David Hilliard diploma and skills had a hard time finding jobs. He worked many odd jobs including: cleaning up after skilled laborers, a tile chipper, working at canneries, and a car salesman. David and Patricia Hilliard had three children: Patrice, Darryl, and Dorian. They named their daughter after Patrice Munsel, one of David's favorite singers. Dorian was named after Dorian Grey, the main character in Oscar Wilde's famous novel "the Picture of Dorian Grey." During their early married life David faced alcohol addiction and a lack of anger management. During his involvement with the Black Panthers David Hilliard met Brenda Presley and
The Picture of Dorian Gray he told the publisher, George Lippincott, "in its present condition there are a number of things an innocent woman would make an exception to. ..." Among the pre-publication deletions that Stoddart and his editors made to the text of Wilde's original manuscript were: (i) passages alluding to homosexuality and to homosexual desire; (ii) all references to the fictional book title "Le Secret de Raoul" and its author, Catulle Sarrazin; and (iii) all "mistress" references to Gray's lovers, Sibyl Vane and Hetty Merton. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was published on 20 June 1890, in the July issue of "Lippincott's Monthly