Ross, Robert

Friend of Oscar Wilde, and reportedly his first homosexual lover. It has long been disputed whether Ross was a hero or a villain of the Wilde story.

When, in 1925, Harris was trying to win over Lord Alfred Douglas so he could publish his Wilde in England, he claimed that Ross was to blame for the passages to which Douglas objected. From other sources it would seem that Ross liked to embellish his recollections so as to make them more dramatic.