Thornton Wilder

(1897-1975) American writer. Thornton Wilder was a Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright and novelist, who is perhaps most famous for his play, "Our Town," which was made into a movie. His most famous works explored the human experience.

Thornton Wilder was born on April 17, 1897, in Madison, Wisconsin to Isabella Thornton and Amos Parker Wilder. He was a twin, but his brother died at birth. His father was an editor and then diplomat in Hong Kong.

Thornton Wilder died in his sleep on December 7, 1975 of an apparent heart attack. He was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery, in Hamden, Connecticut.

In 1915, he studied Greek and Roman classics at Oberlin College. He attended Yale beginning in 1917.

Bridge of San Luis Rey - Pulitzer Prize in 1928
Our Town - Pulitzer Prize in 1938
The Skin of Our Teeth - Pulitzer Prize in 1943
Gold Medal for Fiction - American Academy of Arts and Letters
Presidential Medal of Freedom
National Book Committee's Medal for Literature

"So--people a thousand years from now--this is the way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the twentieth century.--This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our dying."

"All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."

"My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate--that's my philosophy."

"I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor--edge of danger and must be fought for--whether it's a field, or a home, or a country."

"The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, 'Oh, now I’ve got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home.' And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure."

"But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning."

"Like all the cultivated he believed that only the widely read could be said to know that they were unhappy."

The Cabala (1926)
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927)
The Angel That Troubled the Waters (1928)
Woman of Andros (1930)
The Long Christmas Dinner (1931)
Heaven's My Destination (1935)
Our Town (1938)
The Skin of Our Teeth (1942)
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Ides of March (1948)
Eighth Day (1967)
Theophilus North (1973)
The Alcestiad, or A Life In The Sun (1977)