Likely identity of Oscar Wilde’s American sweetheart ‘Hattie’ uncovered

Biographer pinpoints the woman who stole writer’s heart on his 1882 US book tour

It was on his famous 1882 lecture tour of the United States and Canada that Oscar Wilde briefly lost his heart to a woman called “Hattie”.

He wrote to her: “When I think of America I only remember someone whose lips are like the crimson petals of a summer rose, whose eyes are two brown agates, who has the fascination of a panther, the pluck of a tigress, and the grace of a bird. Darling Hattie, I now realise that I am absolutely in love with you, and for ever and ever…”

The circumstantial evidence linking the Crockers with Wilde’s tour and his stay in San Francisco is so strong

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