Wilde (Oscar).- Saltus (Edgar) The Philosophy of Disenchantment, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author "To Oscar Wilde Esqre. with the sincere regards of Edgar Everston Saltus. London 17 December /85." to front free endpaper, 16pp. advertisements at end, author's pencil corrections to margins of 3pp., bookplate of Stuart J. Eckerson to front pastedown, original cloth, slight toning to spine, slight bumping and fraying to spine tips and corners, t.e.g., preserved in custom morocco-backed drop-back box, [BAL 17129], 8vo, Boston, 1885.

⁂ A presentation copy to Oscar Wilde from one of the leading American figures in the Aesthetic Movement.

Wilde had first met Saltus during his 1882 lecture tour of America on "The English Renaissance". The present work was the author's contribution to the discussion of aestheticism, with a particular focus on the philosophical pessimism espoused by Schopenhauer. Saltus spent several years of the 1890s travelling through Europe and became friendly with Wilde during his sojourns in London. He published his memoir of their friendship, Oscar Wilde: An Idler’s Impression, in 1917 and contributed an introduction to an American edition of Wilde's plays.