The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder
Page 64
I took refuge in Chekhov’s statement: it is not the business of writers [of fiction, like himself] to answer the great questions [let the theologians and philosophers do that if they feel they must] but <“>to state the questions correctly.”
Which brings us back to Gertrude Stein’s dying words: “What is the answer? … What is the Question?” [Namely, what is Man on earth for?]
At present I am convalescent from a serious operation221 and cannot write you the long commentary that your paper deserves.
But I can express my appreciation of your admirable meditation. and my thanks and my regard
Sincerely yours
Thornton Wilder
Please convey my devoted regard to our dear friend Helen Hosmer.222 P.S. It may interest you to know—since you mention Franz Werfel that his widow (and Gustav Mahler’s) Alma Mahler-Werfel asked my permission to entitle her (second) book of memoirs: “Du Brücke is die Liebe”!!223
334. TO MALCOLM COWLEY. ALS 2 pp. Newberry
50 Deepwood Drive, Hamden, Conn 06517
Nov. 18. 1975
Dear Malcolm:
I shall always be grateful to you.224
It appears that you have sounded the note and indicated the direction to others.
Reviewers of good will write me in sheer bewilderment at that book: apparently Goldstone conveys that all my papers etc were thrown open to him. I am also getting letters from friends and strangers, mostly mentioning your review—from, for example, William G. Rogers (G. Stein’s The Kiddie)225
I still haven’t read the book but am told that the charge of anti-semitism is laid at my father’s door—(in the first draft it was charged to me, but Mrs Carol Brandt begged him to alter that]
This is how that arose: my first publishers A. and C. Boni contracted the “Lawrenceville schoolmaster” to four novels on the strength of The Cabala. I submitted The Bridge as contracted. The Bonis wrote that they wished it were more like The Cabala; that it was obviously intended for a small fastidious circle of readers but they graciously consented to publish it; I then submitted The Woman of Andros,—they deplored that it wasn’t more like The Bridge, but they published it (at the depth of the Depression); I then submitted Heaven’s My Destination and was told that I was out of touch with the American scene, especially the depressed areas, and assured me that “humor” was not my province and they waived their option on it—I took it to Harpers and stayed with them ever since. Forty years later Goldstone interviews Charles Boni—old and embittered—in New York and was told that I had abandoned the Boni firm because I was anti-Semitic. The truth was that I was faithful to them (though they were displeased with my work) until they refused my fourth book. Anti-Semitic? Oh, Gertrude! Oh, Freud! Oh, mothers of Picasso and Montaigne!
Montaigne is grand reading for us old men. He lived through woeful times and retained that equilibrium. His mainstay was neither religion nor the (later) reliance on reason and the Enlightenment’s belief in progress, but on the wisdom of antiquity—especially Plutarch!
I’m guardedly convalescing and cheerful
and much indebted to you
Ever
Thornton
335. TO CAROL BRANDT. ALS 3 pp. Yale
50 Deepwood Drive
Hamden Conn 06517
Nov. 18. 1975
Dear Carol:
Many thanks for the splendid terms for Theophilus North among the German bookclubs. I’m delighted by the goodwill of my German readers; I wish that my love for things French found the same reciprocation. (We know that dear Madame Lemy<?> does her best.226)
I’ve begun getting letters of indignation and consolation about my biographer’s book. I will not read it; and Isabel returned to the publisher the copy “sent by the author” (but not inscribed to me within!)
I wish dear Isabel wouldn’t get so energized by these annoyances. I try to rise to the level of resentment but (as with Dr. Johnson’s friend) “cheerfulness is always breaking in.” Judging by my correspondence Goldstone is probably receiving letters of outrage, too
I’m convalescing very well. Am waiting for permission from my doctor (appointment the 21st) to go to New York and take Isabel to see two movies which I can believe are very beautiful: S. Ray’s Distant Thunder and I
love
Thornton
336. TO EILEEN AND ROLAND LE GRAND. ALS 2 pp. (Stationery embossed Harvard Club / 27 West 44th Street) Private
Dec 3. 1975
Dear Eileen—and Roland in Bhutan—
Lovely to get your letter with all the news.—the house near Dartmoor the Quantock Hills—all that poetry of the west country too bad it’s so far from Sussex.
