Thornton Wilder

Born April 17, 1897 to a newspaper owner and public speaker, and an accomplished poet, Thornton Niven Wilder was the second child of Amos and Isabella Wilder's. When Thornton was 9, his father was appointed the American Consul General and moved the family to Hong Kong. Amos was a strict puritanical man, who supported prohibition and sought to raise his children under the guidance of Christian values. Because his salary was small, the family spent lots of time apart - unable to afford to live and stay together. They all began to write letters to one another to stay connected. It is likely that this committment to writing is what led Thornton and his three siblings to all pursue careers in writing. Thorton, however, would be the only one to gain any success from his writing.

When the United States entered WWI, Thornton volunteered for the Army's Coast Artillery Corps at Fort Adams, Rhode Island and earned the rank of Corporal. After completing his enlistment, he earned a BA at Yale, his father's alma mater. He then went on to earn an MA in French literature from Princeton in 1926. The same year, the author debuted his first novel The Cabala, which was followed by his first Pulitzer Winning publication The Bridge of San Luis Rey in 1927. The success of this novel made him not only a critical success, but a commercial one and he replaced his father as breadwinner for the Wilder family, building a house in Hamden, CT, where his siblings often lived and where his sister Isabel remained for the rest of her life.

Wilder's continued success made him some notable friends including Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemmingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alfred Hitchcock, with whom he collaborated on his film Shadow of a Doubt. This was followed closely by his play The Skin of Our Teeth, which earned him another Pultizer. Wilder then enlisted as an US Air Force Intelligence officer during WWII, and remained in the service until 1945.

Wilder never married and it was believed in some circles that he may have been homosexual - though this has never been confirmed. He spent the rest of his life writing and teaching at several universities and his 1955 play The Matchmaker became the inspiration for the famous musical Hello Dolly.

The man who had spent a considerable amount of his career, committed to exploring what it meant to live a life, to exist on this planet - to be, to want, to die - passed from a heart attack in 1975. He was 78 years old and left behind an incredible legacy of the human condition behind.

“We’re all People, before we’re anything else. People, even before we’re artists. The role of being a Person is sufficient to have lived and died for.”

1897 | Wilder is born in Madison, Wisconsin on April 17.

1906 | He moves to Hong Kong in May and to Berkeley, California in October.

1906-10 | Wilder attends Emerson Public School in Berkeley.

1910-11 | He attends China Inland Mission School, Chefoo, China (one year).

1912-13 | He attends Thacher School, Ojai, California (one year). His first known play The Russian Princess is produced.

1915 | Wilder graduates from Berkeley High School; he is active in school dramatics.

1915-17 | Wilder attends Oberlin College; he is published regularly.

1920 | He receives his BA from Yale College (three-month service in 1918 with U.S. Army in 1918).

1920-21 | Wilder attends American Academy in Rome (8-month residency).

1920s | He works as French teacher at Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey (’21-’25 & ’27-’28).

1924 | He visits MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire for the first time.

1926 | Wilder receives his MA in French literature from Princeton University. The Trumpet Shall Sound is produced off-Broadway (American Laboratory Theatre). The Cabala, his first novel, is published.

1927 | His novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey receives the Pulitzer Prize.

1928 | The Angel That Troubled the Waters marks his first published collection of drama.

1930s | He serves as a part-time faculty member at the University of Chicago (comparative literature and composition), lectures across the country and receives first Hollywood screenwriting assignment (1934).

1930 | The Woman of Andros is published.

1931 | The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays, a collection of six one-act plays, is published.

1932 | Lucrece (a translation of André Obey’s Le Viol de Lucrèce) opens on Broadway, starring Katharine Cornell.

1935 | His novel Heaven’s My Destination is published.

1937 | His translation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House opens on Broadway, starring Ruth Gordon.

1938 | Our Town (Pulitzer Prize recipient) and The Merchant of Yonkers open on Broadway.

1942 | The Skin of Our Teeth opens on Broadway, he again receives the Pulitzer Prize for the work. He also pens the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Shadow of a Doubt.

1942-45 | He serves with the Army Air Force in North Africa and Italy (Lieut. Col. at discharge –Bronze Star and O.B.E.)

1948 | His novel The Ides of March is published; he also performs in his plays in summer stock during this period. The Victors (a translation of Sartre’s Morts sans sépulture) opens off-Broadway.

1949 | He holds a major role in Goethe Convocation in Aspen; lectures widely.

1951-52 | He serves as Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University.

1952 | He receives the Gold Medal for Fiction, American Academy of Arts and Letters.

1953 | He is featured on the cover of Time magazine (January 12).

1955 | The Matchmaker opens on Broadway, starring Ruth Gordon. The Alcestiad is produced at the Edinburgh Festival (as A Life in the Sun) with Irene Worth.

1957 | He receives the German Peace Prize.

1961 | He pens the libretto for The Long Christmas Dinner (music by Paul Hindemith), which premieres in Mannheim, West Germany.

1962 | Plays for Bleecker Street, featuring Wilder’s Someone from Assisi, Infancy and Childhood, premiere at New York’s Circle in the Square Theatre. He writes the libretto for The Alcestiad (music by Louise Talma), which premieres in Frankfurt, West Germany.

1963 | Wilder receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom

1964 | Carol Channing stars in a musical adaptation of The Matchmaker titled Hello, Dolly!on Broadway

1965 | Wilder receives the National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature.

1967 | He receives the National Book Award for Fiction.

1973 | His novel Theophilus North is published.

1975 | Wilder dies in his sleep in Hamden, Connecticut on December 7. He is buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

Plays

1926 - The Trumpet Shall Sound

1928 - The Angel that Troubled the Waters and Other Plays

Nascuntur Poetae

Proserpina and the Devil

Fanny Otcott

Brother Fire

The Penny That Beauty Spent

The Angel on the Ship

The Message and Jehanne

Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came

Centaurs

Leviathan

And the See Shall Give up its Dead

The Servant's Name was Malchus

Mozart and the Gray Steward

Hast Thou Considered My Servant Job?

The Flight into Egypt

1931 - The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act

The Long Christmas Dinner

Queens of France

Pullman Car Hiawatha

Love and How to Cure It

Such Things Only Happen in Books

The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden

1938 - Our Town

1938 - The Merchant of Yonkers

1942 - The Skin of Our Teeth

1954 - The Matchmaker

1955 - The Alcestiad: Or, Life in the Sun

1960 - Childhood

1960 - Infancy

1962 - Plays for Bleeker Street

Films

1943 - Shadow of a Doubt

Novels

1926 - The Cabala

1927 - The Bridge of San Luis Rey

1930 - The Woman of Andros

1935 - Heaven's My Destination

1948 - Ides of March

1967 - The Eighth Day

1973 - Theophilus North