Oscar Wilde? Stuart Mason? Christopher Sclater Millard? Robert Ross? Elizabeth P. O’Connor? Arthur Ransome? Frank Harris? Sylvestre Dorian? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: According to legend, the famous wit Oscar Wilde delivered a comically audacious line when he first entered the United States during his lecture tour. A customs official in New York asked him if he had anything to declare, and he supposedly replied:
I have nothing to declare but my genius.
Would you please explore the provenance of this remark?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Oscar Wilde entered New York in January 1882. Yet, the earliest evidence of the quip known to QI appeared in 1910. The phrasing has varied over time. Often it has been presented from a third person perspective. Here is a summary with dates:
1910: I have nothing to declare except my genius
1912: He had nothing to declare except his genius
1912: He had nothing to declare but his genius
1913: I have nothing to declare but my genius
1917: He had nothing to declare save his genius
1917: He had nothing to declare but genius
1918: Nothing—except—my genius
1923: Only my genius
1925: Nothing but my genius
1934: I have nothing but my genius to declare
The remark appeared within “The Oscar Wilde Calendar” of 1910 compiled by Stuart Mason, a pseudonym for Christopher Sclater Millard. For each day of the year a quotation ascribed to Wilde was presented, and the following appeared for January 4th. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
At the New York Custom House: “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
Millard mentioned Robert Ross in the acknowledgement section of the calendar. Ross was a close friend and literary executor of Wilde. He may have supplied the quotation to Millard:2
Many quotations are made from works little known to the general reader. Some are taken from unpublished manuscripts, others are traditional. For many of the latter the compiler is indebted to the courtesy of Mr Robert Ross.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1880 the London humor magazine “Punch” published a poem about a traveler titled “The Briton’s Return” which contained similar wordplay:3
But I’m back now at last, and my troubles are past,
Though my baggage was cruelly undone;
It was very unfair, for I’d nought “to declare”
But my pleasure at landing in London!
In 1883 the New York humor magazine “Life” published a fictitious Wilde quotation which mentioned his genius:4
“I have cut my hair and I have written a play, and still I fail to please. But genius cannot be crushed. I shall go in training for a slugging match and open a bar.”—Oscar Wilde.
In 1890 Wilde published “The True Function and Value of Criticism” in the London literary journal “The Nineteenth Century”. Wilde employed a dialogue format with participants Gilbert and Ernest. Wilde suggested that the public treated geniuses harshly:5
Ernest. … the English public always feels perfectly at its ease when a mediocrity is talking to it.
Gilbert. Yes: the public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.
In 1910 the quotation appeared in “The Oscar Wilde Calendar” compiled by Christopher Sclater Millard as mentioned previously:
At the New York Custom House: “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
In 1912 Arthur Ransome published “Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study”. Ransom stated that Wilde’s literary executor Robert Ross “helped me in every possible way”. The book contained the following anecdote:6
That is how it came about that on December 24, 1881, Wilde sailed for New York, to say that he was disappointed in the Atlantic, to tell the Customs Officials that he had nothing to declare except his genius, and to lecture throughout America on “The English Renaissance of Art,” “House Decoration,” and “Art and the Handicraftsman.”
Also, in 1912 “A Book of Famous Wits” by Walter Jerrold included a chapter about Wilde with the following tale:7
When he arrived at New York on his lecturing visit to the United States, Wilde on being asked at the Custom House if he had anything to declare answered: “I have nothing to declare, except my genius.”
In May 1912 “The Sun” newspaper of New York discussed Ransome’s book and repeated the quip in the third person with a slightly altered form; the word “but” replaced “except”:8
On his arrival in New York he announced his disappointment with the Atlantic ocean which moved the St. James Gazette to observe that “a great calamity had befallen a considerable body of water.”
Having delivered himself of this sentiment and informed the custom house officers that he had nothing to declare but his genius, he disappeared from the ken of the reporters for twenty four hours or so.
In 1913 “European Dramatists” by Archibald Henderson printed an instance of the tale in first person using the word “but”:9
In America he was greeted with amused incredulity, treated as a diverting sort of literary curiosity, ridiculed, satirized, caricatured. His intellectual arrogance gave tone to his remark at the New York Customs House: “I have nothing to declare but my genius.”
In 1915 Irish-American journalist and raconteur Frank Harris published “Contemporary Portraits” which included a chapter about Wilde:10
On landing he boldly challenged Fortune again by telling the custom officials that he had nothing to declare but his genius.
