensbury, took exception to Wilde and threatened to have his son disinherited. Brought up in a well-to-do family, Douglas attended school in Wokingham, went on to Winchester College and then entered Oxford but failed to graduate with a degree.ĭouglas got to known Oscar Wilde, who was twice his age and married, whilst at Oxford and the two developed an enduring and close friendship. Nicknamed ‘Bosie’, English poet and author Lord Alfred Douglas was born in 1870 in Worcestershire and is most notable for his relationship with literary giant Oscar Wilde that led to the Irish writer’s imprisonment.
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