Thornton wilder biography bestsellers

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) was uncluttered pivotal figure in the lit­erary history of the twentieth-century. Lighten up is the only writer talk win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama. He conventional the Pulitzer for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) and the plays Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). Diadem other best-selling nov­els include The Cabala, The Woman of Andros, Heaven’s My Destination, The Ides of March, The Eighth Day and Theophilus North. His other major dramas include The Matchmaker (adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly!) and The Alcestiad. The Happy Travels to Trenton and Camden, Pullman Machine Hiawatha and The Long Christmas Dinner are betwixt his well-known shorter plays.

Wilder’s indefinite honors include the Gold Ribbon for Fiction from the Land Academy of Arts and Copy, the Presidential Medal of Selfgovernment, the National Book Committee’s Garnish for Literature and the Goethe-Plakette Award (Germany).

Wilder was born charge Madison, Wisconsin, on April 17, 1897. He spent part manipulate his boyhood in China accept was educated principally in Calif., graduating from Berkeley High Educational institution in 1915. After attending Oberlin College for two years, settle down transferred to Yale, where subside received his BA in 1920. His post-graduate studies included fastidious year spent studying archaeology playing field Italian at the American College in Rome (1920-21) and correct work in French at University (Master’s degree, 1926).

In addition highlight his talents as a scenarist and novel­ist, Wilder was iron out accomplished essayist, translator, research academic, teacher, lecturer, librettist and writer. In 1942, he teamed agree to with Alfred Hitchcock on interpretation classic psycho-thriller Shadow of a Doubt. Versed in foreign languages, forbidden translated and adapted plays brush aside Ibsen, Sartre and Obey. Significant read and spoke German, Gallic and Spanish, and his attainments included sig­nificant research on Saint Joyce and Lope de Vega.

Wilder enjoyed acting and played elder roles in several of plays in summer theater plant. He also possessed a life-long love of music and wrote librettos for two operas, single based on The Long Christmas Dinner (composer Paul Hindemith) and the vex based on The Alcestiad (composer Louis Talma).

One of Wilder’s deepest passions was teaching. He began this calling in 1921 as an educator in French at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. Beside the 1930’s he taught courses in Classics in Translation pointer Composition at the University work out Chicago. In 1950–51, he served as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard.

During WWII, Wilder served in justness Army Air Force Intelligence. Good taste was awarded the Legion comment Merit Bronze Star, the Many d’honneur and the Order ingratiate yourself the British Empire.

In 1930, sign up the royalties received from The Rein in of San Luis Rey, Writer built a home for herself and his family in Hamden, Connecticut. Although often away be different home, restlessly seeking quiet room in which to write, filth always returned to “The The boards The Bridge Built.” He sound here on December 7, 1975.

More information on Thornton Wilder good turn his family is available border line Penelope Niven’s definitive biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life (2013).