Thornton Wilder (119 page)

 

34: KALEIDOSCOPIC VIEWS (1950S)

1.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 551, July [no day], 1951, TNW Collection, YCAL.

2.
TNW to Thew Wright, January 5, 1952, Private Collection.

3.
“Repugnant”: TNW to Dr. Hans Sahl, August 22, [1950?], Marbach; “Isn't he awful”: TNW to Malcolm Cowley, March [1952?],
SL
, 501–3.

4.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 556, August 5 and 7, 1951, TNW Collection, YCAL.

5.
TNW 1948–61 Journal, Entry 608, May 9, 1952, TNW Collection, YCAL.

6.
TNW to Thew Wright, October 10, 1951, Private Collection.

7.
TNW to Thew Wright, January 5 and 23, 1952, Private Collection.

8.
TNW to the President and Chancellor, American Academy of Arts and Letters, February 17, 1939, Copy, TNW Collection, YCAL. At this ceremony Carl Sandburg received the Gold Medal for History and Biography for his Lincoln work. TNW had been elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1929 and to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1939. See Louis Auchincloss, Jack Beeson, Hortense Calisher, et al.,
A Century of Arts & Letters
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), vii–xii.

9.
Pearl S. Buck, “Presentation to Thornton Wilder of the Gold Medal for Fiction,”
Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters,
2nd series, no. 3, New York: 1953.

10.
TNW, “Acceptance by Thornton Wilder,” ibid.

11.
TNW to T. E. Harris, November 27, [1951?], copy, Private Collection. The invitations to TNW and ANW were extended by William E. Stevenson, President, Oberlin College, November 14, 1951, TNW Collection, YCAL.

12.
TNW to Isabel Wilder, [Fall 1951?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

13.
Charlotte Wilder, undated, unpublished manuscript fragment, [1951?], TNW Collection, uncataloged manuscripts.

14.
Charlotte Wilder to Isabel Wilder, September 29, 1950, TNW Collection, YCAL.

15.
Charlotte Wilder to Catharine and ANW, September 6, 1950, TNW Collection, YCAL.

16.
TNW to Charlotte Wilder, [June 6, 1953?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

17.
Ibid.

18.
TNW to Catharine and ANW, [September 10, 1953?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

19.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 608, May 9, [1952?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

20.
“Worthless story”: ibid. “Story ideas”: Charles Feldman Group Productions Contract and Certificate of Authorship, signed by TNW June 20, 1952, Private Collection.

21.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 608, May 9, [1952?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

22.
Ibid. De Sica did not complete the project. The 1956 film
Miracle in the Rain
was written by Hecht and directed by Rudolph Maté.

23.
TNW, “Report of the Rapporteur General,” International Conference of Artists, Venice, September 28, 1952, UNESCO document, UNESCO/ART/DIV/7.

24.
TNW to Elizabeth Shepley Sergeant, October 11, [1952?],
SL
, 503–5.

25.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 624, October 11, [1952?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

26.
Ibid.

27.
Ibid.

28.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 636, January 28, 1953, TNW Collection, YCAL.

29.
Ibid.

30.
Ibid.

31.
Ibid.

32.
Ibid.

33.
Ibid.

34.
TNW to Eric Bentley, January 5, 1956,
SL
, 539–41.

35.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 606, March 6, 1952, TNW Collection, YCAL.

36.
The Lope papers are reprinted in Gallup,
American Characteristics
, 257–77.

37.
“An Obliging Man,”
Time,
January 12, 1953, 44–49.

38.
See Janet Wilder Dakin,
Jeffy's Journal: Raising a Morgan Horse
, Sheila Rainford, ed. (London: Stephen Greene Press/Pelham Books, 1990; distributed by Penguin Books USA).

39.
TNW to Janet Wilder Dakin, May 8, 1953, TNW Collection, YCAL. TNW addressed his sister fondly as Janetberry, one of the family nicknames.

40.
Tyrone Guthrie,
A Life in the Theatre
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1959), 233.

41.
TNW to M. Abbot Van Nostrand, Samuel French, March 11, 1952, Private Collection.

42.
Hugh “Binkie” Beaumont to TNW, December 31, 1953, TNW Collection, YCAL.

43.
TNW to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, “All Souls Day” [November 2, 1954?],
SL
, 522–24.

44.
TNW to Harold Freedman, October 7, 1954, Private Collection.

45.
Ibid.

46.
Alan Dent,
News Chronicle
, August 24, 1954, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

47.
Derek Granger, “The Matchmaker,”
Financial Times,
August 24, 1954, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

48.
Thew Wright to TNW, May 19, 1954, Private Collection.

49.
TNW to Thew Wright, January 14, [1954?], Private Collection.

50.
Hugh “Binkie” Beaumont to Isabel Wilder, November 6, 1954, TNW Collection, YCAL.

51.
Hugh “Binkie” Beaumont to TNW, December 14, 1954, TNW Collection, YCAL.

52.
For more production details on
The Merchant of Yonkers
and
The Matchmaker,
see TNW,
Three Plays
.

53.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 698, September 6, [1954?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

54.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 699, September 30, [1954?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

55.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 702, December 7, [1954?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

56.
TNW to Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, July 19, 1950,
SL
, 489–91.

57.
TNW,
The Alcestiad
, in McClatchy,
Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater
, 376–77.

58.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 658, September 18, 1953, TNW Collection, YCAL.

