Thornton Wilder author biography, plus links to books by Thornton Wilder.

Author Snapshot

Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) was an accomplished novelist and playwright whose works, exploring the connection between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue to be read and produced around the world. The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of his seven novels, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928, as did two of his four full-length dramas, Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1943). The Matchmaker was adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly! Wilder also enjoyed enormous success with many other forms of the written and spoken word, among them teaching, acting, opera, and film, including his classic screenplay for Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943). The writer's many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Book Committee's Medal for Literature.

This biography was last updated on 09/23/2003.

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Books by Thornton Wilder at BookBrowse
Our Town jacket
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Broken Country (Reese's Book Club)
by Clare Leslie Hall

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