Collection of letters from Ernest Dowson and others to Conal O'Riordan, 1895-1900 : autograph manuscripts signed

A collection of 23 autograph letters to Irish dramatist and novelist Conal O'Riordan (1874-1948): 19 from British poet and novelist Ernest Dowson (1867-1900); 2 from biographer and journalist Robert Sherard (1861-1943); and 1 from Dutch-English journalist, critic and translator Alexander Teixeira de Mattos (1865-1921). The letters document the last few years of Dowson's short life, including a stay in France around 1895-97, when he spent time with Oscar Wilde in exile. The two letters about Wilde, written in the months after his release from prison in 1897, are particularly revealing. Another recounts a rolicking dinner party hosted by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, where a fine meal was followed by a ouija board conversation with Satan and some recreational hashish. The letters also touch upon the difficult years at the end of Dowson's life, when he was staying in France with money provided by the English publisher Leonard Smithers, and then later in London living in dire poverty. In the end Dowson boarded with the writer R.H. Sherard in Catford, and his two final letters from there are included in this collection. Dowson is best known for his poetry, specifically for writing the famous phrases "days of wine and roses" and "gone with the wind," but he also wrote prose and drama.