Was that before or after Wilde's trial and imprisonment? We know that Mark Twain was a sexual libertarian, but we wonder whether he extended his tolerance to homoerotic union. Emerson and Thoreau, both sexually prudish, also defended Whitman against the preponderance of contemporary judgment. Unlike Whitman, Wilde was not necessarily connected to homosexuality, until the accusation by the marquess of Queensberry. Wilde stunned all by refusing to deny the charge. Instead, in a memorable oration recalling his brilliance as a classical scholar, he told the court that his sexuality is not its business; whether he is or is not, he pled, homosexuals deserve the same legal protection that other British subjects enjoy. Wilde's use of irony in defense of liberty, if not his classical allusions, recalls Twain's later work. Was one inspired by the other? > Oscar Wilde is mentioned by Clara Clemens in her book, > MY FATHER MARK TWAIN, page 113. As you say, that meeting occurred in 1892, three years before Queensberry. Wilde was quite controversial then, but for disdaining bourgeois morality, not necessarily for homosexuality. Twain shared Wilde's disdain, but their styles were quite different: the latter was an entertainer patronized by effete aristocrats; the other, by Yankee entrepreneurs. Vicki Richman Bedford, Brooklyn NY