Thornton Wilder (113 page)

22.
Ibid.

23.
Ibid.

24.
TNW to Jed Harris, [January 1938?],
SL
, 332.

25.
TNW, Note on “Elements in the Production of ‘Our Town,' ” January 22, 1938, TNW Collection, YCAL.

26.
TNW to Dwight Dana, January 23, 1938, Private Collection.

27.
[—] Rosen, “Plays Out of Town:
Our Town
,”
Variety
, January 26, 1938, 58.

28.
For detailed accounts of the Harris-Pinchot relationship, see Martin Gottfried,
Jed Harris: The Curse of Genius
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1984); and Gaston,
The Loveliest Woman in America
.

29.
Gaston,
The Loveliest Woman in America
, 240–43.

30.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, January 27, 1938,
SL
, 333–37.

31.
“Miss Pinchot's Suicide Follows New Play Theme,”
New York Daily News,
January 25, 1938, 1.

32.
For various accounts of Rosamund Pinchot's death, see Gaston,
The Loveliest Woman in America,
200–58; Gottfried,
Jed Harris: The Curse of Genius
, 163–74; Marc Connelly,
Voices Offstage: A Book of Memoirs
(Chicago, New York, and San Francisco: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968), 232–33; Donald Haberman,
Our Town: An American Play
(Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989), 99; Tappan Wilder, afterword to
Our Town,
122–24.

33.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, January 27, 1938,
SL
, 333–37.

34.
Alexander Woollcott to TNW, January 26, 1938, TNW Collection, YCAL.

35.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, January 27, 1938,
SL
, 333–37.

36.
Alexander Woollcott to TNW, January 28, 1938, TNW Collection, YCAL.

37.
Ibid.

38.
“Thornton Wilder Presented with a Gavel,”
Boston Evening Transcript,
January 26, 1938.

39.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, January 27, 1938,
SL
, 333–37. The
Boston Evening Transcript
report on the gavel presentation on January 26, 1938, indicated that there were fifty members rather than the forty-one cited by TNW in his letter.

40.
TNW to Dwight Dana, January 29, 1938,
SL
, 337–38.

41.
Ibid.

42.
Ibid.

43.
Ibid.

44.
Connelly,
Voices Offstage: A Book of Memoirs
, 233–34.

45.
Ibid., 234–35.

46.
TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, Feb. 2, [1938?], YCAL.

47.
TNW to Dwight Dana, [February 6, 1938?],
SL
, 339.

48.
Tappan Wilder to PEN, May 6, 2010.

49.
Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,”
New York World-Telegram
, March 2, 1938.

50.
Brooks Atkinson, “Standards in Drama Criticism: Mrs. Roosevelt's Dissatisfaction with the Comments on the Stage in This Newspaper and One Other,”
New York Times,
March 13, 1938, p. 1, sec. 9.

51.
TNW to Harry Luce, February 14, 1938, Henry Luce Papers, LC.

52.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, [late February 1938?], YCAL.

53.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, February 1, 1938, YCAL.

54.
TNW to Ernest Hemingway, March 1, 1938,
SL
, 340–41.

55.
Quoted by TNW in a letter to his family, [March 10, 1938?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

56.
Charlotte Wilder to ANW, [1938?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged papers.

57.
Isabella Niven Wilder to Isabel Wilder, April 29, [1938?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged papers. Net income tax figures provided by Tappan Wilder and used by permission.

58.
TNW to Sibyl Colefax, January 2, 1938,
SL
, 328–38.

59.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, March 27, 1938, YCAL.

60.
TNW to Family, March 11, 1938, TNW Collection, YCAL.

61.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, March 27, 1938, YCAL.

62.
Ibid.

63.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, April 23, 1938, YCAL.

64.
TNW to Family, March 16, 1938, TNW Collection, YCAL.

65.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, April 23, 1938, YCAL.

66.
TNW to Family, March 21, 1938, TNW Collection, YCAL.

67.
TNW to Christina Hopkinson Baker, March 27, 1938, YCAL.

68.
Ibid.

69.
TNW to Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, April 27, 1938, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

70.
TNW to Christina Hopkinson Baker, March 27, 1938,
SL
, 341–42.

71.
Isabella Niven Wilder to Isabel Wilder, April 29, [1938?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

72.
Isabella Niven Wilder to Charlotte Wilder, [1938?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

73.
Isabella Niven Wilder to Isabel Wilder, April 29, [1938?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

74.
TNW to Sam Steward, May 18, 1938, TNW Collection, YCAL.

75.
TNW to Sam Steward, March 28, [1938], TNW Collection, YCAL.

76.
TNW to Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, April 27, 1938, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

77.
TNW to Family, March 21, 1938, TNW Collection, YCAL.

78.
Ibid.

79.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, May 17, 1938, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1777), HLH.

80.
TNW to Ruth Gordon, [no day] 1938, Private Collection.

81.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, June 17, 1938, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1777), HLH.

82.
For background on Max Reinhardt, see Gottfried Reinhardt,
The Genius: A Memoir of Max Reinhardt
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979).

