Karen Sasha Anthony Tipper
Author and Scholar

Lady Jane Wilde's Letters to Fröken Lotten von Kræmer, 1857-1885

With a Preface by Donald Mead. The Edwin Mellen Press, 2008

Lotten von Kræmer initially visited the Wildes' house in Dublin to consult with the by then famous aural surgeon, William Wilde, for a hearing problem from which she suffered. Her advocacy of women's rights and education in Sweden corresponded with Jane Wilde's own thoughts and writings on women and they became fast friends, primarily through correspondence. In her letters, Jane writes about the books she has read, the essays she has written, and her salons for the Dublin literati. Jane found few women in Dublin to whom she could relate intellectually, and hence Lotten fulfilled this essential need for her.

Lady Jane Wilde's Letters to Mr. John Hilson, 1847-1876

With a Preface by Mary A. Trottier. The Edwin Mellen Press, 2010

Jane Elgee and then Jane Wilde's letters to John Hilson are eloquent and expressive to some extent of her innermost desires and insecurities. She enjoyed an intellectual communion with him that was denied women of that era. A relationship through correspondence precludes the physical, domestic, and social demands of a marital relationship that can often eclipse the spiritual love that first unites a couple. This does not mean, however, that Jane did not feel a need to shield herself from disappointment, but helps to account for the length of the correspondence. She provides some vital information about courtship, her marriage, and motherhood.

Lady Jane Wilde's Letters to Oscar Wilde, 1875-1895

With a Preface by Bruce Bashford. The Edwin Mellen Press, 2011

An edited collection of the correspondence providing insight into the nature of Lady Wilde's love for her second son, her pride in his status as a writer, and her dependence upon his financial support during her increasingly impoverished years in London. The translation of Lady Wilde's nearly indecipherable script and the carefully researched historical context of the each letter provide readers with an added depth of knowledge about Lady Wilde and her relationship to her son. While the book inevitably ends before Wilde's downfall, the letters help to correct a great deal of misinformation and unfounded generalizations about Wilde propagated by his detractors.

Bruce Bashford says in his introduction that "this volume continues Professor Tipper's career-long effort to recover for us a more just appreciation of Lady Jane Wilde…. That love of things of the mind apparent throughout the [previous two] volumes of letters, and perhaps Jane's most important influence on her son, remains evident here as well."

Lady Jane Wilde's Letters to Constance Wilde, Friends, and Acquaintances

with Selected Correspondence Received. The Edwin Mellen Press, 2013

Reviewed by Michael Seeney. Thie is the fourth volume of Sasha Tipper's transcribed letters. In contrast to the longer and denser and more considered letters to Fröken Lotten von Kræmer and John Hilson, Lady Wilde's letters to her daughter-in-law, Constance, are full of minutiae about entertaining, family matters, gripes about money, literary chatter, and humorous comments. They show her to be a loving and sympathetic mother-in-law and a proud and doting grandmother. They also reveal her disappointment and frustration as she contends with her reduced living conditions. As in all her letters, the ones in this volume are full of eccentric punctuation and have a style that resembles a stream of consciousness novel.

In addition to the letters to Constance, this volume contains a number of letters from a range of people, all of which demonstrate the esteem in which she was held and reinforce our understanding of her intellectual status.

Preface by Philip McFarland