Oscar Wilde’s Salomé is a Christian nightmare. The story goes: King of Judea, King Herod, requests an adult dance from step-daughter Salomé; driven with lust for and revenge with, Salomé demands prophet John the Baptist’s severed head as her reward.

Wilde wrote the play in French in Paris in 1893. Salomé came to England in February of the following year (1894), however, only in print form – the Victorians had to and did ban its performance – with a poor translation, censored illustrations, and a “coarse and inappropriate” cover. Wilde’s lover Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas had been entrusted with the task of translating Salomé into English. The obscene, erotic illustrations were by the artist Aubrey Beardsley. The same Beardsley who was also the art editor for The Yellow Book, the literary periodical that Salome, come April, would find itself rivaling against. Both the play and the periodical were even published under the same publishing house, The Bodley House, by Elkin Matthews and John Lane.

A 1907 portfolio edition was posthumously (Wilde died in 1900) published, including all the sixteen uncensored (Queen Victoria died in 1901) Beardsley (who died in 1898) illustrations, by John Lane. The title page now bore both male and female genitals, the illustration ‘Enter Herodias’ had the early fig leaf removed, and ‘Salomé on Settle’ and ‘John and Salomé’ at last were included in Salome. All the sixteen plates were printed on Japanese vellum. In fact, the illustrations were heavily influenced by the Japanese art style of the time. The cover had gilt-stamped green linen boards, gilt-borders too. The design was Beardsley’s original for Salome, eight flame-like peacock feathers and ‘SALOME BY OSCAR WILDE’ in the center on top. A copy of the same in black ink was included in the edition. This edition also included:

1. Robert “Robbie” Ross’s note on Salomé. Robbie was Wilde’s literary executer and lover and the one to always have stood by him.
2. A cast list of the first-ever performance of Salomé in England. It was performed in the New Stage Club on May 10^thand 13^th Millicent Murby was Salomé.
3. A cast list of Richard Strauss’s German Operatic Salomé. The now-famous adaptation was first performed on December 9^th Here, Marie Wittich was Salomé.
4. A list of Aubrey Beardsley’s works.

A copy, in a Very Good condition, today belongs to collector Mark Samuels Lasner of the University of Delaware. It has deckled edges. The spine edges have seen wear and tear. The previous owner of the copy, as can be deduced from the ex-libris on the inside front-cover, was William Andrews Clark Jr., another collector of all stuff Wildean. A quick Google search would also inform that Clark was well acquainted with Lord Alfred Douglas, who may have even supplemented Clark’s collection archives. Where the copy may have been purchased can be deduced from the label on the left-hand bottom corner of the inside back-cover: Brentano’s, Booksellers & Stationers in Paris; Brentano’s had many branches in New York.

A facsimile cast list of the 1905 Strauss Opera in German is pasted in right before the beginning of the play and its verso can be read through the sheet. A text note, separate from the copy but placed in front of the play’s cast list, indicates the identity of the translator. It is important to note that even the title page avoids mentioning the name of the translator, Lord Alfred Douglas; it reads “translated from the French of Oscar Wilde,” as opposed to “translated by Lord Alfred Douglas.”

A study of the material Salomé informs one of Wilde’s associations, his affections, his life: there is gold applied even on an essentially thin play book, that too on one that is translated; a lover translates his book, only poorly; a lover writes the note to his art; a publisher is finally able to find justice for his artists, only after their deaths. The next time one reads Saloméone should read it as not strictly a Christian nightmare but as one Artist’s life-story told by those close (or not) to him.

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