The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder

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The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder Page 69

by Thornton Wilder


  “July August September,” 577n174

  “The Last Word About Burglars,” 55, 56n103, 63 “The Little Turtle,” 93

  The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act, 231, 483, 569–70, 577, 581, 593, 622n77, 624n82, 660, 691n203

  Lucrèce (transl.), 254n42, 255

  “The Marriage of Zabett,” 112n185, 663n155

  “The Masque of the Bright Haired,” 86

  The Matchmaker, 258n59, 364n2, 480, 481, 482, 504n49, 522–24, 531, 538, 548–49, 553, 568, 582, 610–12, 618, 624, 654, 680n180

  “The Melting Pot,” 168n66

  The Merchant of Yonkers, 235, 258n59, 322n189, 323n191, 325, 330, 342, 346–47, 348, 350, 352–54, 364, 415, 480, 504, 548, 610

  “Mr. Bozzy,” 77

  “The New Belinda,” 56, 60–62

  Our Town, see Our Town

  “Plays for Bleecker Street,” 581

  “The Prince of Baghdad,” 322n189, 327n197, 331

  “Prosperina and the Devil: A Play for Marionettes,” 81, 86

  Pullman Car Hiawatha, 231

  Queens of France, 691n203

  “The Rocket: An American Comedy in Four Acts,” 60–62, 64n117, 77

  The Russian Princess, xxxiii

  “Sealing Wax,” 56

  “The Seven Ages of Man,” 581–82

  “The Seven Deadly Sins,” 581

  Siegfried, 164n59

  The Skin of Our Teeth, see Skin of Our Teeth, The

  “Solus Inter Deos Protens: No. 6,” 56n103

  Someone from Assisi, 581–82, 600n34

  “Stones at Nell Gwyn,” 86

  Theophilus North, xxxiii, 471n185, 585, 683n185, 685, 688–89, 690, 703

  “Three English Letterwriters,” xxxiii

  “Three Minute Playlets for Three

  Persons,” 56, 64

  The Trasteverine, 154

  The Trumpet Shall Sound, 129, 165n62, 197, 201n129, 205–6, 241, 663n155

  “Two Miracles of Doma Y Venuzias,” 79, 82, 86

  “Vecy-Segal,” 117

  “Ventures Joyous,” 55, 56, 60–62

  The Victors, 361, 441n131

  “Villa Rhabini,” 126, 145n22

  “The Warship,” 472

  The Woman of Andros, 222n171, 227n185, 229–30, 238, 241, 254, 288, 415, 454–55, 702

  The Wreck on the Five-Twenty-Five, 546n125

  Wilder, Ursula (no relation), 115n195

  Wilkinson, Arthur “Wilkie,” 454

  Williams, Gwynne, 218

  Williams, Tennessee, 602, 673

  Camino Real, 521

  A Streetcar Named Desire, 489n10, 590n9

  Williams, William Carlos, 521

  Williamsburg, Virginia, 500

  Willkie, Wendell, 380, 607

  Wilson, Edmund, 338, 379, 603

  Winchell, Walter, 258

  Winter, Keith, 308

  Winwood, Estelle, 619n75

  Wisconsin State Journal, 1, 2

  Withington, Virginia, 385, 498

  Wolfe, Thomas, 519

  Look Homeward, Angel, 242–43

  Wood, Sam, 370

  Woolf, Virginia, 518

  Woollcott, Alexander, 305, 553, 576

  The Dark Tower, 269n80, 381

  death of, 446n144

  and Our Town, 367

  “The Sage of Fountain Inn,” 269n78

  TNW letters to, 268–71, 304–6, 311–12, 333–37, 347–48, 385–86

  TNW’s friendship with, xxxvi, 257, 259, 261, 262–63, 274, 289, 307, 308, 356, 357, 364, 397, 412, 554, 590

