"All but one of these essays began as papers presented at the 2008 International Wilder Conference and have since been expanded and revised better to support their claims"--Page xv. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
Wearing down "the edge of boldness" : Wilder's evolving values and stagecraft in The three published versions and prompt script of Our town / Park Bucker -- Thornton Niven Wilder: a chronology -- Thornton Wilder for the twenty-first century / Tappan Wilder -- The novels -- Part of the alphabet : Wilder as novelist / J.D. McClatchy -- Ellerslie revisited : Wilder, Wilson, and Proust / Christopher Benfey -- Historical religious crises in Wilder's early novels / Christopher Wheatley -- Vis comica-on-the-lake : the Chicago roots of Thornton Wilder's concept of comedy / Arvid F. Sponberg -- Omniscience and the fixer in Wilder's novels / Scott Donaldson -- Thornton Wilder's Midwest : Heaven's my destination and The eighth day / Nancy Bunge -- Major plays -- The outsider : contextualizing Simon Stimson in Our town / Kenneth Elliott -- Wearing down "the edge of boldness" : Wilder's evolving values and stagecraft in The three published versions and prompt script of Our town / Park Bucker -- The early critical reception of Thornton Wilder in Italy / Edyta Oczkowicz -- To the American clock by The skin of our teeth : Arthur Miller's debt to Thornton Wilder / Susan C W. Abbotson -- Adaptations -- Wilder and Ibsen : the three texts of A doll's house / David Hammond -- Lady Bountiful's farcical turn through Middleton, Farquhar, Wilder, and Ludwig / Anne F. Widmayer -- "The great mill-wheel" of time : Thornton Wilder and Paul Hindemith's collaboration on The long Christmas dinner opera / Janie Caves McCauley -- Lesser-known works -- Hitchcock and Wilder : writing and rewriting Shadow of a doubt / Max Alvarez -- The Alcestiad : Thornton Wilder and the "incommensurability of things human and divine" / Mary C. English -- "Carving some cherry stones" : disparities in The angel that troubled the waters and other plays / Edyta Oczkowicz -- The view from abroad -- The early critical reception of Thornton Wilder in Italy / Will Eno. Afterword: man in a chair / Hachiya Mizutani -- "It's been the dream of my life to see Paris" : the pleasures and challenges of translating Our town into French / Julie Vatain -- Theophilus North and the traditions of ancient Chinese allegory / Hansong Dan -- Afterword: man in a chair / Will Eno.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.