All my commiseration to you on your operation. So many of our letters these days are exchanging news of illness. I too had a serious operation in a Boston hospital this summer but am convalescing well … though with depleted vitality. You’ll be surprised to see the above address.. The rivalry of Yale and Harvard is of long standing—but I wanted to get a change to hide away for 14 days in New York. So a friend gave me a guest-card to this club—12 doors from the Algonquin—Isabel joined me for three days at Thanksgiving Time. Oh, Roland, I hope your work is deeply interesting and rewarding … I have no clue of Bhutan228 … but I saw S. Ray’s film laid in Darjeeling (“Anapara”<?>?) in the now fading splendour of the old hill resort hotels. (And Isabel and I just saw Ray’s latest picture Distant Drum laid in the Punjab—very beautiful but sad.)229 Eileen says you are in a valley of the High Himalayas and not coping with severe cold.
We were not happy in our 3 successive attempts to go South and escape the cold in Connecticut—Mexico (beautiful but no chance of meeting anybody but elderly Americans). Puerto Rice (as in most of the Caribbean, one is aware of the sullen resentment of the emerging self-determination.). Southern Florida (more elderly Americans.) Maybe at the end of the winter we shall try Martinique—still a départment of France.
So far our Fall has been surprisingly sunny and temperate. Isabel is well—that is bravely coping with her handicaps,—respiratory mostly. In New Haven we see our nephew and niece and our nephew’s children.230
I am now old, really old, and these recent set-backs have taken a lot of energy out of me. I think I’m pulling myself together for another piece of work.
Thank you for your beautiful long letter. I hope you’ve found some congenial friends in the neighborhood; I’m getting more and more unsociable but I notice that most people (including Isabel) are kept lively by a diversity of friends. Give our love to the “Young ’Uns” and a world of affectionate greetings to you both
Thornton
INDEX
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Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations
A
Abarbanell, Lina, 190
Abbott, Eleanor Hallowell, Molly Make-Believe, 19
Abbott, George, 532n97
Abbott, Gwynne, 164
Abbott, Mather A., 164n57, 210, 214, 217
TNW letter to, 175–76
Action in the North Atlantic (film), 407n84
Actors Equity, 451
Actors Studio, 627n90, 627n91, 640
Adams, H. Austin, ’Ception Shoals, 91n155
Adams, Maude, 155, 178, 520
Ade, George, 82
Adrian, Gilbert, 267
Akins (Rumbold), Zoë:
&n
bsp; The Furies, 382
TNW letter to, 382
Alba, Jacobo Stuart-Fitz-James y Falcó,
Duke of, 487
Albanese, Meggie, 609
Albee, Edward:
The American Dream, 638
The Sand Box, 638
Tiny Alice, 670
TNW letters to, 516–17, 554–55
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 618
The Zoo Story, 554–55
Albers, Josef, TNW letter to, 277–78
Albinoni, Tomaso Giovanni, 671
Alcestiad, The, or A Life in the Sun (Wilder):
casting of, 434, 527n88
and The Drunken Sisters, 482, 546n125
and Edinburgh Festival, 527–28, 531
European performances of, 482, 546, 548, 582, 593n17, 598, 624n83
evolution of, 327n198, 364–65, 406–7, 440, 453, 481, 483
libretto for, 581
readings of, 532n98, 532n99
and Rudolf Bing, 563, 565–68
