The First Counterculture Celebrity: Oscar Wilde's 1882 N. American Tour: Oscar Wilde's 1882 North American Tour - Softcover

In January 1882, a twenty seven year-old newly-published poet named Oscar Wilde embarked on a lecture tour of the United States and Canada. Wilde was lecturing about the English art movement Aestheticism in conjunction with the comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan called Patience or Bunthorne’s Bride, which mocked the movement. Stretching from the East to West Coast, this was one of the very first press tours of its kind; made possible by new, faster train transportation and more press coverage. With his cunning, witty interaction with the press and his fantastical, gender-role-defying clothing, Wilde embodied a new cultural phenomenon; the counterculture artist celebrity. By detailing how Wilde defied Victorian gender roles while spreading the counterculture ideals of Aestheticism, this book illustrates the lasting cultural impact of Wilde’s 1882 tour.

Joy Shannon is best-known as the recording, performing and visual artist front-woman of the Southern California-based band "Joy Shannon and the Beauty Marks" and the UK-based "Joy Shannon and the Offering." Joy is a true mixed-media artist and performer who has explored her creative ideas in writing, theatre and the visual arts, delving into printmaking, theatrical design, music composition for theatre, acting and filmmaking. One of Joy's major sources of inspiration for her music and art has been studying cultural history and, through those expressive mediums, finding places in which she can emotionally relate to the people of the past with her own life experience. After studying visual art and theatre for her undergraduate degree, Joy Shannon, a gifted musical recording and performance artist, pursued a masters in American Studies at California State University Fullerton in order to study in greater detail what she creates her art and music about. Joy has explored her creative ideas in writing, theatre and the visual arts, delving into printmaking, theatrical design, music composition for theatre, acting, and filmmaking.