Some things are more precious because they don't last long.
—Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.