59.
TNW, Journal, Entry 662, November 17, 1953, TNW Collection, YCAL.

60.
TNW, Journal, Entry 704, January 6, 1955, TNW Collection, YCAL.

61.
TNW, Journal, Entry 702, December 7, [1954?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

62.
TNW to Thew Wright, November 19, 1954, Private Collection.

63.
TNW, Journal, Entry 704, January 25, 1955, TNW Collection, YCAL.

64.
Ibid.

65.
TNW,
The Alcestiad
, in McClatchy,
Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater
, 429.

66.
TNW,
The Bridge of San Luis Rey,
107.

67.
TNW,
The Alcestiad
, in McClatchy,
Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater
, 428.

68.
TNW, Journal, Entry 704, January 25, 1955.

69.
Hugh “Binkie” Beaumont to TNW, February 18, 1955; March 4, 1955; and April 29, 1955, TNW Collection, YCAL.

70.
Bosworth,
Montgomery Clift: A Biography,
257–58.

71.
“Comedy or Tragedy? Mr. Wilder Discusses ‘A Life in the Sun,' ”
The Scotsman,
August 12, 1955, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

72.
Rosemary Harris to PEN, March 27, 2010.

73.
“ ‘A Life in the Sun': Thornton Wilder's Classic Morality,”
The Scotsman,
August 16, 1955, courtesy of the National Library of Scotland.

74.
TNW to Thew Wright, August 18, 1952, Private Collection.

75.
TNW to Richard H. Goldstone, “The Art of Fiction XVI: Thornton Wilder,”
Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews,
Malcolm Cowley, ed. (New York: Viking Press, 1958), 101–18; reprinted in Bryer,
Conversations with Thornton Wilder,
64
–7
9.

76.
Timothy Findley,
Inside Memory: Pages from a Writer's Notebook
(Toronto: HarperCollins, 1990), 32–33.

77.
Ibid., 33.

78.
TNW, Journal, Entry 649, July 20, 1953, TNW Collection, YCAL.

79.
TNW, Journal, Entry 472, November 4, 1950, TNW Collection, YCAL.

80.
TNW, Journal, Entry 649, July 20, 1953, TNW Collection, YCAL.

81.
Ibid.

82.
Ibid.

83.
Ibid.

84.
TNW to Louise Talma, May 14, 1956, YCAL.

85.
According to the records of the Harvard University English Department, TNW was not alone in leaving his Norton lectures unpublished. The art historian Erwin Panofsky's lectures were published in 1953, after his appointment for 1947–48.

86.
TNW, Journal, Entry 425, May 7, 1949, TNW Collection, YCAL.

87.
TNW, “Notes Toward ‘The Emporium,' ” February 23, 1954, TNW Collection, YCAL.

88.
Ibid.

89.
TNW, “Notes Toward ‘The Emporium,' ” June 17, 1954, TNW Collection, YCAL.

90.
TNW, “Notes Toward ‘The Emporium,' ” February 9, 1954, TNW Collection, YCAL.

91.
J. Howard Buzby and Arthur G. Broll, Co-Chairmen, 1956 Judges Committee, Miss America Pageant, to TNW, April 20, 1956, TNW Collection, YCAL. TNW's holograph note at the end of the letter, May 12, 1956, explained his response.
The Skin of Our Teeth
had also been presented in an hour-long television version on ABC in August 1952, with Thomas Mitchell as Mr. Antrobus, Peggy Wood as Mrs. Antrobus, and Nina Foch as Sabina.

 

35: “THE HUMAN ADVENTURE” (1950S AND 1960S)

1.
“Sick as a dog”: TNW, Journal, Entry 747, June 11, 1957, TNW Collection, YCAL.

2.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 724, April 3, 1956, TNW Collection, YCAL. This entry is published in large part in Gallup,
The Journals of Thornton Wilder,
and gives the name as Tom Everage, although Wilder actually writes John Everage in his journal.

3.
Ibid.

4.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 728, April 8, 1956, TNW Collection, YCAL.

5.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 736, December 2, 1956, TNW Collection, YCAL.

6.
Ibid.

7.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 771, December 25, 1960, TNW Collection, YCAL. “Grand Guignol” referred to the popular theater in Paris known from 1897 to 1962 for its repertory of macabre, often violent short plays.

8.
TNW, “Transition from
The Alcestiad
to
The Drunken Sisters,” The Alcestiad
or
A Life in the Sun, A Play in Three Acts with a Satyr Play, The Drunken Sisters
, 107–9. The German translation of the play was published in 1960 by S. Fischer Verlag, but
The Alcestiad
was not published in the United States until 1977.
The Drunken Sisters
was published in the November 1957 edition of the
Atlantic.
See also McClatchy,
Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater
, 431–32; and Gallup and Tappan Wilder,
The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder
, vol. 2, 115–24.

9.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 736, January 31, 1957, TNW Collection, YCAL.

10.
TNW to Eileen, Roland, and Julian Le Grand, December 19, 1956,
SL
, 545–47.

11.
Deutschsprächige Aufführungen der ALKESTIADE, TNW Collection, YCAL.

12.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 745, June 8, 1957, TNW Collection, YCAL.

13.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 739, May 26, 1957, TNW Collection, YCAL.

14.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 742, June 2, 1957, TNW Collection, YCAL.

15.
Ibid.

16.
Ibid.

17.
Ibid.

18.
Ibid.

19.
Ibid.

20.
Ibid.

21.
TNW, preface to
Three Plays
, xxxii.

22.
TNW, 1948–61 Journal, Entry 742, June 2, 1957, TNW Collection, YCAL.