Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder, The - Softcover

Wilder, Thornton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060765089 ISBN 13: 9780060765088

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2017

Synopsis

Spanning his entire life, The Selected Letters of Thornton Wilder is a comprehensive and fascinating collection of the great American writer's correspondence.

The author of such classics as Our Town and The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Thornton Wilder was a born storyteller and dramatist--rare talents on glorious display in this volume of more than three hundred letters he penned to a vast array of famous friends and beloved relatives. Through Wilder's correspondence, readers can eavesdrop on his conversations with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Noël Coward, Gene Tunney, Laurence Olivier, Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Leonard Bernstein, Edward Albee, and Mia Farrow. Equally absorbing are Wilder's intimate letters to his family.

Wilder tells of roller-skating with Walt Disney, remembers an inaugural reception for FDR at the White House, describes his life as a soldier in two World Wars, and recalls dining out with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. In these pages, Thornton Wilder speaks for himself in his own unique, enduring voice--informing, encouraging, instructing, and entertaining with his characteristic wit, heart, and exuberance.

About this title

Product Description:

Paperback. Pub the Date: December 2009 Pages: 768 in Publisher by: HarperCollins Publishers This volume of more than three hundred letters. Selected from some seven thousand gathered around the world. Is the first to provide a comprehensive collection of of Thornton Wilder's correspondence. Wilder was known as a man who knew everybody. and these letters vividly document the range of his friendships. Readers will find him roller-skating with Walt Disney. attending an inaugural reception for FDR at the White House. describing his life as a soldier in two World Wars. mentoring younger writers. dining out with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor. and savoring his association with colorful local citizens during his twenty-month stay as a self-styled hermit in an Arizona mining town. Through Wilder's correspondence. readers can eavesdrop on his conversations with Ernest Hemingwa...

Review:

"Students and devotees of Wilder will find this a useful companion to his literary work."--Library Journal

"A staggering range of acquaintance. . . . Wilder was a charmer. . . . His letters are chatty, intimate, appealingly self-deprecating."--New Republic

"Wilder's writing is sharply etched and generous of spirit. [In Selected Letters] he consistently discharges the obligation he imposed on his correspondents: that their letters 'intimate the alterations of climate in their hearts and minds.'"--Times Literary Supplement (London)

"A book to treasure and to share. . . . A remarkable collection of letters covering more than 60 years of Thornton Wilder's life that become, in page after page, a blueprint of this brilliant, compassionate, truthful, loving man whose wit and superb command of language include the reader in a history of his friendships, of his family."--Marian Seldes

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0060765089
• ISBN 13: 9780060765088
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 768