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Wilder, Thornton Niven, Lt Col.
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wikipedia:
Wilder was the author of Our Town, a popular play (and later film) set in fictional Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. It was inspired by his friend Gertrude Stein's novel The Making of Americans, and many elements of Stein's deconstructive style can be found throughout the work. Wilder suffered from severe writer's block while writing the final act. Our Town employs a choric narrator called the "Stage Manager" and a minimalist set to underscore the human experience. Wilder himself played the Stage Manager on Broadway for two weeks and later in summer stock productions. Following the daily lives of the Gibbs and Webb families, as well as the other inhabitants of Grover’s Corners, Wilder illustrates the importance of the universality of the simple, yet meaningful lives of all people in the world in order to demonstrate the value of appreciating life. The play won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize.
Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and was the son of Amos Parker Wilder, a U.S. diplomat, and Isabella Niven Wilder. All of the Wilder children spent part of their childhood in China due to their father's work.
Thornton Wilder's older brother, Amos Niven Wilder, was Hollis Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School, a noted poet, and foundational to the development of the field theopoetics. Amos was also a nationally-ranked tennis player who competed at the Wimbledon tennis championships in 1922. His youngest sister, Isabel Wilder, was an accomplished writer. Both of his other sisters, Charlotte Wilder (a noted poet) and Janet Wilder Dakin (a zoologist), attended Mount Holyoke College and were excellent students. Additionally, Wilder had a sister and a twin brother, who died at birth.
After serving in the United States Coast Guard during World War I, he attended Oberlin College before earning his B.A. at Yale University in 1920, where he refined his writing skills as a member of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, a literary society. He earned his M.A. in French from Princeton University in 1926.
Career
After graduating, Wilder studied in Rome and then taught French at Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. In 1926 Wilder's first novel, The Cabala, was published. In 1927, The Bridge of San Luis Rey brought him commercial success and his first Pulitzer Prize in 1928. He resigned from Lawrenceville School in 1928. From 1930 to 1937 he taught at the University of Chicago. In 1938 he won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for his play Our Town and he won the prize again in 1942 for his play The Skin of Our Teeth. World War II saw him rise to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army Air Force Intelligence, first in Africa, then in Italy until 1945.
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder as Mr. Antrobus
in The Skin of Our Teeth,
photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 18 August 1948
Born Thornton Niven Wilder
17 April 1897(1897-04-17)
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Died 7 December 1975 (aged 78)
Hamden, Connecticut, USA
Occupation Playwright, novelist
Notable award(s) Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (1927), Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1938, 1942), National Book Award for Fiction (1968)
Partner(s) Samuel Steward
Other Comments:
Thornton Wilder inspecting bomb damage in Spa Road, Bermondesy.
Thornton Wilder inspecting bomb damage in Spa Road, Bermondesy.
Description: The American writer Thornton Wilder is shown inspecting bomb damage. Visits such as this were shown in newsreels to keep up morale. The government used its control over all forms of media to present a picture of life going on as normal despite the constant attacks. One film – 'London can take it' - presented the image of a city devastated by bombs, but one that carried on as normal. The narrator made the point that 'bombs can only kill people, they cannot destroy the indomitable spirit of a nation'. Much of the propaganda maintained that Londoners were united as young and old, upper and lower classes muddled through together. In reality, it was the poorer areas in the East End that were 'taking it'. The people there had nowhere else to go and were forced to stay in the city and face up to the raids with inadequate provision for shelter. The rich were often able to take refuge in the country or in expensive basement clubs in the West End.
