from the Wilder estate:

This timeless drama of life in the mythical village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, has become an American classic with universal appeal. Thornton Wilder’s most frequently performed play, Our Town appeared on Broadway in 1938 to wide acclaim, and won the Pulitzer Prize. From the very beginning, Our Town has been produced throughout the world.

Our Town explores the relationship between two young Grover’s Corners neighbors, George Gibbs and Emily Webb, whose childhood friendship blossoms into romance, and then culminates in marriage. When Emily looses her life in childbirth, the circle of life portrayed in each of the three acts of Our Town–growing up, adulthood, and death–is fully realized.

Wilder offers a couple of chairs on a bare stage as the backdrop for an exploration of the universal human experience. The simple story of a love affair is constantly rediscovered because it asks timeless questions about the meaning of love, life and death. In the final moments of the play, the recently deceased Emily is granted the opportunity to revisit one day in her life, only to discover that she never fully appreciated all she possessed until she lost it. “Oh, earth, you’re too wonderful for anybody to realize you,” she says as she takes her place among the dead.

A note from The Thornton Wilder Family: Although Thornton Wilder died in 1975, it was not until the new century that key archival holdings, notably records held by Wilder’s attorneys, dramatic agents and family members, became available and could be consulted by those wishing to build up a full, accurate picture of Wilder’s life and work. Two volumes have been written since the full archive has been open and the Wilder Family highly recommends them to directors, dramaturgs, actors and members of the production team. They are excellent resources, providing background and context for the Play:

• Thornton Wilder: A Life (2012) by Penelope Niven. The first definitive biography of Thornton Wilder, published by Harper Collins.
• The Selected Letters of Thornton Wider (2008) edited by Robin G. Wilder and Jackson R. Bryer. A sampling of some of Wilder’s thousands of letters together with important biographical material.

The resources are listed below provide further information about Wilder’s work; the correct places to approach for reprint rights for photographs, extracts from Wilder’s novels, plays and letters; plus ways to connect with Wilder experts and fans across the world.

• Official website of Thornton Wilder – www.thorntonwilder.com. Contact: Rosey Strub rosey@thorntonwilder.com
• Website of the Thornton Wilder Society – www.twildersociety.org
• The Barbara Hogenson Agency. Wilder’s Literary Agent able to grant reprint permissions for Wilder’s novels and plays. Contact: Barbara Hogenson bhogenson@aol.com
• Beinecke Library at Yale University – www.beinecke.library.yale.edu. Holder of the Thornton Wilder archive, including many rare papers, letters and photographs. Contact: Melissa Barton, Curator, Prose and Drama Melissa.barton@yale.edu.
• Harper Collins Publishers – www.harpercollins.com. For published editions of Wilder’s novels and full length plays as well as the reference books listed above. Contact: Sofia Groopman, Assistant Editor Sofia.Groopman@harpercollins.com
• Concord Theatricals www.concord.com. For acting editions of Wilder’s plays.

• 1897 Born in Madison, Wisconsin (April 17)
• 1906 Moves to Hong Kong in May and to Berkeley, California in October
• 1906-10 Emerson Public School in Berkeley
• 1910-11 China Inland Mission School, Chefoo, China (one year)
• 1912-13 Thacher School, Ojai, CA (one year). First play known to be produced: The Russian Princess
• 1915 Graduates from Berkeley High School; active in school dramatics
• 1915-17 Oberlin College; published regularly
• 1920 B.A. Yale College (3-month service in 1918 with U.S. Army in 1918); many publications
• 1920-21 American Academy in Rome (8-month residency)
• 1920s French teacher at Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey (’21-’25 & ’27-’28)
• 1924 First visit to the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire 1926 M.A. in French literature, Princeton University / The Trumpet Shall Sound produced off-Broadway (American Laboratory Theatre) / The Cabala (first novel)
• 1927 The Bridge of San Luis Rey (novel- Pulitzer Prize)
• 1928 The Angel That Troubled The Waters (first published collection of drama—playlets)
• 1930s Part-time faculty, University of Chicago (comparative literature and composition) / lectures across the country / first Hollywood screen-writing assignment (1934); extensive foreign travel
• 1930 The Woman of Andros (novel) / Completion of home for his family and himself in Hamden, Connecticut
• 1931 The Long Christmas Dinner and Other Plays (six one-act plays)
• 1932 Lucrece opens on Broadway staring Katharine Cornell (translation of André Obey’s Le Viol de Lucrèce) 1935 Heaven’s My Destination (novel)
• 1937 A Doll’s House (adaptation/ trans.) opens on Broadway with Ruth Gordon
• 1938 Our Town (Pulitzer Prize) and The Merchant of Yonkers open on Broadway
• 1942 The Skin of Our Teeth opens on Broadway (Pulitzer Prize) Screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Shadow of a Doubt
• 1942-45 Service with Army Air Force in North Africa and Italy (Lieut. Col. at discharge – Bronze Star and O.B.E.)
• 1948 The Ides of March (novel); performing in his plays in summer stock in this period  / The Victors opens off-Broadway (translation of Sartre’s Morts sans sépulture)
• 1949 Major role in Goethe Convocation in Aspen; lectures widely.
• 1951-52 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard
• 1952 Gold Medal for Fiction, American Academy of Arts and Letters
• 1953 Cover of Time Magazine (January 12)
• 1955 The Matchmaker opens on Broadway staring Ruth Gordon / The Alcestiad produced at Edinburgh Festival with Irene Worth (as A Life in the Sun)
• 1957 German Peace Prize 1961 Libretto for The Long Christmas Dinner (music by Paul Hindemith—premieres in Mannheim, West Germany)
• 1962 “Plays for Bleecker Street” (Someone from Assisi, Infancy, and Childhood) premiere at NYC’s Circle in the Square / Libretto for The Alcestiad (music by Louise Talma—premieres in Frankfurt, West Germany)
• 1963 Presidential Medal of Freedom
• 1964 Hello, Dolly! starring Carol Channing opens on Broadway
• 1965 National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature
• 1967 The Eighth Day (National Book Award for Fiction)
• 1973 Theophilus North (novel)
• 1975 Dies in sleep in Hamden, CT on December 7. Buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Hamden, Connecticut

For more information visit www.thorntonwilder.com and www.thorntonwildersociety.org.