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Meet Author Louis Bayard

Louis Bayard is the critically acclaimed bestselling author of nine historical novels, including Jackie & Me, Courting Mr. Lincoln, and The Pale Blue Eye, which was adapted into the global #1 Netflix release starring Christian Bale. His articles, reviews, and recaps have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Salon, and the Paris Review. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

For his latest novel, The Wildes, Louis Bayard brings Oscar Wilde’s wife Constance and two sons out from the shadows of history in a vivid and poignant story of secrets, loss, and love. Louis Bayard shares more about his decision to center Wilde’s family:

“He had a wife? He had children? That’s the most common reaction I get when I tell people the subject matter of my latest novel. No surprise there: Oscar Wilde has come down to us as the great gay martyr of the late Victorian era, imprisoned for espousing the love that dare not speak its name. But the narrative grows more complicated when you point out that, through all his tribulations, he remained a devoted family man, and it grows even more complicated when you note that the family in question doted on him, too.”