  in Wine of Choice, 331n204, 336n211

  Woolley, Mary Emma, 57

  Wordsworth, William, 136

  World War I, 45, 111

  Amos’s service in, 6, 80n140, 106, 114n192, 116, 125

  beginnings of, 39n76

  flags in windows during, 122n214

  military instruction in colleges during, 97–98, 105

  postwar youth movements, 648

  U.S. entry into, 97n163, 99

  and U.S. life, 112

  World War II, 311–12

  Dunkirk evacuation in, 356

  London blackout in, 357

  military training films in, 357, 395n60, 396

  Pearl Harbor attack in, 357

  TNW’s military service in, 358, 359, 397, 400–402, 403–7, 411, 418–36

  TNW’s thoughts on, 299–300, 366, 376–77, 380, 381, 407, 424

  U.S. entry into, 357

  and U.S. life, 396

  Wormser, André, 91n155

  Worth, Irene, 670, 681

  in Alcestiad, 527n88

  and Farrow, 685–86

  TNW letters to, 527–29, 597–99

  Wright, Haidee, 247

  Wright, Thew, Jr., TNW letters to, 499–500, 512, 529–31, 537–39, 617–18

  Wright, W. A., 31

  Wylie, Elinor, 189

  Jennifer Lorn, 177

  at MacDowell Colony, 237

  The Venetian Glass, 191

  Wynekoop, Alice, 272n87

  Wynn, Ed, 532

  X

  Xenophon, 17

  Xirgu, Margarita, 541

  Y

  Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, 248, 422n104, 521, 553

  Yale Alumni Weekly, 160–61

  Yale Collection of American Literature, 499n39

  Yale College:

  Amos in, 5, 7, 38–39, 43, 46, 127, 645

  entrance exams for, 48–49, 102

  TNW’s graduation from, 125, 137

  TNW’s plans to attend, 49

  TNW’s reluctance to attend, 102–3, 111

  TNW as student in, xxxiv-xxxv, 6–7, 113–14, 116

  Yale-in-China program, 5

  Yale Literary Magazine, 7, 118n208, 165n62, 472, 663n155

  Yale Literary Review, 117n202

  Yale Review, 251n34, 272n88

  Yale University Press, 448, 518

  Yale University Theater, 231

  Yeats, William Butler, 695

  Cathleen ni Houlihan, 31

  The Land of Heart’s Desire, 31

  Yong, Rev. John K. L., 35n66

  Young, Stark, 164

  Youth’s Companion, The, 159

  Yurka, Blanche, 301, 455

  Yu Ying, 315

  Z

  Ziegfeld, Florenz, 298

  Ziegfeld Follies, 167

  Zimbalist, Efram, 45

  Zuckmayer, Carl, 320

  Zweig, Stefan, 280–81

  Marie Antoinette, 281

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  THORNTON WILDER (1897-1975) was an accomplished novelist and playwright. His many honors include three Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Award, the Gold Medal for Fiction of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature.

  ROBIN G. WILDER is an independent scholar with a Ph.D. in history who specializes in archival research. She is the niece by marriage of Thornton Wilder and knew him well.

  JACKSON R. BRYER is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Maryland. He is the coeditor of Selected Letters of Eugene O’Neill and of Dear Scott, Dearest Zelda: The Love Letters of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

  “Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.”

  BOOKS BY THORNTON WILDER

  NOVELS

  The Cabala

  The Bridge of San Luis Rey

  The Woman of Andros

  Heaven’s My Destination

  The Ides of March

  The Eighth Day

  Theophilus North

  COLLECTIONS OF SHORT PLAYS

  The Angel That Troubled the Waters and Other Plays

  The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays in One Act

  PLAYS

  Our Town

  The Merchant of Yonkers

  The Skin of Our Teeth

  The Matchmaker

  The Alcestiad

  ESSAYS

  American Ch
aracteristics and Other Essays

  The Journals of Thornton Wilder, 1939-1961

  COPYRIGHT

  THE SELECTED LETTERS OF THORNTON WILDER. Letters copyright © 2008 by the Wilder Family LLC. Compilation of the letters and added text copyright © 2008 by Robin G. Wilder and Jackson R. Bryer. Foreword © 2008 by Scott Donaldson.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition © AUGUST 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-04601-7