In 1916 Frank Harris published a biography “Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions”. He switched the quip from third person to first person, and he changed “but” to “except”. Harris also suggested that the remark produced contemporaneous discussion, but it was absent from newspapers of the period:11
His phrase to the Revenue officers on landing: “I have nothing to declare except my genius,” turned the limelight full upon him and excited comment and discussion all over the country.
In 1917 “The World’s Best Literature” included a chapter about Wilde by John Manning Booker who presented an instance with the word “save”:12
He opened his tour by stating to the customs-officer that he had nothing to declare save his genius.
In 1917 U.S. writer Edgar Saltus published “Oscar Wilde: An Idler’s Impression”. He printed an instance without “my” or “his”:13
It was at Delmonico’s, shortly after he told our local Customs that he had nothing to declare but genius, that I first met him. He was dressed like a mountebank.
In 1918 Elizabeth P. O’Connor published “Herself—Ireland”, and she included a compact instance:14
Which is as neat as Oscar Wilde’s answer to the Customs House officer in New York, who asked importantly, “What have you to declare, Mr. Wilde?” “Nothing—except—my genius,” he answered.
In 1923 the “Boston Sunday Globe Magazine” of Massachusetts printed a short instance:15
When Oscar Wilde came to the United States to lecture, in 1881, the customs officer asked him if he had anything taxable. “Only my genius” was his answer.
In 1924 a young French author named Sylvestre Dorian convinced “The Detroit Free Press” of Michigan that she had obtained the rights to translate and publish letters sent from Oscar Wilde to French thespian Sarah Bernhardt. Wilde died in 1900. One letter discussed Wilde’s experiences entering New York:16
“When I arrived in New York I was fairly smothered by reporters. It appears that some of the imaginative ones who are ever at work to make me famous had spread the story that I slept in gorgeous lace nightgowns. I detected, therefore, unusual curiosity in the faces of customs officers when they bade me open my trunks for examination. Finding nothing one of them asked: ‘Have you anything to declare?’ ‘Nothing,’ was my disillusioning reply. ‘Nothing, except my genius.’ Naturally the papers all made capital out of that declaration.”
The content of this purported letter was suspicious. Contemporaneous newspapers did not report Wilde’s remark, so the final claim was odd. In addition, publisher Rupert Hart-Davis who assembled and published “The Letters of Oscar Wilde” considered the missives published by Dorian to be inauthentic:17
One further pamphlet must be mentioned: Oscar Wilde’s Letters to Sarah Bernhardt (1924), edited by Sylvestre Dorian and published by the Haldeman-Julius Company of Girard, Kansas, as Little Blue Book No. 64. Embedded in its sixty-four pages of rambling gossip and quotation are what purport to be eight letters from Wilde to Sarah Bernhardt, translated from their original French.
Prolonged study has convinced me that, though some of them may have been partially based on genuine originals, they are too spurious for inclusion here. One of them, for instance, includes a long verbatim passage from one of Wilde’s much later essays.
In 1925 “The Beekeepers Item” of San Antonio, Texas printed this version of the quip:18
When in the custom house in New York he was asked what he had to declare, and replied “Nothing but my genius.”
In 1934 the syndicated columnist George Tucker printed an instance with reordered words:19
No one has ever equalled Oscar Wilde’s opener. When customs officials approached him, he remarked: “I have nothing but my genius to declare.”
In 2022 researcher John Cooper published a piece titled “Something To Declare” on his website “Oscar Wilde in America”. Cooper discussed his discovery of the earliest evidence of the quip within the 1910 book “The Oscar Wilde Calendar”. QI learned about this citation from Cooper’s article. Cooper suggested that Robert Ross may have provided the quotation to Christopher Sclater Millard and Arthur Ransome.20
In conclusion, the evidence that Oscar Wilde delivered this line to a customs official in 1882 is quite weak. The earliest citation in 1910 appeared almost two decades after the supposed incident and one decade after Wilde’s death. Yet, it seems that Robert Ross linked the quip to Wilde and relayed it to Christopher Sclater Millard. Perhaps Wilde mentioned it to his friend Ross as a witticism he hoped to employ someday.
