New Releases by Thornton Wilder

"The Cabala" by way of Thornton Wilder, is a singular that delves into the complexities of human relationships and the search for which means in lifestyles. Wilder, an American playwright and novelist, is pleasant acknowledged for his acclaimed works together with "Our Town" and "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." Set in Rome, the unconventional follows the reviews of Samuele, a younger American painter, who turns into entangled inside the lives of a collection of eccentric and influential characters. The narrative unfolds via a sequence of interconnected memories, exploring topics of love, friendship, artwork, and the search for non-secular achievement. Wilder''s "The Cabala" is widely known for its intricate man or woman development and its portrayal of the bohemian lifestyle of the put up-World War I technology. The term "Cabala" refers to a paranormal and esoteric lifestyle, and Wilder weaves elements of thriller and introspection all through the novel, inviting readers to ponder the deeper dimensions of existence. Through colourful and evocative prose, Wilder crafts a narrative that transcends the boundaries of time and area, supplying a meditation on the human circumstance. "The Cabala" stands as a testament to Thornton Wilder''s literary versatility and his exploration of profound philosophical and existential questions.

“If John Steinbeck’s mighty Grapes of Wrath is the tragic novel of the Great Depression, then Heaven’s My Destination is its comic masterpiece. —J.D. McClatchy A hilarious tale about goodness in a fallen world, Heaven’s My Destination introduces George Marvin Brush, one of Thornton Wilder''s most memorable characters. Brush, a traveling textbook salesman, is a fervent religious convert who is determined to lead a good life. With sad and sometimes hilarious consequences, his travels take him through smoking cars, bawdy houses, banks, and campgrounds from Texas to Illinois—and into the soul of Depression-era America itself. This special edition includes an updated afterword by Wilder’s nephew, Tappan Wilder, with illuminating material about the author and book.

The classic Thornton Wilder novel that recreates the dazzling ancient Roman empire of Julius Caesar—now with a new introduction by Jeremy McCarter, author of Young Radicals and co-author (with Lin-Manuel Miranda) of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hamilton: The Revolution. 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 Rome comes crowding through his pages: Romans of the slums, of the villas, of the palaces, brawling youths and noble ladies and prostitutes, and the spies and assassins stalking Caesar in his Rome. Vivid, compelling, and engaging, The Ides of March showcases Thornton Wilder’s unique storytelling genius. This special edition also includes an afterword by Wilder''s nephew, Tappan Wilder, with illuminating documentary material about the novelist and story.

“Thornton Wilder will survive. . . as long as there are people around who are willing to sit in something called a theater and be reminded of their common humanity.” —New York Times From celebrated Pulitzer Prize-winning author and playwright Thornton Wilder, three of the greatest plays in American literature together in one volume: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, and The Matchmaker. This essential compendium includes a preface by the author, as well as a foreword by playwright John Guare. Our Town, Wilder''s timeless Pulitzer Prize-winning classic about love, death, and destiny, opened on Broadway in 1938 and continues to be celebrated and performed on stages all around the world. The Skin of our Teeth, Wilder''s brilliant and enduring romp about human follies and human endurance starring the Antrobus family of Excelsior, New Jersey, earned Wilder his third Pulitzer Prize in 1943. The Matchmaker, a dazzling farce about money and love, stars the irrepressible busybody Dolly Gallagher Levi, who leads young and old on an adventure that changes their lives. It was later adapted into the famed musical Hello, Dolly!

Finding the theatre of the 1920s lacking in bite and conviction, Thornton Wilder set out to bring back realism and to celebrate the innocent, simple and religious. Yet he also tried to endow individual experience with cosmic significance and Our Town is both an affectionate portrait of American life and ''an attempt to find a value above all price for the smallest events in our daily life''. The Skin of our Teeth deals with human survival in a ''comic strip'' way, and The Matchmaker is a hilarious farce which urges rebellion against all the constraints that deny a rich, full life.

This play is thought to represent middle-age, in Wilder''s unfinished cycle of The Ages of Man. On a point of land jutting into a lake in southern Wisconsin, the Carter family enjoys a summer''s eve. It''s an evening like many others: Nothing happens and everything happens. Each member of the family - sixteen year-old Tom, his seventeen-year-old sister Francesca and their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carter - shares different memories somehow connected with their surroundings. These memories color the mo

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.

