The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder

  I took refuge in Chekhov’s statement: it is not the business of writers [of fiction, like himself] to answer the great questions [let the theologians and philosophers do that if they feel they must] but to state the questions correctly.”

  Which brings us back to Gertrude Stein’s dying words: “What is the answer? … What is the Question?” [Namely, what is Man on earth for?]

  At present I am convalescent from a serious operation221 and cannot write you the long commentary that your paper deserves.

  But I can express my appreciation of your admirable meditation. and my thanks and my regard

  Sincerely yours

  Thornton Wilder

  Please convey my devoted regard to our dear friend Helen Hosmer.222 P.S. It may interest you to know—since you mention Franz Werfel that his widow (and Gustav Mahler’s) Alma Mahler-Werfel asked my permission to entitle her (second) book of memoirs: “Du Brücke is die Liebe”!!223

  334. TO MALCOLM COWLEY. ALS 2 pp. Newberry

  50 Deepwood Drive, Hamden, Conn 06517

  Nov. 18. 1975

  Dear Malcolm:

  I shall always be grateful to you.224

  It appears that you have sounded the note and indicated the direction to others.

  Reviewers of good will write me in sheer bewilderment at that book: apparently Goldstone conveys that all my papers etc were thrown open to him. I am also getting letters from friends and strangers, mostly mentioning your review—from, for example, William G. Rogers (G. Stein’s The Kiddie)225

  I still haven’t read the book but am told that the charge of anti-semitism is laid at my father’s door—(in the first draft it was charged to me, but Mrs Carol Brandt begged him to alter that]

  This is how that arose: my first publishers A. and C. Boni contracted the “Lawrenceville schoolmaster” to four novels on the strength of The Cabala. I submitted The Bridge as contracted. The Bonis wrote that they wished it were more like The Cabala; that it was obviously intended for a small fastidious circle of readers but they graciously consented to publish it; I then submitted The Woman of Andros,—they deplored that it wasn’t more like The Bridge, but they published it (at the depth of the Depression); I then submitted Heaven’s My Destination and was told that I was out of touch with the American scene, especially the depressed areas, and assured me that “humor” was not my province and they waived their option on it—I took it to Harpers and stayed with them ever since. Forty years later Goldstone interviews Charles Boni—old and embittered—in New York and was told that I had abandoned the Boni firm because I was anti-Semitic. The truth was that I was faithful to them (though they were displeased with my work) until they refused my fourth book. Anti-Semitic? Oh, Gertrude! Oh, Freud! Oh, mothers of Picasso and Montaigne!

  Montaigne is grand reading for us old men. He lived through woeful times and retained that equilibrium. His mainstay was neither religion nor the (later) reliance on reason and the Enlightenment’s belief in progress, but on the wisdom of antiquity—especially Plutarch!

  I’m guardedly convalescing and cheerful

  and much indebted to you

  Ever

  Thornton

  335. TO CAROL BRANDT. ALS 3 pp. Yale

  50 Deepwood Drive

  Hamden Conn 06517

  Nov. 18. 1975

  Dear Carol:

  Many thanks for the splendid terms for Theophilus North among the German bookclubs. I’m delighted by the goodwill of my German readers; I wish that my love for things French found the same reciprocation. (We know that dear Madame Lemy> does her best.226)

  I’ve begun getting letters of indignation and consolation about my biographer’s book. I will not read it; and Isabel returned to the publisher the copy “sent by the author” (but not inscribed to me within!)

  I wish dear Isabel wouldn’t get so energized by these annoyances. I try to rise to the level of resentment but (as with Dr. Johnson’s friend) “cheerfulness is always breaking in.” Judging by my correspondence Goldstone is probably receiving letters of outrage, too

  I’m convalescing very well. Am waiting for permission from my doctor (appointment the 21st) to go to New York and take Isabel to see two movies which I can believe are very beautiful: S. Ray’s Distant Thunder and Igmar Bergman’s Magic Flute. If I go I shall accept a friend’s offer of a guest card to the Harvard Club where I shall be presumably cut dead (though I do have a Harvard degree.) I’m not very strong or confident on my legs yet, so I shall not venture out much—except to those movies—but I’ve been house-bound and hospital-cocooned so long that I can get a grand feeling of adventurous freedom from just strolling from 44th St to the New York Public Library. Herzliche Grüsse an den lieben Pavvy und an seine reizende Frau227

  love

  Thornton

  336. TO EILEEN AND ROLAND LE GRAND. ALS 2 pp. (Stationery embossed Harvard Club / 27 West 44th Street) Private

  Dec 3. 1975

  Dear Eileen—and Roland in Bhutan—

  Lovely to get your letter with all the news.—the house near Dartmoor the Quantock Hills—all that poetry of the west country too bad it’s so far from Sussex.

