Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854 – 1900) wrote in many different forms throughout the 1880s, when in the early 1890s he became one of the most popular playwrights in London. He wrote a collection of stories for children first published in May 1888. It contains five stories: "The Happy Prince," "The Nightingale and the Rose," "The Selfish Giant," "The Devoted Friend," and "The Remarkable Rocket."