The publication of volume two of this landmark collection celebrates the close of the centennial year of Thornton Wilder''s birth. This volume collects 17 plays from the author''s three-minute and five-minute plays for five actors series and includes the full-length play The Alcestiad, a major work by the author of Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth which has long been unavailable.

The Drunken Sisters is Wilder''s satyr play that followed The Alcestiad, his adaptation of the ancient Greek "Alcestis" story. Apollo ventures into the land of the three sisters of Fate who control the threads of each man''s life, and here in disguise he tricks the sisters into releasing their death hold on King Admetus. His trick: 3 flagons of wine which he declares to be Aphrodite''s beauty drink but which make the sisters drunk. He then foils them with a riddle, releasing the king

"The best thing he ever wrote," observed Edmund Wilson of Thornton Wilder''s National Book Award winner The Eighth Day (1967), an enthralling novel that shows Wilder revisiting the small-town America of Our Town to fashion a philosophical whodunit. A wrongful conviction for murder and a daring rescue lead to a meditation on justice, destiny, and "the impassioned will," for which "nothing is impossible." Wilder''s last novel, the semi-autobiographical Theophilus North (1973), is an affectionate portrait of Newport, Rhode Island, in the 1920s and a playful, valedictory glance at Wilder''s young manhood. Completing this volume are three never-before- published reminiscences taken from an unfinished autobiography in which Wilder engagingly recalls his childhood stay at a boarding school in China, his time as an undergraduate at Yale, and the uneasy experience of visiting Salzburg not long before Austria was annexed by the Nazis. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Wilder''s series of short works that captures four important stages of life.

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.

Our town -- The skin of our teeth -- The matchmaker -- The Alcestiad -- The drunken sisters -- The marriage we deplore -- The unerring instinct -- Scenes from The emporium -- Plays for Bleecker Street -- The seven ages of man -- Writings on theater.

The play tells the story of two young bucks who, having spent all their money by living too well, leave London and roam from town to town in search of love and fortune. In order to find a wealthy heiress for at least one of them, they pose as master and servant ¿ exchanging roles from one town to the next. In Lichfield, Aimwell is the master and Archer the servant, and there they meet the lovely, wealthy Dorinda and her equally desirable sister-in-law, Mrs. Kate Sullen. They set their caps for these women, but problems abound. Kate is married to a drunken sot who despises her; the innkeeper¿s saucy daughter, Cherry, has set her cap for Archer; Dorinda¿s mother, Lady Bountiful, mistakenly believes herself to be a great healer of the sick, and she guards her daughter like a dragoness; and a band of brigands plans to rob the house of Lady Bountiful that very night, putting all schemes in jeopardy. This is a play in the great tradition of Goldsmith¿s She Stoops to Conquer and Sheridan¿s The Rivals and The School for Scandal. It is classic, formal, robust and hilarious.

Volume One of the collected short plays by one of the greatest American playwrights of the Twentieth Century.

Letters trace the friendship between Stein and Wilder from late 1934 until Stein''s death in 1946

The sculptor himself is here and and he takes are arm to confess his groping and his abandonments, or to exult in his late-at-night moments of inspiration.

These provocative and illuminating essays, by a major figure in American letters, range widely in tone and theme, but they are all distinguished by Wilder''s penetrating and experienced intelligence and his marvelous intellectual audacity.

The Alcestiad by Thornton Wilder tells the story of Admetus, King of Thessaly (rich in horses), his wife Alcestis, and the triumphs and tragedies they endure as favorites of the god Apollo. Every major event in their marriage is a direct result of the interference of Apollo, though this is not made clear in The Alcestiad. Rather, the extent of Apollo’s involvement is made clear in the accompanying satyr play, The Drunken Sisters. --readingandruminations.wordpress.com.

"An Eternal Family narrowly escape one disaster after another, from ancient times to the present. Meet George and Maggie Antrobus (married only 5,000 years); their two children, Gladys and Henry (perfect in every way!); and their maid, Sabina (the ageless vamp) as they overcome ice, flood, and war -- by the skin of their teeth."--Amazon