  All my commiseration to you on your operation. So many of our letters these days are exchanging news of illness. I too had a serious operation in a Boston hospital this summer but am convalescing well … though with depleted vitality. You’ll be surprised to see the above address.. The rivalry of Yale and Harvard is of long standing—but I wanted to get a change to hide away for 14 days in New York. So a friend gave me a guest-card to this club—12 doors from the Algonquin—Isabel joined me for three days at Thanksgiving Time. Oh, Roland, I hope your work is deeply interesting and rewarding … I have no clue of Bhutan228 … but I saw S. Ray’s film laid in Darjeeling (“Anapara”>?) in the now fading splendour of the old hill resort hotels. (And Isabel and I just saw Ray’s latest picture Distant Drum laid in the Punjab—very beautiful but sad.)229 Eileen says you are in a valley of the High Himalayas and not coping with severe cold.

  We were not happy in our 3 successive attempts to go South and escape the cold in Connecticut—Mexico (beautiful but no chance of meeting anybody but elderly Americans). Puerto Rice (as in most of the Caribbean, one is aware of the sullen resentment of the emerging self-determination.). Southern Florida (more elderly Americans.) Maybe at the end of the winter we shall try Martinique—still a départment of France.

  So far our Fall has been surprisingly sunny and temperate. Isabel is well—that is bravely coping with her handicaps,—respiratory mostly. In New Haven we see our nephew and niece and our nephew’s children.230

  I am now old, really old, and these recent set-backs have taken a lot of energy out of me. I think I’m pulling myself together for another piece of work.

  Thank you for your beautiful long letter. I hope you’ve found some congenial friends in the neighborhood; I’m getting more and more unsociable but I notice that most people (including Isabel) are kept lively by a diversity of friends. Give our love to the “Young ’Uns” and a world of affectionate greetings to you both

  Thornton

  INDEX

  The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader

  Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations

  A

  Abarbanell, Lina, 190

  Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell, Molly Make-Believe, 19

  Abbott, George, 532n97

  Abbott, Gwynne, 164

  Abbott, Mather A., 164n57, 210, 214, 217

  TNW letter to, 175–76

  Action in the North Atlantic (film), 407n84

  Actors Equity, 451

  Actors Studio, 627n90, 627n91, 640

  Adams, H. Austin, ’Ception Shoals, 91n155

  Adams, Maude, 155, 178, 520

  Ade, George, 82

  Adrian, Gilbert, 267

  Akins (Rumbold), Zoë:

&n
bsp; The Furies, 382

  TNW letter to, 382

  Alba, Jacobo Stuart-Fitz-James y Falcó,

  Duke of, 487

  Albanese, Meggie, 609

  Albee, Edward:

  The American Dream, 638

  The Sand Box, 638

  Tiny Alice, 670

  TNW letters to, 516–17, 554–55

  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 618

  The Zoo Story, 554–55

  Albers, Josef, TNW letter to, 277–78

  Albinoni, Tomaso Giovanni, 671

  Alcestiad, The, or A Life in the Sun (Wilder):

  casting of, 434, 527n88

  and The Drunken Sisters, 482, 546n125

  and Edinburgh Festival, 527–28, 531

  European performances of, 482, 546, 548, 582, 593n17, 598, 624n83

  evolution of, 327n198, 364–65, 406–7, 440, 453, 481, 483

  libretto for, 581

  readings of, 532n98, 532n99

  and Rudolf Bing, 563, 565–68

  Talma’s score for, 483, 536n105, 550–53, 562–63, 565–68, 580n184, 598, 622

  TNW’s thoughts on, 435, 626–27

  Alcibiades, 17

  Aldrich, Richard, 343–44

  Alexander, Sir George, 520

  Allen, Arthur, 334n208

  Allen, John, 106

  Ameche, Don, 403

  American Academy, Rome, TNW in School of Classical Studies in, 125–26, 133–36, 141–42

