The Ballad of Reading Gaol

London: Leonard Smithers, 1898.

Fourth edition, as stated. 8vo. pp [v], 31. Publisher's mustard-yellow cloth boards, cream spine lettered in gilt, slightly darkened and soiled. Edges of pages untrimmed. Half-title present. Endpapers well foxed. Binding tight and square. Without inscriptions, etc. A VG+ copy. Long poem written in exile in Berneval-le-Grand and Naples after his release from Reading Gaol on 19 May 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading following a conviction for gross indecency with other men in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour. The finished poem was published by Leonard Smithers on 13 February 1898 under the name "C.3.3.", which stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3. This ensured that Wilde's name did not appear on the cover. It was not commonly known, until the 7th printing in June 1899, that C.3.3. was actually Wilde.