The idea of Oscar Wilde meeting Walt Whitman face-to-face began as a publicity stunt for Wilde’s 1882 U.S. lecture tour. (The two were to ride together in an open carriage through the streets of Philadelphia. It was January and Whitman declined.) In fact, Wilde’s mother had read Leaves of Grass (in an unexpurgated version) to him when he was 11, and he had admired Whitman ever since, and he eventually went to visit his old hero at home. “No reporters were invited to witness the meeting between Whitman and Wilde. This was a strange choice for two dandyish men who loved self-promotion, but it was a canny one: they would each give separate interviews afterwards, and double the attention they received.”