Talma’s score for, 483, 536n105, 550–53, 562–63, 565–68, 580n184, 598, 622
TNW’s thoughts on, 435, 626–27
Alcibiades, 17
Aldrich, Richard, 343–44
Alexander, Sir George, 520
Allen, Arthur, 334n208
Allen, John, 106
Ameche, Don, 403
American Academy, Rome, TNW in School of Classical Studies in, 125–26, 133–36, 141–42
American Academy of Arts and Letters, 480, 560
American Anti-Slavery Society, 2
American Arts and Crafts Movement, 108n179
American Field Service (AFS), 80n140
American Laboratory Theatre, New York, 129, 179, 197n119, 201n129, 206, 241
American Mercury, The, 207
American National Theatre and Academy’s Salute to France, 532n97
American University Union, Paris, 147
American Youth Orchestra, 389
Ames, Harry, 623, 624
Ames, Rosemary, 218
TNW letter to, 178–79
Anderson, Ava Bodley, Lady, 450
TNW letter to, 486–88
Anderson, Clark, 223n175
Anderson, Sir John, 450n152
Anderson, Judith, 491, 619n76
Anderson, Maxwell, 278n99
Saturday’s Children, 590n9
TNW letters to, 461–62, 543–44
Anderson, Peggy and Roy, TNW letter to, 688–89
Andrews, Helen, 253
Andrews, O. B., Jr., 207
Anglin, Margaret, 301, 520
Anouilh, Jean, 548
Becket, 577n176
Anthony, C. L., Autumn Crocus, 255n45
Appollinaire, Guillaume, 464
Ardrey, Robert, 396n64
Aristophanes, 301
Arizona:
TNW’s letters from, 604–27
TNW’s time in, 666–67
Army Air Force, U.S., TNW’s service in, 357, 358, 359, 396, 397, 400–402, 403–7, 411, 418–36
Arnold, Matthew, 495
Arnold, Thurman, 384
Arthur, Jean, 590
Art Institute of Chicago, 277
Ascher, Joseph, “Alice Where Art Thou?,” 20
Aspen Institute; Aspen Music Festival, 366n8, 470n181
Asquith, Margot, 223
Astor, Mrs. Vincent, 384
Aswell, Edward C., 203
Atlantic Monthly, The, 102, 153n33, 164, 209–10, 480, 482, 483
Attlee, Clement, 435n121
Atwood, Bishop Julius W., 384
Audoux, Marguerite, Marie Claire, 31
Augustine, Saint, 413
Austen, Jane, 609, 613, 635
B
Bach, J. S., 286–87, 352, 467, 614, 667, 684
Bacon, Delia, 605
Bacon, Francis, Essays, 382
Baer, Lewis S., TNW letters to, 191–92, 215–16
Bagnold, Enid:
Lottie Dundass, 681n182
TNW letter to, 679–82
Bailey, Percival, 251
Baitsell, George A., 616
Baker, Barbara, 225
Baker, Christina Hopkinson, TNW letter to, 341–42
Baker, George Pierce, 43, 102, 341n219, 519
Balanchine, George, 602, 603
Ball, William, 652
Balzac, Honoré de, 200, 632
Bankhead, John H., 544n119
Bankhead, Tallulah, 260, 281, 544n119, 617, 691
in The Eagle Has Two Heads, 590
in Here Today, 619
in The Little Foxes, 417
in The Skin of Our Teeth, 395n62, 406, 407, 408n85, 409, 416, 417, 533, 590n9
Bankhead, William Brockman, 544n119
Barber, Samuel, Vanessa, 566
Barillet, Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Gredy, The Amazing Adele, 490n13
Barnes, Djuna, 560
Barnes, Margaret Ayer “Peggy,” 261, 264
Barney, Danford, 147
Barrault, Jean-Louis, 458
Barretts of Wimpole Street, The (film), 281n104
Barrie, J. M., 92, 94
A Kiss for Cinderella, 91
The New Word, 103–4, 162–63
Old Friends, 103n173
The Old Lady Shows Her Medals, 103n173
Barry, Philip, 7, 341
Barrymore, Ethel, 338
Barrymore, John, 119, 121, 338
Barth, Karl, 258
Baskin, Norton, 551
Bates, Ana “Tia,” 625
Bates, Blanche, 167
Bates, Esther W., TNW letter to, 507–8
Baudelaire, Charles-Pierre, 516
Baxter, Cynthia, 546n125
Beach, Sylvia, 192, 195, 196, 198
Beardsley, Aubrey, 119