  American Academy of Arts and Letters, 480, 560

  American Anti-Slavery Society, 2

  American Arts and Crafts Movement, 108n179

  American Field Service (AFS), 80n140

  American Laboratory Theatre, New York, 129, 179, 197n119, 201n129, 206, 241

  American Mercury, The, 207

  American National Theatre and Academy’s Salute to France, 532n97

  American University Union, Paris, 147

  American Youth Orchestra, 389

  Ames, Harry, 623, 624

  Ames, Rosemary, 218

  TNW letter to, 178–79

  Anderson, Ava Bodley, Lady, 450

  TNW letter to, 486–88

  Anderson, Clark, 223n175

  Anderson, Sir John, 450n152

  Anderson, Judith, 491, 619n76

  Anderson, Maxwell, 278n99

  Saturday’s Children, 590n9

  TNW letters to, 461–62, 543–44

  Anderson, Peggy and Roy, TNW letter to, 688–89

  Andrews, Helen, 253

  Andrews, O. B., Jr., 207

  Anglin, Margaret, 301, 520

  Anouilh, Jean, 548

  Becket, 577n176

  Anthony, C. L., Autumn Crocus, 255n45

  Appollinaire, Guillaume, 464

  Ardrey, Robert, 396n64

  Aristophanes, 301

  Arizona:

  TNW’s letters from, 604–27

  TNW’s time in, 666–67

  Army Air Force, U.S., TNW’s service in, 357, 358, 359, 396, 397, 400–402, 403–7, 411, 418–36

  Arnold, Matthew, 495

  Arnold, Thurman, 384

  Arthur, Jean, 590

  Art Institute of Chicago, 277

  Ascher, Joseph, “Alice Where Art Thou?,” 20

  Aspen Institute; Aspen Music Festival, 366n8, 470n181

  Asquith, Margot, 223

  Astor, Mrs. Vincent, 384

  Aswell, Edward C., 203

  Atlantic Monthly, The, 102, 153n33, 164, 209–10, 480, 482, 483

  Attlee, Clement, 435n121

  Atwood, Bishop Julius W., 384

  Audoux, Marguerite, Marie Claire, 31

  Augustine, Saint, 413

  Austen, Jane, 609, 613, 635

  B

  Bach, J. S., 286–87, 352, 467, 614, 667, 684

  Bacon, Delia, 605

  Bacon, Francis, Essays, 382

  Baer, Lewis S., TNW letters to, 191–92, 215–16

  Bagnold, Enid:

  Lottie Dundass, 681n182

  TNW letter to, 679–82

  Bailey, Percival, 251

  Baitsell, George A., 616

  Baker, Barbara, 225

  Baker, Christina Hopkinson, TNW letter to, 341–42

  Baker, George Pierce, 43, 102, 341n219, 519

  Balanchine, George, 602, 603

  Ball, William, 652

  Balzac, Honoré de, 200, 632

  Bankhead, John H., 544n119

  Bankhead, Tallulah, 260, 281, 544n119, 617, 691

  in The Eagle Has Two Heads, 590

  in Here Today, 619

  in The Little Foxes, 417

  in The Skin of Our Teeth, 395n62, 406, 407, 408n85, 409, 416, 417, 533, 590n9

  Bankhead, William Brockman, 544n119

  Barber, Samuel, Vanessa, 566

  Barillet, Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Gredy, The Amazing Adele, 490n13

  Barnes, Djuna, 560

  Barnes, Margaret Ayer “Peggy,” 261, 264

  Barney, Danford, 147

  Barrault, Jean-Louis, 458

  Barretts of Wimpole Street, The (film), 281n104

  Barrie, J. M., 92, 94

  A Kiss for Cinderella, 91

  The New Word, 103–4, 162–63

  Old Friends, 103n173

  The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, 103n173

  Barry, Philip, 7, 341

  Barrymore, Ethel, 338

  Barrymore, John, 119, 121, 338

  Barth, Karl, 258

  Baskin, Norton, 551

  Bates, Ana “Tia,” 625

  Bates, Blanche, 167

  Bates, Esther W., TNW letter to, 507–8

  Baudelaire, Charles-Pierre, 516

  Baxter, Cynthia, 546n125

  Beach, Sylvia, 192, 195, 196, 198

  Beardsley, Aubrey, 119

  Beaton, Cecil, 591

  Beatty, Warren, 650n132

  Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron, 520

  Beaumont, Hugh “Binkie,” 444, 453, 527–29

  Beauvoir, Simone de, 518

  La Vieilesse, 681

  Becher, John, 546n125

  Beckett, Samuel, 555

  Krapp’s Last Tape, 554n144

  Waiting for Godot, 538, 556

  Beerbohm, Max, 305, 495, 591, 642

  Beer-Hofmann, Richard:

