Ransome, Writers and Romanies

Arthur Ransome Brotherton Collection T59 Reproduced with the permission of Special Collections, Leeds University

Ransome, dressed here for his Russian travels was particularly sympathetic to gypsies, and regarded Oscar Wilde as a gypsy academic.

He recognised a song-like quality in Wilde’s poetry and noted its proximity to folk song.

Unwittingly, in his Oscar Wilde, A Critical Study, he led in this century to a challenge by this site owner to encouraging a revision of popular conceptions regarding Wilde and his relationship to music.