Douglas, Alfred (Bruce), Lord Douglas (1870–1945)

English poet. He became closely associated in London with the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. Their relationship led to Wilde's conviction for homosexual activity, imprisonment, and early death, through the enmity of Douglas's father, the 8th Marquess of Queensberry. Douglas wrote the self-justificatory Oscar Wilde and Myself (1914) and the somewhat contradictory Oscar Wilde, A Summing-Up (1940).

In these works and in Without Apology (1938), he wrote with candour and generosity on the subject of his former friend. His serious verse is seen at its best in his sonnets, although he also wrote some of the best nonsense verse in the English language: Tales with a Twist and The Placid Pug are typical. His first book of poetry was The City of the Soul, published in 1899; 25 years later came his In Excelsis (1924), written in prison.