  Jacob’s Dream, 360

  TNW letter to, 377–78

  Beethoven, Ludwig van, 24, 26, 352, 416, 460, 673

  Behrman, Elza Heifetz, 603

  Behrman, S. N., 341, 603n45

  Wine of Choice, 331n204

  Belasco, David, 156, 308, 417

  Bel Geddes, Norman, 168, 257

  Bellows, George, 63

  Belmont, Eleanor Robson, 566

  Benét, Rosemary Carr, 147n25, 198

  Benét, Stephen Vincent, 7, 117n202, 147, 195, 201n130, 242, 492–93

  Benét, William Rose, 117–18, 177n86, 492–93

  Bennett, Arnold:

  How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, 30

  Milestones, 28, 30

  The Truth About an Author, 30

  Bentley, Eric, TNW letter to, 539–41

  Bérard, Christian, 458

  Berdan, John M., 161n47

  Berea College farm, 6, 103, 105, 109, 313n170

  Berenson, Bernard, 363

  Bergman, Ingmar, 703

  Bergner, Elisabeth, 254, 434

  Berkeley, California:

  TNW’s letters from, 34–37, 40–50

  Wilder family in, 3, 5, 9, 10, 37, 40

  Berlioz, Hector, 684

  Bermann-Fischer, publisher, 471, 472

  Bernhardt, Sarah, 113

  Bernstein, Leonard:

  at MacDowell Colony, 601–2

  TNW letter to, 698

  Besant, Annie, 641

  Besier, Rudolf, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, 254n43

  Bessemer, Sir Henry, 177

  Biddle, Francis, 603

  Biddle, Katherine Garrison Chapin, 603n46

  Bing, Rudolf, 467n175, 488–89, 563, 565–68

  Bisson, Andr
é, Le Rosaire, 549

  Black Mountain College, 274n92

  Blaker, Richard, 199, 223

  Bleibtreu, Helen and Jacob, TNW letter to, 689–90

  Bohlen, Avis Thayer, 602

  Boles, John, 286

  Boleslavsky, Richard, 129, 179, 194, 197n119

  Bolívar, Simón, 544

  Boni, Albert & Charles, 199, 222, 231, 271, 276

  and The Bridge of San Luis Rey, 191–92, 207, 212–13, 217, 218, 222n171, 528, 568, 702

  and The Cabala, 128, 184, 188, 191n109, 203, 702

  and The Trumpet Shall Sound, 206

  and Heaven’s My Destination, 222n171, 233, 283, 568, 702

  and The Woman of Andros, 222n171, 229–30, 702

  Booth, Shirley, 490

  Bori, Lucrezia, 276

  Borkle, Inge, 598

  Boston Transcript, 121

  Boswell, James, 556

  Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, 610

  The Life of Samuel Johnson, 32, 72, 74, 703

  Boulanger, Nadia, 600

  Bourget, Paul, 171

  Bousquet, Marie-Louise, 316

  Bowen, Elizabeth, The House in Paris, 309

  Bower, Roy, 199–200

  Bowles, Jane, In the Summer House, 490n13

  Boyle, Kay, TNW letter to, 556–57

  Brahms, Johannes, 239, 476

  Brando, Marlon, 590

  Brandt, Carol, 686, 702

  TNW letter to, 703

  Brandt & Brandt, 255, 325, 341, 390, 393, 686n193, 691

  Braque, Georges, 277

  Brecht, Bertolt, 640

  Brett, Dorothy, 286, 614

  Brice, Fanny, 390, 532

  Brick Row Book Shop, New Haven, 160–61

  Bridge of San Luis Rey, The (Wilder):

  and Boni & Boni, 191–92, 207, 212–13, 217, 218, 222n171, 528, 568, 702

  film of, 396n66

  and Mme. de Sévigné, xxxiv, 220

  publication of, 129, 130, 209–10, 217

  public responses to, 219–20, 536, 701

  Pulitzer Prize for, xxxiii, 130

  success of, xxxiii, xxxvii, 130, 222n171, 229, 230, 231

  TNW’s thoughts on, 211, 240, 434, 536–37, 700

  translations of, 144n19, 471n185

  writing of, 188, 191, 196, 199, 201–2, 204, 207, 215, 237