Beaton, Cecil, 591
Beatty, Warren, 650n132
Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron, 520
Beaumont, Hugh “Binkie,” 444, 453, 527–29
Beauvoir, Simone de, 518
La Vieilesse, 681
Becher, John, 546n125
Beckett, Samuel, 555
Krapp’s Last Tape, 554n144
Waiting for Godot, 538, 556
Beerbohm, Max, 305, 495, 591, 642
Beer-Hofmann, Richard:
Jacob’s Dream, 360
TNW letter to, 377–78
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 24, 26, 352, 416, 460, 673
Behrman, Elza Heifetz, 603
Behrman, S. N., 341, 603n45
Wine of Choice, 331n204
Belasco, David, 156, 308, 417
Bel Geddes, Norman, 168, 257
Bellows, George, 63
Belmont, Eleanor Robson, 566
Benét, Rosemary Carr, 147n25, 198
Benét, Stephen Vincent, 7, 117n202, 147, 195, 201n130, 242, 492–93
Benét, William Rose, 117–18, 177n86, 492–93
Bennett, Arnold:
How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, 30
Milestones, 28, 30
The Truth About an Author, 30
Bentley, Eric, TNW letter to, 539–41
Bérard, Christian, 458
Berdan, John M., 161n47
Berea College farm, 6, 103, 105, 109, 313n170
Berenson, Bernard, 363
Bergman, Ingmar, 703
Bergner, Elisabeth, 254, 434
Berkeley, California:
TNW’s letters from, 34–37, 40–50
Wilder family in, 3, 5, 9, 10, 37, 40
Berlioz, Hector, 684
Bermann-Fischer, publisher, 471, 472
Bernhardt, Sarah, 113
Bernstein, Leonard:
at MacDowell Colony, 601–2
TNW letter to, 698
Besant, Annie, 641
Besier, Rudolf, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, 254n43
Bessemer, Sir Henry, 177
Biddle, Francis, 603
Biddle, Katherine Garrison Chapin, 603n46
Bing, Rudolf, 467n175, 488–89, 563, 565–68
Bisson, Andr
é, Le Rosaire, 549
Black Mountain College, 274n92
Blaker, Richard, 199, 223
Bleibtreu, Helen and Jacob, TNW letter to, 689–90
Bohlen, Avis Thayer, 602
Boles, John, 286
Boleslavsky, Richard, 129, 179, 194, 197n119
Bolívar, Simón, 544
Boni, Albert & Charles, 199, 222, 231, 271, 276
and The Bridge of San Luis Rey, 191–92, 207, 212–13, 217, 218, 222n171, 528, 568, 702
and The Cabala, 128, 184, 188, 191n109, 203, 702
and The Trumpet Shall Sound, 206
and Heaven’s My Destination, 222n171, 233, 283, 568, 702
and The Woman of Andros, 222n171, 229–30, 702
Booth, Shirley, 490
Bori, Lucrezia, 276
Borkle, Inge, 598
Boston Transcript, 121
Boswell, James, 556
Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, 610
The Life of Samuel Johnson, 32, 72, 74, 703
Boulanger, Nadia, 600
Bourget, Paul, 171
Bousquet, Marie-Louise, 316
Bowen, Elizabeth, The House in Paris, 309
Bower, Roy, 199–200
Bowles, Jane, In the Summer House, 490n13
Boyle, Kay, TNW letter to, 556–57
Brahms, Johannes, 239, 476
Brando, Marlon, 590
Brandt, Carol, 686, 702
TNW letter to, 703
Brandt & Brandt, 255, 325, 341, 390, 393, 686n193, 691
Braque, Georges, 277
Brecht, Bertolt, 640
Brett, Dorothy, 286, 614
Brice, Fanny, 390, 532
Brick Row Book Shop, New Haven, 160–61
Bridge of San Luis Rey, The (Wilder):
and Boni & Boni, 191–92, 207, 212–13, 217, 218, 222n171, 528, 568, 702
film of, 396n66
and Mme. de Sévigné, xxxiv, 220
publication of, 129, 130, 209–10, 217
public responses to, 219–20, 536, 701
Pulitzer Prize for, xxxiii, 130
success of, xxxiii, xxxvii, 130, 222n171, 229, 230, 231
TNW’s thoughts on, 211, 240, 434, 536–37, 700
translations of, 144n19, 471n185
writing of, 188, 191, 196, 199, 201–2, 204, 207, 215, 237