Image Notes: Illustration from the beginning of “The Oscar Wilde Calendar” (1910) described as a pencil drawing of Osar Wilde by Albert C. Sterner. Image has been resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Fred R. Shapiro whose inquiry back in 2011 led QI to initiate research on this topic. Many thanks to John Cooper who recently identified the 1910 citation. This lead QI to formulate this question and complete this article. Also, thanks to Bonnie Taylor-Blake for accessing the 1910 citation. In addition, thanks to mailing list discussants Jonathan Lighter and Mark Mandel.
Update History: On November 22, 2024 the format of the bibliographical notes was updated.
- 1910, The Oscar Wilde Calendar: A Quotation from the Works of Oscar Wilde for Every Day in the Year with Some Unrecorded Sayings Selected by Stuart Mason (Christopher Sclater Millard), Quotation for January Four, Quote Page 7, Frank Palmer, London. (HathiTrust Full View) link ↩︎
- 1910, The Oscar Wilde Calendar: A Quotation from the Works of Oscar Wilde for Every Day in the Year with Some Unrecorded Sayings Selected by Stuart Mason, Section: Acknowledgement, Quote Page 91, Frank Palmer, London. (HathiTrust Full View) link ↩︎
- 1880 September 25, Punch Or The London Charivari, The Briton’s Return, Quote Page 144, Column 1, Published at the Office, Fleet Steet, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1883 August 30, Life, Volume 2, Number 35, (Filler item), Quote Page 98, Column 2, Published at the Life Office, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1890 July, The Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review, Volume 28, Number 161, The True Function and Value of Criticism; With Some Remarks on the Importance of Doing Nothing, (A dialogue between Gilbert and Ernest) by Oscar Wilde, Start Page 123, Quote Page 123, Kegan Paul, Trench, & Company, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1912, Oscar Wilde: A Critical Study by Arthur Ransome, Chapter 4: Aestheticism, Quote Page 64, Mitchell Kennerley, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1912, A Book of Famous Wits by Walter Jerrold, Chapter 20: Some Recent Wits 2 Oscar Wilde and Others, Quote Page 319, McBride, Nast & Company, New York. (Internet Archive at archive.org) link ↩︎
- 1912 May 5, The Sun, Oscar Wilde, Section 2, Quote Page 4, Column 3, New York, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1913, European Dramatists by Archibald Henderson, Chapter: Oscar Wilde, Quote Page 272, Stewart & Kidd Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1915, Contemporary Portraits by Frank Harris, Quote Page 107, Mitchell Kennerley, New York. (Google Books full view) link ↩︎
- 1916, Oscar Wilde: His Life and Confessions by Frank Harris, Volume 1 of 2, Chapter 5, Quote Page 74 and 75, Printed and Published by The Author, New York City. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1917, The World’s Best Literature, Editors John W. Cunliffe and Ashley H. Thorndike (Professors of English in Columbia University), Series: The Warner Library, Volume 26, Chapter: Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) by John Manning Booker, Start Page 15968a, Quote Page 15968b, Printed at the Knickerbocker Press for The Warner Library Company, New York. (HathiTrust Full View) link ↩︎
- 1917, Oscar Wilde: An Idler’s Impression by Edgar Saltus, Quote Page 14, Brothers of the Book, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1918, Herself—Ireland by Elizabeth P. O’Connor, Chapter 7: Irish Wit, Quote Page 135, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1923 November 18, Boston Sunday Globe Magazine, Weird Antics: Geniuses Were Their Own Press Agents, Quote Page SM22, Column 1, Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest) ↩︎
- 1924 January 6, The Detroit Free Press, Section: Magazine, Oscar Wilde Letters to Sarah Bernhardt, Note: Translated by Sylvestre Dorian, Start Page 3, Quote Page 4, Column 1, Detroit, Michigan. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1962, The Letters of Oscar Wilde, Edited by Rupert Hart-Davis, Section: Introduction, Quote Page x, Published by Rupert Hart-Davis, London. (Verified on paper) ↩︎
- 1925 July, The Beekeepers Item, Volume 9, Number 7, Louisiana State Association, Conducted by Jes Dalton, President, Louis H. Scholl, Editor and Publisher, San Antonio, Texas. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1934 February 26, Greenwood Commonwealth, About New York by George Tucker, Quote Page 4, Column 3, Greenwood, Mississippi. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- Website: Oscar Wilde in America, Article title: Something To Declare, Article author: John Cooper, Date on website: January 16, 2022, Website description: Blog about Oscar Wilde by researcher John Cooper. (Accessed oscarwildeinamerica.blog on Jan 18, 2022) link ↩︎