The catalyst for The Picture of Dorian Gray came on 30 August 1889 when J. M. Stoddart met up with Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rudyard Kipling in London at the Langham Hotel. Stoddart was an editor for Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, an American periodical based in Philadelphia. He invited the three authors to write for Lippincott’s and they all agreed to the opportunity.

Wilde took seven months to draft The Picture of Dorian Gray before Stoddart received it on 7 April 1890. It was finally published in July 1890 through Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine with Stoddart edits to tone down homoerotic material, which were made without Wilde’s knowledge or consent. The novella was simultaneously circulated in London thanks to Ward, Lock and Co.