Oscar Wilde Bookshop arose from his daily readings of Christian Science literature which stressed "the dignity of all things human and the importance of making things true by believing in them." Using the Christian Science example of community outreach and stressing the availability of literature that contained positive images of gays and lesbians, Rodwell modeled the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop after a Christian Science reading room. Oscar Wilde Bookshop The Oscar Wilde Bookshop was the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors. It was founded by Craig Rodwell on November 24, 1967 as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Initially located at 291
Oscar Wilde best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write drama. He wrote "Salome" (1891) in French while in Paris but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Unperturbed,