  FIRST EDITION

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN: 978-0-06-076507-1

  08 09 10 11 12 DIX/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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  NOTE

  Chapter 1

  1 TNW’s maternal grandmother (1847-1923).

  2 The First Congregational Church. Amos (1895—1993) was TNW’s older brother.

  3 Thornton MacNess Niven III (1876—1943), younger of TNW’s mother’s two brothers.

  4 Sir Philip “Ben” Greet (1857—1936), English actor and impresario, who toured North America with spare productions of Shakespeare’s plays.

  5 The Greek Theatre was given to the University of California by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst in 1903; TNW saw many rehearsals and performances there. The Mass in B Minor was performed there on April 22, 1909; the Chicago Symphony Orchestra appeared there on April 26; and the Ben Greet Players performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream there on May 1 and The Tempest on May 8.

  6 TNW’s father (1862-1936) was consul general in Shanghai at this time. TNW’s mother, Isabella Niven Wilder (1873-1946), and her five children lived in Berkeley.

  7 TNW’s youngest sister (1910-1994).

  8 Christmas Oratorio (Oratorio de Noël), by French composer Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns.

  9 The second of TNW’s younger sisters (1900-1995).

  10 Theodore Wilder (1897-1985), the elder of two sons of Dr. and Mrs. George D. Wilder; Dr. Wilder was an American medical missionary in Tehsien and his wife was a teacher. They were not related to TNW’s family.

  11 In late 1910, a pneumonic plague epidemic broke out in north China and the port near the Chefoo schools was quarantined. Anyone who had to leave the school wore a mask soaked in disinfectant.

  12 TNW sometimes added accents in titles or names that did not have such.

  13 French: “Do you speak German, sir?”

  14 The Wilder children’s nurse, Margaret (“Aunt”) Donoghue.

  15 TNW’s brother’s birthday was September 18.

  16 Sherman D. Thacher (1861—1931), founder and headmaster of the Thacher School.

  17 The Scarlet Pimpernel was written by Baroness Emma Orczy (1865-1947).

  18 Athenian general and politician who, because he switched allegiances during the Peloponnesian War, was finally marginalized in Greek affairs.

  19 In Parallel Lives, by Plutarch, the careers of prominent Greek and Roman statesmen and generals are presented mainly in contrasting pairs. Two editions for children were F.J. Gould’s Tales of the Romans: The Children’s Plutarch (1910) and F.J. Gould’s Tales of the Greeks: The Children’s Plutarch (1910).

  20 TNW’s oldest sister (1898-1980).

  21 Herodotus wrote a history of the Persian Wars; Xenophon was the author of Anabasis and Hellenica, which continued the history of the Peloponnesian War; Thucydides wrote the most famous history of the Peloponnesian War.

  22 The volume of Kipling’s short stories to which TNW is referring may be Rewards and Fairies (1910).

  23 William Lyon “Billy” Phelps was a professor of English at Yale University. A close family friend of the Wilders, he had been TNW’s mother’s Sunday school teacher at her father’s church in Dobbs Ferry, New York.

  24 Molly Make-Believe (1910), best-selling novel by American novelist Eleanor Hallowell Abbott (1872-1958).

  25 S.S. Mongolia was the ship that TNW, his mother, and his sisters took from San Francisco to Shanghai in December 1910.

  26 Sir Walter Scott.

  27 Song for solo voice and piano, based on a poem by Goethe.

  28 “Alice Where Art Thou?”: a song for solo voice and piano by Dutch composer Joseph Ascher (1829-1869).

  29 Italian: My Dear Lady.

  30 “A house divided against itself cannot stand” is the most famous line from Abraham Lincoln’s June 16, 1858, speech at the Republican State Convention in Springfield, Illinois, where he accepted the nomination to run against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas for the U.S. Senate. The line paraphrases Matthew 12:25 and/or Mark 3:25.

