CALL OF THE WILDE

An H. H. Lomax Western, Book 8

by

PRESTON LEWIS

Historical Fiction / Comic Western / Humor

Publisher: Wolfpack Publishing

Date of Publication: March 17, 2023

Number of Pages: 352 pages

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Wild West hijinks continue in the eighth installment of the hysterical and historical adventures of an unlikely hero.

H.H. Lomax once again finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when, wrongfully accused of robbing a bank, he’s arrested and jailed in a town vying for a stop on the approaching Texas & Pacific Railroad.

When local officials can’t afford to pay for a trial, a harebrained scheme is concocted to get rid of Lomax without spending a red cent. But Lomax avoids the hairy situation, pulling off an escape with the aid of an unlikely accomplice and exacting a bit of revenge in the process.

His wandering spirit—and neck—intact, Lomax lands among the Mormons in Salt Lake City, where he encounters a long-lost relative in need of assistance and makes the acquaintance of none other than Irish poet and aesthete Oscar Wilde. And from there, it’s all downhill, folks!

Jumping from one bad situation to another in non-stop hilarious action, H.H. Lomax’s adventures will tickle your funny bone with genuine humor while satisfying your craving for western action adventure.

Amazon │ Wolfpack Publishing

Oscar Wilde and the Wild West

Guest Post by Preston Lewis

Today’s culture of fame and celebrity had nothing on Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, who in 1882 toured North America lecturing on topics so obscure that it is a wonder he ever attracted an audience, especially out West.  Nonetheless, he did draw in spectators and the curious because Wilde may have been the country’s first celebrity famous for merely being famous.

Arriving in New York on the third day of 1882, Wilde spent 51 weeks touring the United States and Canada.  Seven weeks of his tour he traveled west of the Mississippi going all the way to San Francisco, lecturing pioneers on such dry topics as “The Decorative Arts” and “The House Beautiful,” subjects of little practical use out west.

Though he would later be acclaimed as a playwright and novelist, when the 27-year-old Irishman pretending to be an Englishman arrived in America he had but a thin book of poetry to his writing credits.  His greatest claim to fame, however, was that Wilde had been parodied by Gilbert and Sullivan as Bunthorne in their comic opera Patience, which skewered aestheticism, a philosophy best summarized as “art for art’s sake.”

Because of his flamboyance, Wilde stood as the most visible proponent of aestheticism with his long hair and his ostentatious dress drawing attention wherever he went.  His outlandish observations and his haughty demeanor amused Americans, whether they agreed with him or not.  Wilde’s singular and unmatched talent at this stage of his career was rabid self-promotion.  He excelled at it, often erasing the line between fame and notoriety, as he toured the country.

At six-foot-three Wilde featured an elongated colorless face accented by a prominent nose over coarse lips that hid greenish-hued teeth, discolored from too many cigarettes. His thick eyebrows shaded attentive eyes, and a long mop of tawny brown hair brushed against his shoulders. One journalist noted that “he looked better in the dark.”

Even so, people paid as much as a dollar and a half to hear him talk, though they often didn’t understand his philosophical meanderings and sometimes wrote off the expense as the cost of attending a freak show.  Too, there was the cultural and educational differences between Wilde and his audiences, especially out west as best illustrated by his visit to Leadville, Colorado, which the poet called the world’s richest city at the time.  Wilde later claimed “I was told that if I went there, they would be sure to shoot me or my traveling manager.  I wrote and told them that nothing they could do to my manager would intimidate me.”

During his Leadville lecture in the fancy Tabor Opera House packed with curiosity seekers, Wilde read from the autobiography of famed Renaissance artisan and silversmith Benvenuto Cellini.  When a bored spectator shouted why Cellini wasn’t present to read for himself, Wilde responded, “He’s dead.”  Responded the inquisitor, “Who shot him?” A reporter covering the Leadville talk noted the next day that “the most notable feature of Mr. Wilde’s lecture was the rather boisterous good humor of the audience.”

In spite of such lukewarm reviews, Wilde was seared in the minds of Americans.  When Wilde arrived in New York, frontiersman and dime novel hero Buffalo Bill Cody was likely the nation’s best-known celebrity.  By the time Wilde returned to Great Britain, he had traveled some 15,000 North American miles through 30 of the 38 United States, leaving behind over 500 major newspaper features and surpassing Buffalo Bill’s celebrity status at least until the next year when Cody started his Wild West show.

Odd though he may have been to westerners especially, by the time he left the U.S. Wilde had profited the equivalent of almost $200,000 in today’s money.  Those interested in learning more about Oscar Wilde’s 1882 trip across America should read Wilde in America: Oscar Wilde and the Invention of Modern Celebrity by David M. Friedman; Oscar Wilde Discovers America in 1882 by Lloyd Lewis and Henry Justin Smith; and Oscar Wilde by Richard Ellmann.

Preston Lewis is the award-winning author of 46 novels and nonfiction works on the West.  He is a past president of Western Writers of America.

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TWO WINNERS:

First Prize:

Signed copies of Call of the Wilde & Outlaw West of the Pecos

Second Prize:

Signed copy of Call of the Wilde

(US only; ends midnight, CDT, 5/12/23)

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