Robert Baldwin Ross
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- For other uses of this name, see Robert Baldwin (disambiguation).
Robert Baldwin Ross (May 25, 1869 – October 5, 1918) was a journalist and art critic. He is best known, however, as the executor of Oscar Wilde's estate. He was also responsible for bringing together several great literary figures and acting as their mentor.
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[edit] Biography
Ross was born in Tours, France but came to Britain at an early age. His father originally came from Ulster and his mother from Canada. His father had been the attorney-general of Upper Canada and his grandfather was the Canadian Prime Minister Robert Baldwin. While working as a journalist and critic, he is alleged to have been Oscar Wilde's first male lover, and remained loyal to Wilde through thick and thin, eventually becoming his literary executor. This was not an easy task. It meant tracking down and purchasing the rights to all of Wilde's texts, which had been sold off along with all of Wilde's possessions when he was declared bankrupt. It also meant fighting the rampant trade, following Wilde's arrest, in black market copies of his books and, in particular, books, usually erotic, that Wilde did not write but which were published illegally under his name. The rights to all of Oscar's works along with the money earned from their printing/performance while he was executor was given by Ross to Wilde's sons.
Ross was also responsible for commissioning Jacob Epstein to produce the tomb for Wilde. He even requested that Epstein design a small compartment into the tomb for Ross’s own ashes.
In 1908, some years after Wilde's death, Ross produced the definitive edition of his works. Following Wilde's disgrace and imprisonment, Ross went abroad for safety's sake, but returned to offer support, both financial and emotional, to Wilde during his last years. Ross himself did not escape scandal. A few years before Wilde's imprisonment, Ross was involved in a scandal over his sexual relationship with a boy of fourteen, the son of friends, and his best-friend, aged fifteen. Both boys confessed to their parents that Ross had made love to them, and the fourteen year old boy also admitted that Lord Alfred Douglas had also made love to him while he was a guest at Ross's house. After a good deal of panic and frantic meeting held with solicitors, Douglas and Ross convinced the parents not to go to the police.
As a young man, Ross moved to England to go to university. He was accepted at Cambridge but was the victim of bullying, probably due to his sexuality (of which he made no secret), and his, perhaps, outspoken journalism in the university paper. Ross caught pneumonia after a dunking in a fountain by a number of students with, according to Ross, the full support of a don. After recovering he fought for an apology from his fellow students, which he received, but more fiercely, for the dismissal of the don who, he argued, had known about and supported the bullying. The university refused to punish the man and Ross dropped out of university.
Following this Ross tried his hand at a number of careers, as writer, art critic, and literary executor. He was able to rely on an allowance and inheritance from his wealthy family to support himself. His literary output is small, with only one book worth a mention; Masques and Phases is a collection of previously published works by Ross, short stories and reviews. Ross's main contribution to literature lies in his work as Wilde's executor, and as Wilde's friend in reading Wilde's texts, making suggestions, and, if Ross is to be believed, frequently suggesting changes and improvements. As an art critic, Ross was highly critical of the post-impressionist painters. He worked unpaid for many years for a small art gallery run by friends, for whom he travelled purchasing works. At one time he hoped to be selected for a royal position but was rejected probably due to his connection to Wilde.
Ross is also of interest in his decision to 'come out' to his family, whom he gathered to hear the announcement not long after he left university.
As a result of his faithfulness to Wilde even in death, Ross was vindictively pursued by Lord Alfred Douglas, who repeatedly attempted to drag him into court, and attempted to have him arrested as a homosexual. During the First World War, he drew around him a coterie of young artists, mostly homosexuals, including Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. He was also a close friend of Wilde's son Vyvyan Holland, and a friend of his other son Cyril until his death in the First World War. In early 1918, during the German Spring Offensive, Noel Pemberton Billing, a right-wing M.P., published an article entitled The Cult of the Clitoris, in which he accused members of Ross's circle of being at the centre of 47,000 homosexual traitors who were betraying the nation to the Germans. Maud Allan an actress who had played Wilde's Salome in a performance organised by Ross, was named as a member of the "cult". She sued Billing for libel, causing a national sensation. The incident brought much embarrassing attention to Ross and his associates.
Later in the same year, Ross was preparing to travel to Melbourne, Australia to open an exhibition at the National Gallery when he died suddenly, an event which caused great grief to his many friends. In 1950, on the 50th anniversary of Wilde's death, Ross's ashes were added to Wilde's tomb in the Le Père Lachaise Cemetery.
[edit] Cultural references
There have been three major biographies of Ross's life. These include Jonathan Fryer's Robbie Ross (2000) and Maureen Borland's Wilde's Devoted Friend (1990). Neil McKenna's recent The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde (2003) looked in detail at Ross's sexuality.
Robert Ross, the protagonist of Timothy Findley's 1977 novel The Wars, is named after Robert Baldwin Ross.
Ross was portrayed by Emrys Jones in the 1960 film, The Trials of Oscar Wilde and by Michael Sheen in the 1997 film, Wilde.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Maureen Borland, Wilde's Devoted Friend: A Life of Robert Ross 1869 - 1918, Oxford: Lennard, 1990.
- Brian Busby, Character Parts: Who's Really Who in Canlit, Toronto: Knopf, 2003. p. 221-222. ISBN 0-676-97579-8
- Jonathan Fryer, Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's True Love, London: Constable & Robinson, 2000. ISBN 0-09-479770-6 (U.S. Title: Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's Devoted Friend)