83.
TNW to Max Reinhardt, May 12, 1938, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

84.
TNW to Ruth Gordon, June 21, 1938,
SL
, 345–47.

85.
Ibid.

86.
Ibid.

87.
The Pilgrimage Theatre in Hollywood is now known as the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. It was built in 1920, destroyed by fire in 1929, and rebuilt in 1931. It was constructed to resemble the gates of Jerusalem because it was used for an annual pilgrimage play.

88.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, July 20, 1938, AWC, MS Am (1777), HLH.

89.
Ibid.

90.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, [September 1938?],
SL
, 347–48. I have dated this letter September because Jed Harris asked TNW to step into the Stage Manager's role on September 6, 1938, according to TNW's September 20, [1938?], letter to his mother.

91.
TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, September 20, [1938?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

92.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, September 23, 1938, YCAL.

93.
“ ‘Mice and Men' Gets Award of Drama Critics,”
New York Herald Tribune
, April 17, 1938.

94.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, [September 1938?],
SL
, 347–48.

 

27: “PERSEVERANCE” (1938–1940)

1.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, March 28, 1938, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1777), HLH.

2.
Ibid.

3.
Tappan Wilder to PEN, June 4, 2010.

4.
TNW to Albert Einstein, September 19, 1938,
SL
, 351–52.

5.
TNW to John Hobart, “Thoughts from a Novelist in the Throes of Stage Fever,”
San Francisco Chronicle,
September 11, 1938, 17, 21; reprinted in Bryer,
Conversations with Thornton Wilder,
27–20.

6.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, [September 1938?],
SL
, 347–48; and TNW to Alexander Woollcott, September 30, 1938, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1778), HLH.

7.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, September 30, 1938, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1778), HLH.

8.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, October 22, 1938, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1778), HLH.

9.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, November 9, 1938, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1779), HLH.

10.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, November 2, [1938?], AWC, MS Am 1449 (1778), HLH.

11.
TNW to Bobsy Goodspeed [later Mrs. Gilbert Chapman], November 4, 1938, YCAL.

12.
TNW to Dr. Sergei Bertensson, October 24, 1938, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

13.
TNW to Bobsy Goodspeed, November 4, 1938, YCAL.

14.
Ibid.

15.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, November 2, [1938?], AWC, MS Am 1449 (1778), HLH.

16.
TNW to Dr. Sergei Bertensson, October 24, 1938, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

17.
Ibid.

18.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, November 2, [1938?], AWC, MS Am 1449 (1778), HLH.

19.
TNW to Helene Thimig Reinhardt, November 20, 1938,
SL
, 352–54.

20.
TNW to Helene Thimig Reinhardt, November 15, 1938, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

21.
Alexander Woollcott to Robert Maynard Hutchins, December 19, 1938, published in Beatrice Kaufman and Joseph Hennessey, eds.,
The Letters of Alexander Woollcott
(New York: Viking Press, 1944), 215.

22.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, December 6, [1938?], AWC, MS Am 1449 (1779), HLH.

23.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, March 2, 1939, YCAL.

24.
TNW to Sibyl Colefax, February 7, 1939,
SL
, 363–66.

25.
TNW to Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, January 9, 1939, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

26.
TNW to Max and Helene Thimig Reinhardt, January 13, 1939, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

27.
Talcott B. Clapp, “Thornton Wilder Writing New Play,”
Waterbury (Connecticut) Republican,
June 19, 1949; reprinted in Bryer,
Conversations with Thornton Wilder,
49.

28.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, March 28, 1939, YCAL.

29.
TNW to Max and Helene Thimig Reinhardt, February 11, 1939, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna. By “both my plays,” TNW was referring to
Our Town
and
The Merchant of Yonkers.

30.
Ibid.

31.
TNW to Max Reinhardt, August 2, 1938, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

32.
TNW to Max and Helene Thimig Reinhardt, January 13, 1939, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

33.
TNW to Sibyl Colefax, February 7, 1939,
SL
, 363–66.

34.
TNW to Max and Helene Thimig Reinhardt, February 11, 1939, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

35.
TNW to Sibyl Colefax, February 7, 1939, NYU [SL, 364].

36.
Ibid.

37.
Ibid.

38.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, February 8, 1939, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1779), HLH.

39.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, February 25, 1939, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1779), HLH.

40.
TNW to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, March 2, 1939, YCAL.

41.
TNW to Sibyl Colefax, February 7, 1939,
SL
, 363–66.

42.
TNW to Alexander Woollcott, March 21, 1939, AWC, MS Am 1449 (1780), HLH.

43.
Ibid.

44.
TNW to Max Reinhardt, April 26, 1939, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

45.
Ibid.

46.
TNW, “Sophocles's [
sic
]
Oedipus Rex,
” introduction to Francis Storr, ed.,
Oedipus the King
(New York: Heritage Press, 1955); reprinted in Gallup,
American Characteristics,
77–87, and McClatchy, ed.
Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater,
710–19.

47.
TNW to Max Reinhardt, April 26, 1939, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.

48.
TNW to Professor and Mrs. Max Reinhardt, July 28, 1939, Österreichisches Theatermuseum, Vienna.