Thornton Wilder

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of the towering achievements in American fiction and a novel read throughout the world. By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper then embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that...

Drawing on such unique sources as the author's unpublished letters, business records, and obscure family recollections, Tappan Wilder's Afterword adds a special dimension to the reissue of this hilarious tale about goodness in a fallen world.Meet George Marvin Brush-Don Quixote come to Main Street in the Great Depression, and one of Thornton Wilder's most memorable characters. George Brush, a traveling textbook salesman, is a fervent religious convert...

"For much of the twentieth century, these remarkable early novels were hidden in the great shadow of The Bridge of San Luis Rey. Now we can examine them in the spotlight for the gifts that they are-memorable monuments to style and keys to understanding Wilder's genius." – Penelope Niven, Thornton Wilder Biographer Featuring a foreword by Penelope Niven and a revealing afterword by Wilder's nephew, Tappan, this reissue reintroduces the reader to...

First published in 1948, The Ides of March is a brilliant epistolary novel of the Rome of Julius Caesar. Through imaginary letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of its magnetic personalities. In this novel, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being as he appeared to his family, his legions, his Rome, and his empire in the months just before his death. In Wilder's inventive narrative, all...

Thornton Wilder's renowned 1967 National Book Award–winning novel features a foreword by John Updike and an afterword by Tappan Wilder, who draws on such unique sources as Wilder's unpublished letters, handwritten annotations in the margins of the book, and other illuminating documentary material. In 1962 and 1963, Thornton Wilder spent twenty months in hibernation, away from family and friends, in the town of Douglas, Arizona. While there, he launched...

"On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below." With this celebrated sentence, Thornton Wilder begins "The Bridge of San Luis Rey", one of the towering achievements in American fiction and a novel read throughout the world. By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper seeks to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths...

Thornton Wilder, author of such landmark works for the stage as Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth as well as the classic novel The Bridges of San Luis Rey is considered one of America's greatest man of letters. This two volume publication collects the complete short works for the stage, including a never-before-published one act play.

Now, for the first time in a standalone edition, Thornton Wilder's brilliant, hilarious play which was adapted into the hit Broadway musical Hello, Dolly with an afterword by Wilder's nephew, Tappan Wilder. Horace Vandergelder, a wealthy old merchant residing in Yonkers has decided it's time to take a wife and hires a matchmaker. But Dolly Gallagher Levi is no ordinary matchmaker. She's a force of nature, with a plan of her own. Levi soon becomes...

Set in Peru in the summer of 1714, this novel tells the tale of a group of interrelated people who perish following the collapse of an Inca rope bridge. A Franciscan friar, Brother Juniper, witnesses the accident and sets out to find out more about each victim, seeking answers-cosmic or otherwise-as to why they had to die. In his quest, Brother Juniper spends six years trying to interview as many people that knew the victims as he can, seeking to...