UCLA's William Andrews Clark Memorial Library has acquired a college notebook kept by the 19th-century wit, playwright and cult figure Oscar Wilde, as well as the original manuscript of his homosexual lover's autobiography.

The rare book library boasts the world's largest public collection of works by and about Wilde and has long served as a Mecca for Wilde scholars.

"We're really excited about the manuscripts, which will nicely complement our holdings," said Clark Head Librarian Bruce Whiteman.

The 280-page, handwritten notebook discusses philosophy and was kept between 1876 and 1878, when the English writer was an undergraduate at Oxford's Madgalen College.

"The notebook has been in a private collection for over half a century, so it has really never been seen by any living Wilde scholar," Whiteman said. "It is extensive and should be very interesting."

The autobiography of Lord Alfred Douglas, entitled "Without Apology," was published in 1938 and is no longer in print. A spate of legal and financial complications stemming from Wilde's homosexuality in general and his relationship with Douglas in particular ultimately bankrupted the writer, who died in Paris in 1900.

The Clark Library hopes to display the works at its annual fundraiser, An Afternoon of Acquisitions, which is scheduled this year for May 2.

The pieces, along with other Wilde treasures, will also go on display Oct. 22 and 23, when the Clark Library plans to mark the 150th anniversary of the author's birth with "Wilde at 150," a scholarly conference devoted to the author's legacy.

The library paid 8,000 pounds for Douglas' autobiography and 58,000 pounds for Wilde's notebook - or a total of about $132,000 (not including auction fees). The Ahmanson Foundation contributed $75,000 toward the acquisition. Private donations will cover the rest of the cost.

The manuscripts had belonged to the prominent Washington, D.C., book collector Halsted B. Vander Poel, who died in 2003. His collection of 16th- to 20th-century English literature sold last week at auction in London.

The late Los Angeles philanthropist William Andrew Clark Jr. was an early champion of Wilde, whose once-bright literary reputation had dwindled by his death. Clark built the library, located in Los Angeles' historic West Adams District, to house his personal collection of rare books. In 1926 he donated the richly ornamented facility and its contents to UCLA, which annually adds to the collection with donated funds.