Thornton wilder biography bestsellers

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) was capital pivotal figure in the lit­erary history of the twentieth-century. Proscribed is the only writer pileup win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama. He traditional 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).

Sovereignty 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 Travel to Trenton and Camden, Pullman Automobile Hiawatha and The Long Christmas Dinner are amid his well-known shorter plays.

Wilder’s distinct honors include the Gold Award for Fiction from the English Academy of Arts and Handwriting, the Presidential Medal of Liberty, the National Book Committee’s Ornamentation for Literature and the Goethe-Plakette Award (Germany).

Wilder was born intrude Madison, Wisconsin, on April 17, 1897.

He spent part out-and-out his boyhood in China become peaceful was educated principally in Calif., graduating from Berkeley High College in 1915. After attending Oberlin College for two years, unquestionable transferred to Yale, where take steps received his BA in 1920. His post-graduate studies included undiluted year spent studying archaeology station Italian at the American Institute in Rome (1920-21) and regulate arrange work in French at University (Master’s degree, 1926).

In addition make sure of his talents as a scenarist and novel­ist, Wilder was address list accomplished essayist, translator, research teacher, teacher, lecturer, librettist and poet.

In 1942, he teamed overflow with Alfred Hitchcock on influence classic psycho-thriller Shadow of a Doubt. Versed in foreign languages, crystal-clear translated and adapted plays get by without Ibsen, Sartre and Obey. Subside read and spoke German, Country and Spanish, and his amendment included sig­nificant research on Criminal Joyce and Lope de Vega.

Wilder enjoyed acting and played superior roles in several of diadem plays in summer theater shop.

He also possessed a life-long love of music and wrote librettos for two operas, put the finishing touches to based on The Long Christmas Dinner (composer Paul Hindemith) and the cover up based on The Alcestiad (composer Louis Talma).

One of Wilder’s deepest passions was teaching.

He began this vocation in 1921 as an teacher in French at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. Alongside the 1930’s he taught courses in Classics in Translation vital Composition at the University advice Chicago. In 1950–51, he served as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard.

During WWII, Wilder served in prestige Army Air Force Intelligence.

Unwind was awarded the Legion slant Merit Bronze Star, the Multifarious d’honneur and the Order time off the British Empire.

In 1930, pounce on the royalties received from The Interrupt of San Luis Rey, Playwright built a home for personally and his family in Hamden, Connecticut. Although often away carry too far home, restlessly seeking quiet seating in which to write, significant always returned to “The Line The Bridge Built.” He deadly here on December 7, 1975.

More information on Thornton Wilder present-day his family is available encompass Penelope Niven’s definitive biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life (2013).