“July August September,” 577n174
“The Last Word About Burglars,” 55, 56n103, 63 “The Little Turtle,” 93
The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act, 231, 483, 569–70, 577, 581, 593, 622n77, 624n82, 660, 691n203
Lucrèce (transl.), 254n42, 255
“The Marriage of Zabett,” 112n185, 663n155
“The Masque of the Bright Haired,” 86
The Matchmaker, 258n59, 364n2, 480, 481, 482, 504n49, 522–24, 531, 538, 548–49, 553, 568, 582, 610–12, 618, 624, 654, 680n180
“The Melting Pot,” 168n66
The Merchant of Yonkers, 235, 258n59, 322n189, 323n191, 325, 330, 342, 346–47, 348, 350, 352–54, 364, 415, 480, 504, 548, 610
“Mr. Bozzy,” 77
“The New Belinda,” 56, 60–62
Our Town, see Our Town
“Plays for Bleecker Street,” 581
“The Prince of Baghdad,” 322n189, 327n197, 331
“Prosperina and the Devil: A Play for Marionettes,” 81, 86
Pullman Car Hiawatha, 231
Queens of France, 691n203
“The Rocket: An American Comedy in Four Acts,” 60–62, 64n117, 77
The Russian Princess, xxxiii
“Sealing Wax,” 56
“The Seven Ages of Man,” 581–82
“The Seven Deadly Sins,” 581
Siegfried, 164n59
The Skin of Our Teeth, see Skin of Our Teeth, The
“Solus Inter Deos Protens: No. 6,” 56n103
Someone from Assisi, 581–82, 600n34
“Stones at Nell Gwyn,” 86
Theophilus North, xxxiii, 471n185, 585, 683n185, 685, 688–89, 690, 703
“Three English Letterwriters,” xxxiii
“Three Minute Playlets for Three
Persons,” 56, 64
The Trasteverine, 154
The Trumpet Shall Sound, 129, 165n62, 197, 201n129, 205–6, 241, 663n155
“Two Miracles of Doma Y Venuzias,” 79, 82, 86
“Vecy-Segal,” 117
“Ventures Joyous,” 55, 56, 60–62
The Victors, 361, 441n131
“Villa Rhabini,” 126, 145n22
“The Warship,” 472
The Woman of Andros, 222n171, 227n185, 229–30, 238, 241, 254, 288, 415, 454–55, 702
The Wreck on the Five-Twenty-Five, 546n125
Wilder, Ursula (no relation), 115n195
Wilkinson, Arthur “Wilkie,” 454
Williams, Gwynne, 218
Williams, Tennessee, 602, 673
Camino Real, 521
A Streetcar Named Desire, 489n10, 590n9
Williams, William Carlos, 521
Williamsburg, Virginia, 500
Willkie, Wendell, 380, 607
Wilson, Edmund, 338, 379, 603
Winchell, Walter, 258
Winter, Keith, 308
Winwood, Estelle, 619n75
Wisconsin State Journal, 1, 2
Withington, Virginia, 385, 498
Wolfe, Thomas, 519
Look Homeward, Angel, 242–43
Wood, Sam, 370
Woolf, Virginia, 518
Woollcott, Alexander, 305, 553, 576
The Dark Tower, 269n80, 381
death of, 446n144
and Our Town, 367
“The Sage of Fountain Inn,” 269n78
TNW letters to, 268–71, 304–6, 311–12, 333–37, 347–48, 385–86
TNW’s friendship with, xxxvi, 257, 259, 261, 262–63, 274, 289, 307, 308, 356, 357, 364, 397, 412, 554, 590
in Wine of Choice, 331n204, 336n211
Woolley, Mary Emma, 57
Wordsworth, William, 136
World War I, 45, 111
Amos’s service in, 6, 80n140, 106, 114n192, 116, 125
beginnings of, 39n76
flags in windows during, 122n214
military instruction in colleges during, 97–98, 105
postwar youth movements, 648
U.S. entry into, 97n163, 99
and U.S. life, 112
World War II, 311–12
Dunkirk evacuation in, 356
London blackout in, 357
military training films in, 357, 395n60, 396
Pearl Harbor attack in, 357
TNW’s military service in, 358, 359, 397, 400–402, 403–7, 411, 418–36
TNW’s thoughts on, 299–300, 366, 376–77, 380, 381, 407, 424
U.S. entry into, 357
and U.S. life, 396
Wormser, André, 91n155
Worth, Irene, 670, 681
in Alcestiad, 527n88
and Farrow, 685–86
TNW letters to, 527–29, 597–99
Wright, Haidee, 247
Wright, Thew, Jr., TNW letters to, 499–500, 512, 529–31, 537–39, 617–18
Wright, W. A., 31
Wylie, Elinor, 189
Jennifer Lorn, 177
at MacDowell Colony, 237
The Venetian Glass, 191
Wynekoop, Alice, 272n87
Wynn, Ed, 532
X
Xenophon, 17
Xirgu, Margarita, 541
Y
Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, 248, 422n104, 521, 553
Yale Alumni Weekly, 160–61
Yale Collection of American Literature, 499n39
Yale College:
Amos in, 5, 7, 38–39, 43, 46, 127, 645
entrance exams for, 48–49, 102
TNW’s graduation from, 125, 137
TNW’s plans to attend, 49
TNW’s reluctance to attend, 102–3, 111
TNW as student in, xxxiv-xxxv, 6–7, 113–14, 116
Yale-in-China program, 5
Yale Literary Magazine, 7, 118n208, 165n62, 472, 663n155
Yale Literary Review, 117n202
Yale Review, 251n34, 272n88
Yale University Press, 448, 518
Yale University Theater, 231
Yeats, William Butler, 695
Cathleen ni Houlihan, 31
The Land of Heart’s Desire, 31
Yong, Rev. John K. L., 35n66
Young, Stark, 164
Youth’s Companion, The, 159
Yurka, Blanche, 301, 455
Yu Ying, 315
Z
Ziegfeld, Florenz, 298
Ziegfeld Follies, 167
Zimbalist, Efram, 45
Zuckmayer, Carl, 320
Zweig, Stefan, 280–81
Marie Antoinette, 281
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THORNTON WILDER (1897-1975) was an accomplished novelist and playwright. His many honors include three Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Award, the Gold Medal for Fiction of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature.
