Born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Irish writer Oscar Wilde is best known for the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and the play The Importance of Being Earnest, as well as for his infamous arrest and imprisonment for being gay.

In 1878 Oscar graduated from Magdalen College in Oxford. In 1881 Wilde published "Poems" his first collection of poetry. Oscar began a nine month (140 dates) lecture tour of America in 1882, where he met Walt Whitman,Henry Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Beginning in 1888, Wilde entered a seven-year period of furious creativity, during which he produced nearly all of his great literary works. Wilde published "The Happy Prince and Other Tales", a collection of children's stories. In 1891, he published his first and only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray."

Wilde's first play," Lady Windermere's Fan", opened in February 1892 to widespread popularity and critical acclaim. "A Woman of No Importance" (1893), "An Ideal Husband" (1895) and "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895), his most famous play soon followed.

Wilde began an affair with a young man named Lord Alfred Douglas,and served two years in prison for "gross indecency." Wilde emerged from prison in 1897, physically depleted, emotionally exhausted and flat broke.

Oscar died of meningitis on November 30, 1900 at the age of 46.

More Info: www.biography.com