Editing Lady Windermere's Fan (section)

==Composition==
By the summer of 1891 Wilde had already written three plays: ''[[Vera; or, The Nihilists]]'' and ''[[The Duchess of Padua]]'' had found little success, and ''[[Salome (play)|Salome]]'' had yet to be staged. Unperturbed, he decided to write another play but turned from [[tragedy]] to comedy.<ref name="auto">{{harvcoltxt|Ellmann|1988|p=314}}</ref> He went to the [[Lake District]] in the north of England, where he stayed with a friend and later met [[Robbie Ross|Robert Ross]]. Numerous characters in the play appear to draw their names from the north of England: Lady Windermere from the lake and nearby town [[Windermere]] (though Wilde had used "Windermere" earlier in ''[[Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories|Lord Arthur Savile's Crime]]''), the Duchess of Berwick from [[Berwick-upon-Tweed]], Lord Darlington from [[Darlington]].<ref name="auto"/> Wilde began writing the play at the prodding of [[George Alexander (actor)|George Alexander]], the actor manager of [[St James's Theatre]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Harris|first=Frank|title=Oscar Wilde: His Life & Confessions|year=1941|publisher=Blue Ribbon|location=New York}}</ref> The play was finished by October.<ref name="auto1">{{harvcoltxt|Ellmann|1988|p=315}}</ref> Alexander liked the play, and offered him an advance of £1,000 for it. Wilde, impressed by his confidence, opted to take a percentage instead, from which he would earn £7,000 in the first year alone (worth £{{Formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|7000|1892|r=-2}}}} today).<ref name="auto1"/>{{Inflation-fn|UK}}

Alexander was a meticulous manager and he and Wilde began exhaustive revisions and rehearsals of the play. Both were talented artists with strong ideas about their art. Wilde, for instance, emphasised attention to aesthetic minutiae rather than realism; he resisted Alexander's suggested broad stage movements, quipping that "Details are of no importance in life, but in art details are vital".<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Raby|1997|p=146}}</ref> These continued after the opening night when, at the suggestion of both friends and Alexander, Wilde made changes to reveal Mrs Erlynne's relationship with Lady Windermere gradually throughout the play, rather than reserving the secret for the final act.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Raby|1997|p=144}}</ref> Despite these artistic differences, both were professional and their collaboration was a fruitful one.

There is an extant manuscript of the play held in the [[William Andrews Clark Memorial Library]] at the [[University of California, Los Angeles]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Finding Aid for the Oscar Wilde and his Literary Circle Collection: Manuscripts and Miscellaneous Materials|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt2t1nf18z/|publisher=Online Archive of California}}</ref>