ROBIN G. WILDER is an independent scholar with a Ph.D. in history who specializes in archival research. She is the niece by marriage of Thornton Wilder and knew him well.
JACKSON R. BRYER is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maryland. He is the coeditor of Selected Letters of Eugene O’Neill and of Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
“Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.”
BOOKS BY THORNTON WILDER
NOVELS
The Cabala
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Woman of Andros
Heaven’s My Destination
The Ides of March
The Eighth Day
Theophilus North
COLLECTIONS OF SHORT PLAYS
The Angel That Troubled the Waters and Other Plays
The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act
PLAYS
Our Town
The Merchant of Yonkers
The Skin of Our Teeth
The Matchmaker
The Alcestiad
ESSAYS
American Ch
aracteristics and Other Essays
The Journals of Thornton Wilder, 1939-1961
COPYRIGHT
THE SELECTED LETTERS OF THORNTON WILDER. Letters copyright © 2008 by the Wilder Family LLC. Compilation of the letters and added text copyright © 2008 by Robin G. Wilder and Jackson R. Bryer. Foreword © 2008 by Scott Donaldson.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-04601-7
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN: 978-0-06-076507-1
08 09 10 11 12 DIX/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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NOTE
Chapter 1
1 TNW’s maternal grandmother (1847-1923).
2 The First Congregational Church. Amos (1895—1993) was TNW’s older brother.
3 Thornton MacNess Niven III (1876—1943), younger of TNW’s mother’s two brothers.
4 Sir Philip “Ben” Greet (1857—1936), English actor and impresario, who toured North America with spare productions of Shakespeare’s plays.
5 The Greek Theatre was given to the University of California by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst in 1903; TNW saw many rehearsals and performances there. The Mass in B Minor was performed there on April 22, 1909; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra appeared there on April 26; and the Ben Greet Players performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream there on May 1 and The Tempest on May 8.
6 TNW’s father (1862-1936) was consul general in Shanghai at this time. TNW’s mother, Isabella Niven Wilder (1873-1946), and her five children lived in Berkeley.
7 TNW’s youngest sister (1910-1994).
8 Christmas Oratorio (Oratorio de Noël), by French composer Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns.
9 The second of TNW’s younger sisters (1900-1995).
10 Theodore Wilder (1897-1985), the elder of two sons of Dr. and Mrs. George D. Wilder; Dr. Wilder was an American medical missionary in Tehsien and his wife was a teacher. They were not related to TNW’s family.
11 In late 1910, a pneumonic plague epidemic broke out in north China and the port near the Chefoo schools was quarantined. Anyone who had to leave the school wore a mask soaked in disinfectant.
12 TNW sometimes added accents in titles or names that did not have such.
13 French: “Do you speak German, sir?”
14 The Wilder children’s nurse, Margaret (“Aunt”) Donoghue.
15 TNW’s brother’s birthday was September 18.
16 Sherman D. Thacher (1861—1931), founder and headmaster of the Thacher School.
17 The Scarlet Pimpernel was written by Baroness Emma Orczy (1865-1947).
18 Athenian general and politician who, because he switched allegiances during the Peloponnesian War, was finally marginalized in Greek affairs.
19 In Parallel Lives, by Plutarch, the careers of prominent Greek and Roman statesmen and generals are presented mainly in contrasting pairs. Two editions for children were F.J. Gould’s Tales of the Romans: The Children’s Plutarch (1910) and F.J. Gould’s Tales of the Greeks: The Children’s Plutarch (1910).
20 TNW’s oldest sister (1898-1980).
21 Herodotus wrote a history of the Persian Wars; Xenophon was the author of Anabasis and Hellenica, which continued the history of the Peloponnesian War; Thucydides wrote the most famous history of the Peloponnesian War.
