Happy Birthday, Oscar Wilde!

I learned that today is Oscar Wilde's 155th birthday from my favorite e-mail service: Today in Literature. It's also Eugene O'Neill's birthday, and the day that The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was published. Little tidbits like these arrive in my inbox daily by the time I wake up, giving me an opportunity to tell friends which literary figures share their birthdays.

I subscribed to the service well over a year ago, and have still managed to get it for free, but subscriptions run $25 a year. It seems well worth it to me, since you can learn plenty of invaluable information. Need to know what day Hart Crane hosted a party for Harry Crosby that was attended by E. E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams, Malcolm Cowley and Walker Evans? December 7. Or the day Theodore Roethke was hospitalized for a manic-depressive breakdown? November 12.

Subscribe here. And go read Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest here.