About the Playwright, Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder was a rebel. His body of work often defied the styles of the times and he changed the way American theatre was presented in the 1930s. He was also a generous, humble person whose observations of human struggles and endurance prompted him to contribute to charity and share his compassion through teaching and writing. By the time of his death in 1975, Wilder had won three Pulitzer Prizes for his work and the admiration of audiences and critics the world over.

“I think of myself as having been a sleepwalker,” Wilder told interviewer, Richard H. Goldstone in 1957 for the Paris Review. “I was not a dreamer, but a muser…I have never been without a whole repertory of absorbing hobbies, inquiries, interests. Hence, my head has always seemed to me like a brightly lighted room, full of the most delightful objects.” In fact, the absorbing hobbies and interests he speaks of go back to his childhood when his family – largely under the influence of his mother – got involved with the Greek plays sponsored by the Classics Department in Berkeley, California. Mom – Isabella - joined the volunteers in the costume shop and encouraged Thornton and brother Amos to audition for roles as the Athenian mob. It was here Thornton’s destiny with theatre seemed to have been launched. Not only did he act, but - at the ripe age of ten - he had already written an impressive body of work for a boy his age. It was around this time that he also took the helm as “director” and enlisted his siblings and friends into, as his sister said, “declaiming his grandiloquent speeches” for performances in his neighborhood.

Not a bad start for someone who was born under daunting circumstances – a premature, surviving twin to parents Amos and Isabella Wilder. Thornton was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1897 and lived in many places throughout his childhood, including California, Connecticut and China. Surrounded by readers, writers and public officials all his life, it seemed only natural that Wilder would land a career in the arts. His father, a Yale-educated man, was a newspaper owner and editor later appointed consul general in Hong Kong by President Roosevelt. His mother, too, was well-educated and loved contemporary dramatists and poets. She was often drawn to the cultural events in the cities where they lived, could translate several languages and became the first woman elected to public office in Hamden, CT. Thornton’s four siblings also achieved great literary and public success, beginning with his older brother Amos Niven who was a minister, Harvard professor, prize-winning poet and nationally-ranked tennis player (played center court at Wimbleton). His three sisters – Charlotte, Isobel and Janet – also led impressive lives stemming from their education at Yale, Berkeley, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe, and Oxford. They met success in careers as writers, teachers and animal rights activists.

Surrounded by this environment, it should come as no surprise that Thornton Wilder followed in the footsteps of his family and devoured education in all forms: formal study at universities, travels abroad and through the inspiration of literary friends and other public figures. His father’s major influence came in two forms: strict disciplinarian over studies (decreeing where the children should attend school and what they should study and teach) and practical labor (as teens, Thornton and his brother were sent to work on farms and in selected offices in the summer). Thornton also spent some time living among archeologists in Rome, where he first observed the power of history and civilization: “Once you have swung a pickax that will reveal the curve of a street four thousand years covered over which was once an active, much-traveled highway, you are never quite the same.”

As with most writers, these early influences found their way into Wilder’s work. His keen observations from these life experiences led him to create the characters, themes and styles that are in his best plays, such as Our Town. He encouraged audiences to view the world with him – in a way that forced them to more actively participate in the process by observing important details. To Wilder, theatre in the 1938 (when Our Town was first produced) had become far too predictable in the way in which it entertained. The meaning of what was being spoken on stage seemed to take a back seat to the lavish sets and extensive props. With Our Town, he broke that tradition by removing most scenery and all props, and breaking the traditional unity of time, place and action. His characters were archetypes and represented large masses but who are ultimately only one small speck in the motion of the universe. He forced audiences to pay attention to large themes by paying attention to small, but important details: “Our Town is not offered as a picture of life in a New Hampshire village; or speculations about the conditions of life after death…It is an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events of daily life.” This attempt won him the Pulitzer Prize.

Wilder died in 1975, leaving behind an impressive body of work that is still read and produced somewhere every night around the world. Not surprisingly, however, it was Our Town that remained on the minds of most upon his death, including writer Bill Roeder who wrote this “obituary” for him in the December 22 issue of Newsweek:

Exit the Stage Manager
He was getting up in years at the age of 78. Still, it was a jolt
for us folks in Grover’s Corners – and I’ll bet for a whole lot
of other people, too – when Thornton Wilder slipped away
with a heart attack during his afternoon nap the other day.
God rest him. H’m—11 o’clock in Grover’s Corners. You get a
good rest, too. Good night.

* unless otherwise stated, most quotes appearing in this section and throughout this study guide come from The Greenhaven Press Literary Companion To American Authors: Readings on Thornton Wilder, David Bender et al., Greenhaven Press: San Diego. 1998.