The selected letters of Thornton Wilder

by Wilder, Thornton, 1897-1975.

Format: Print Book 2008
Availability: Available at 1 Library 1 of 1 copy
Available (1)
Location Collection Call #
CLP - Main Library Second Floor - Non-fiction PS3545.I345 Z48 2008
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  Second Floor - Non-fiction
 
Call Number  PS3545.I345 Z48 2008
 
 
Summary

Spanning his entire life, The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder is a comprehensive and fascinating collection of the great American writer's correspondence.

The author of such classics as Our Town and The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder was a born storyteller and dramatist--rare talents on glorious display in this volume of more than three hundred letters he penned to a vast array of famous friends and beloved relatives. Through Wilder's correspondence, readers can eavesdrop on his conversations with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Noël Coward, Gene Tunney, Laurence Olivier, Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Leonard Bernstein, Edward Albee, and Mia Farrow. Equally absorbing are Wilder's intimate letters to his family.

Wilder tells of roller-skating with Walt Disney, remembers an inaugural reception for FDR at the White House, describes his life as a soldier in two World Wars, and recalls dining out with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. In these pages, Thornton Wilder speaks for himself in his own unique, enduring voice--informing, encouraging, instructing, and entertaining with his characteristic wit, heart, and exuberance.

Contents
Beginnings, 1909-1920
Bridges, 1920-1929
Rôles, 1929-1939
War and after, 1939-1949
Honors, 1950-1960
Journeys, 1961-1975.

Published Reviews
Publisher's Weekly Review: "Wilder and Bryer provide considerable insight into a protean American novelist and playwright. As a man of the theater, Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) is not typically counted among experimentalists. Yet Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth are works of high modernism. This essential gathering of letters, carefully edited and abundantly annotated by independent historian Wilder (the writer's niece by marriage) and Bryer (editor of Selected Letters of Eugene O'Neill), indicates a man of sophistication, immense energy yet with a curious detachment. He was at home with classical, Far Eastern and 20th-century literature as well as popular culture. In this generous selection, Wilder's abiding friendships from the worlds of literature and the arts count, among many others, Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Max Reinhardt, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and Mia Farrow. Like the best collections of correspondence in the hands of sensitive editors, this one peels away the quotidian to reveal the underlying personality of its subject. 38 b&w photos. (Oct. 7) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Wilder, Thornton, -- 1897-1975 -- Correspondence.
Authors, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence.
Publisher New York :Harper,2008
Edition 1st ed.
Other Titles Correspondence.
Thornton Wilder
Contributors Wilder, Robin G.
Bryer, Jackson R.
Language English
Description xxxviii, 729 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography Notes Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9780060765071
0060765070
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