  31 In October 1911, a mutiny broke out among army troops against the ruling Manchu dynasty. By the end of the year, the Manchu regent had been deposed and his representative had begun negotiations in Nanking, where the provisional revolutionary republican government had been established.

  32 TNW’s maternal aunt Charlotte Tappan Niven (1882-1979).

  33 TNW’s father was on home leave in the United States and visited his son Amos in California before going to Madison, Wisconsin.

  34 William Howard Taft was a great admirer of TNW’s father, an admiration partly traceable to their ties to Yale. As secretary of war (1904-1908) and then president (1909-1913), he was instrumental in getting TNW’s father appointed consul general, first in Hong Kong and then in Shanghai.

  35 TNW is referring to the oratorios Elijah (Felix Mendelssohn) and Messiah (George Frideric Handel).

  36 Joseph Vance: An Ill-Written Autobiography (1906), a novel by English ceramic artist and author William Frend De Morgan (1839-1917).

  37 TNW was now attending the Thacher School in Ojai, California, with his brother.

  38 TNW probably misdated this letter, as he refers in it to having spent Christmas in Claremont with the Maynard family. His sister Charlotte was living with the Maynards while attending public school in Claremont.

  39 Karl Czerny (1791-1857), Austrian pianist and composer.

  40 Shortall (1895—1984) became a composer and teacher and remained friends with TNW and, especially, Amos N. Wilder for the rest of their lives.

  41 TNW’s father arranged special instruction during the holidays for TNW Amos, and Charlotte at the Frank P. Brackett Observatory on the Pomona College campus in Claremont, California.

  42 You Never Can Tell (1899), a four-act comedy by George Bernard Shaw.

  43 The Great Wave at Kanagwa, a famous print by Japanese painter and wood engraver Katsushika Hokusai (1760—1849); it hung in the Wilder home in Hamden, Connecticut.

  44 Play (1912)
by Bennett, in collaboration with Edward Knoblock.

  45 Members of a circle of Wilder family friends in Shanghai; Mrs. Malpas put TNW and Charlotte on the boat from China to San Francisco in the summer of 1912.

  46 The O’Connors, the Vincents, the Hannas, the Robertsons, and Mrs. Moore were close Wilder family friends in Berkeley.

  47 Sherman D. Thacher.

  48 Morgan’s novel Somehow Good was published in 1908.

  49 How to Live on 24 Hours a Day (1910) offers practical advice on how one might live (as opposed to simply existing) within the confines of a twenty-four-hour day.

  50 Bennett’s humorous memoir, The Truth About an Author (1903), emphasizes the commercial aspects of authorship.

  51 Passing of the Third Floor Back (1908), a modern morality play set in a boardinghouse.

  52 The Land of Heart’s Desire (1894), a play by William Butler Yeats.

  53 The play Cathleen ni Houlihan (1907).

  54 A biography (1857) by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810-1865).

  55 A novel (1853).

  56 Marie Claire (1910; Eng. tr., 1911), novel by French author Marguerite Audoux (1863-1937), who was in fact a seamstress by trade.

  57 The correspondence of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning was published by their son, Penini: The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 2 vols. (1899).

  58 The correspondence of Edward FitzGerald: Letters and Literary Remains, edited by W.A. Wright (1899).

  59 The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, Edward FitzGerald’s translation (1859) of the Persian poem, which concentrates on the pleasures of the senses as the primary reason to live.

  60 Nordhoff, a town near Ojai.

  61 TNW’s twin, who died at birth, was frequently referred to as Pax by the Wilder family.

  62 TNW is referring to James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D.

  63 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).

  64 Latin: unutterable or unspeakable.

  65 TNW and Charlotte (“Sharlie”) were now enrolled as juniors at Berkeley High School.

  66 Chinese orphan “adopted” by TNW’s father in Shanghai; he was sent in 1913 to live in Berkeley with the family and attend school there. He later became a minister, the Reverend John K. L. Yong.

 

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