Venue

Platt's Hall

216 Montgomery Street, east side, just north of Bush Street, San Francisco, CA

Built: 1875 (George B. Post)

Demolished: 1901

Accommodation

Wilde's base while in the Bay Area was The Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Ephemera

The Wasp, March 31, 1882

Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (1842—c. 1914) was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist. The day before Wilde's lecture he published this bitter attack of Wilde in his column entitled "Prattle".

The fact that many people today might ask "Ambrose who?" suggests that he was on the wrong side of history about Wilde, and the relentlessness of his polemic, particularly on the eve of Wilde's special lecture to a female audience, probably says more about his own prejudices than it does about Oscar Wilde.

Lecture Tour of America 1882

Writing and Research on Oscar Wilde

San Francisco

California

Verification

San Francisco Chronicle, April 2, 1882

A special hybrid matinee lecture for ladies.

San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 1882

Venue

216 Montgomery Street, east side, just north of Bush Street, San Francisco, CA

Accommodation

Wilde's base while in the Bay Area was The Palace Hotel in San Francisco.

Ephemera

The Wasp, March 31, 1882

However, what he said is worth recording as it is, as Karl Beckson has described it, "unparalleled as an example of creative vituperation".

The Modern Messiah

The Wasp, March 31, 1882

John Cooper on Oscar Wilde © 2026