22 The volume of Kipling’s short stories to which TNW is referring may be Rewards and Fairies (1910).
23 William Lyon “Billy” Phelps was a professor of English at Yale University. A close family friend of the Wilders, he had been TNW’s mother’s Sunday school teacher at her father’s church in Dobbs Ferry, New York.
24 Molly Make-Believe (1910), best-selling novel by American novelist Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (1872-1958).
25 S.S. Mongolia was the ship that TNW, his mother, and his sisters took from San Francisco to Shanghai in December 1910.
26 Sir Walter Scott.
27 Song for solo voice and piano, based on a poem by Goethe.
28 “Alice Where Art Thou?”: a song for solo voice and piano by Dutch composer Joseph Ascher (1829-1869).
29 Italian: My Dear Lady.
30 “A house divided against itself cannot stand” is the most famous line from Abraham Lincoln’s June 16, 1858, speech at the Republican State Convention in Springfield, Illinois, where he accepted the nomination to run against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate. The line paraphrases Matthew 12:25 and/or Mark 3:25.
31 In October 1911, a mutiny broke out among army troops against the ruling Manchu dynasty. By the end of the year, the Manchu regent had been deposed and his representative had begun negotiations in Nanking, where the provisional revolutionary republican government had been established.
32 TNW’s maternal aunt Charlotte Tappan Niven (1882-1979).
33 TNW’s father was on home leave in the United States and visited his son Amos in California before going to Madison, Wisconsin.
34 William Howard Taft was a great admirer of TNW’s father, an admiration partly traceable to their ties to Yale. As secretary of war (1904-1908) and then president (1909-1913), he was instrumental in getting TNW’s father appointed consul general, first in Hong Kong and then in Shanghai.
35 TNW is referring to the oratorios Elijah (Felix Mendelssohn) and Messiah (George Frideric Handel).
36 Joseph Vance: An Ill-Written Autobiography (1906), a novel by English ceramic artist and author William Frend De Morgan (1839-1917).
37 TNW was now attending the Thacher School in Ojai, California, with his brother.
38 TNW probably misdated this letter, as he refers in it to having spent Christmas in Claremont with the Maynard family. His sister Charlotte was living with the Maynards while attending public school in Claremont.
39 Karl Czerny (1791-1857), Austrian pianist and composer.
40 Shortall (1895—1984) became a composer and teacher and remained friends with TNW and, especially, Amos N. Wilder for the rest of their lives.
41 TNW’s father arranged special instruction during the holidays for TNW Amos, and Charlotte at the Frank P. Brackett Observatory on the Pomona College campus in Claremont, California.
42 You Never Can Tell (1899), a four-act comedy by George Bernard Shaw.
43 The Great Wave at Kanagwa, a famous print by Japanese painter and wood engraver Katsushika Hokusai (1760—1849); it hung in the Wilder home in Hamden, Connecticut.
44 Play (1912)
by Bennett, in collaboration with Edward Knoblock.
45 Members of a circle of Wilder family friends in Shanghai; Mrs. Malpas put TNW and Charlotte on the boat from China to San Francisco in the summer of 1912.
46 The O’Connors, the Vincents, the Hannas, the Robertsons, and Mrs. Moore were close Wilder family friends in Berkeley.
47 Sherman D. Thacher.
48 Morgan’s novel Somehow Good was published in 1908.
49 How to Live on 24 Hours a Day (1910) offers practical advice on how one might live (as opposed to simply existing) within the confines of a twenty-four-hour day.
50 Bennett’s humorous memoir, The Truth About an Author (1903), emphasizes the commercial aspects of authorship.
51 Passing of the Third Floor Back (1908), a modern morality play set in a boardinghouse.
52 The Land of Heart’s Desire (1894), a play by William Butler Yeats.
53 The play Cathleen ni Houlihan (1907).
54 A biography (1857) by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865).
55 A novel (1853).
56 Marie Claire (1910; Eng. tr., 1911), novel by French author Marguerite Audoux (1863-1937), who was in fact a seamstress by trade.
57 The correspondence of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning was published by their son, Penini: The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 2 vols. (1899).
58 The correspondence of Edward FitzGerald: Letters and Literary Remains, edited by W.A. Wright (1899).
59 The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Edward FitzGerald’s translation (1859) of the Persian poem, which concentrates on the pleasures of the senses as the primary reason to live.
60 Nordhoff, a town near Ojai.
61 TNW’s twin, who died at birth, was frequently referred to as Pax by the Wilder family.
62 TNW is referring to James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D.
63 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).
64 Latin: unutterable or unspeakable.
65 TNW and Charlotte (“Sharlie”) were now enrolled as juniors at Berkeley High School.
66 Chinese orphan “adopted” by TNW’s father in Shanghai; he was sent in 1913 to live in Berkeley with the family and attend school there. He later became a minister, the Reverend John K. L. Yong.