Author

Thornton Wilder

1897-1975 · American playwright and novelist, author of Our Town

About Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder was an American playwright and novelist who brought formal experiment into plainspoken American settings. His work often joins ordinary domestic life to metaphysical questions about time, mortality, and attention.

Notable works

  • Our Town (1938)
  • The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927)
  • The Skin of Our Teeth (1942)
  • The Ides of March (1948)
  • The Matchmaker (1954)
  • The Eighth Day (1967)

On this site

Our Town

Thornton Wilder

1938 · Early 20th Century · Drama

Our Town presents Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, through three acts named Daily Life, Love and Marriage, and Death and Eternity. The Stage Manager introduces streets, families, dates, statistics, church steeples, milk deliveries, schoolbooks, and weather with almost no scenery, making the ordinary visible by stripping theater to gesture, voice, and memory.

high medical relevanceFamilyMarriageDeath / Mortality