A book I read the other week gave an offhand mention of Jefferson Davis hosting Oscar Wilde during the latter’s American tour. It seemed to go as well as you’d expect, given what we know of both men:
So on June 24, 1882, Wilde arrived at Beauvoir… Evidently Oscar thoroughly charmed Varina and Winnie but Jefferson- not so much. (When asked the next day why he hadn’t been a better host to their guest the 74 year old said bluntly "I didn’t like him".) It is known that Varina drew a sketch of him and that he did some readings from his poems and lectures and went swimming with Winnie. He left autographed photos of himself for the family (destroyed by Katrina sadly) and in one of his next lectures praised Davis’s history of the Confederacy as "a literary and historical masterpiece", but later said of Davis himself "He is fascinating, as are all failures".