Thornton Wilder Discusses His Playwriting Philosophy, Focusing on His Pulitzer Prize–winning “Our Town”

“I am trying to express universal concepts. Note that in Our Town there is constant recurrence of the words ‘hundred’, ‘thousand’, ‘million’…you will find a consciousness of the vast multitude of human beings in the world. Other dramatists select great events or remarkable individuals – I am occupied with the homely daily life. And I try to place it against the vast reaches of time and place and multitude and express its meaningfulness and its dignity.”

Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town has become an American classic. First produced in 1938, it is a Pulitzer Prize–winning drama of life in the small village of Grover’s Corners between 1901 and 1913 through the everyday lives of its citizens, and is Wilder’s most renowned play. It is one of the most performed and best-known plays in American theater; it is a truism that every night, somewhere in America, a theater audience is watching Our Town. The play is especially popular in amateur productions, put on by schools or community groups. In the first two years that amateur companies were legally allowed to perform the play, Our Town was produced 800 times. By the Skin of Our Teeth is probably Wilder’s second best known play. Not even the extraordinary playwright Eugene O’Neill has his work more frequently performed.

In this unpublished and previously unknown letter, Wilder discusses his playwriting approach and concepts, his lack of a single theory of writing, and states how his work differs from O’Neill’s.

Autograph letter signed, three pages, New York, July 23, 1957. ”The spirit of your letter gave me great pleasure. I thank you. But it puts me in a quandary. I do not know how to cope with these requests. Within two months I have received four letters from students who wish to “work on me”; two from America, one from Germany and one from France. All wish me to write extended essays on my intentions, my “theories” of drama and art – and two foreign ones wish me also to write the story of my life. I am not a man of theory; and all I wish to do is to write more plays. So forgive me if I answer your queries briefly. I hope I can furnish some suggestions which will be useful to you.

“Yes, I am trying to express universal concepts. Note that in Our Town there is constant recurrence of the words ‘hundred’, ‘thousand’, ‘million’. In all the plays (even ’The Happy Journey’) you will find a consciousness of the vast multitude of human beings in the world. Other dramatists select great events or remarkable individuals – I am occupied with the homely daily life. And I try to place it against the vast reaches of time and place and multitude and express its meaningfulness and its dignity.

“I am happy that you do not feel that By the Skin of Our Teeth contains tricks. How else could I express the fact that each family (a commuter’s family in Jersey, or anywhere) is also related to any family anywhere in 5,000 years. And the comic use of Sabina and the interruptions, etc. (the parody of conventional drama) does not disguise the fact that the play is very earnest indeed.” At this point Wilder pit down the letter, resuming on August 2 at Wellesley, Massachusetts.

“I do not know how fruitful a comparison could be made between my work and that of Eugene O’Neill. At all events, the backgrounds were very different (as education, as home life, as religious training). Authors in certain matters do not see clearly in their own work. It is for you critics to point out tendencies and orientations. You will notice that O’Neill always – especially as he grew older – drew more and more on his own life experiences. There is very little overt  autobiographical allusion in my work. I keep my eyes fixed on others – and more and more on the adventure of the ‘whole human race’. I am even averse from discussing  ‘myself’ – not from shyness but from a sort of indifference.

“Forgive me that this note must be so brief – and forgive me that I have been so long in finishing it. But accept all my best wishes for the success of the project on which you are engaged.”

This is as significant a letter of Wilder as one can hope to find. It has been off the market for at least a half century, reposing in the collections of two university professors. We recently obtained it directly from the latter one.