In 1889, J. M. Stoddart, an editor for Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, was in London to solicit novellas to publish in the magazine. On 30 August 1889, Stoddart dined with Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and T. P. Gill[4] at the Langham Hotel, and commissioned novellas from each writer.[5] Doyle promptly submitted The Sign of the Four, which was published in the February 1890 edition of Lippincott's. Stoddart received Wilde's manuscript for The Picture of Dorian Gray on 7 April 1890, seven months after having commissioned the novel from him.[5]
In July 1889, Wilde published "The Portrait of Mr. W. H.", a very different story but one that has a similar title to The Picture of Dorian Gray and has been described as "a preliminary sketch of some of its major themes", including homosexuality.[6][7]
