Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$2500.00 + shipping
Description: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a touchstone of American theater. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author on the half-title page: "For Roger Seccombe/with the best wishes of/Thornton Wilder/New Haven/November/1938." Laid in is a 2-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS) "Thornton Wilder" written on the recto and verso of a single sheet of personal stationery addressed to Seccombe and inserted in a handwritten, postmarked envelope addressed by Wilder to Roger Seccombe dated 25 October 1941 tipped in at the front endpaper. In full: "Many thanks for your letter. It is a great pleasure to hear from any relative or friend of my friend whom I admire so much. I wish I were in Chicago and could have some talks with your son. However, I rejoined the faculty this past summer alone, after four years' absence, and do not foresee when I shall return there again. This is a double disappointment, because I should also like to ask him many questions about Antioch -- a place which all teachers watch with such interest. I have just returned from England where I spent the month of September and I am very eager -- if all my accumulated work will only permit -- to go up to Peterboro and tell Mary of all the absorbing and sad and finally magnificent things I saw there. Tell your son that I hope to see him some day and never to hesitate to call on me, if he hears that I am in the vicinity. Sincerely yours, Thornton Wilder." In September of 1941, Wilder went to England to attend a congress of the International PEN (Poets, Essayists, and Novelists) Club. The main theme of the congress was "Literature and the World after the War," but the heart of the issue was the responsibility of the writer in time of war. Wilder was part of a vocal group that opposed the president of British PEN, Storm Jameson, who insisted that members commit themselves exclusively to propaganda for the Allied cause. (Stein, Gertrude; Wilder; Thornton; Burns, Edward McNall; Dydo, Ulla E.; Rice, William. THE LETTERS OF GERTRUDE STEIN AND THORNTON WILDER. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006; page 297). When not caught up in navigating the politics of PEN, Wilder wrote to American educational philosopher Robert Maynard Hutchins that his days in London, "were crowded with inspections of ruins, defense activities, airplane factories, bomber commands, luncheons, interviews with works, journalists. Ministers, dinners, writers, and so on" (Wilder, Thornton; Wilder, Robin G.; Bryer, Jackson R. THE SELECTED LETTERS OF THORNTON WILDER. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009; page 400). It is perhaps to this variety of experiences while in London which Wilder refers in this letter when he says, "I have just returned from England where I spent the month of September and I am very eager -- if all my accumulated work will only permit -- to go up to Peterboro and tell Mary of all the absorbing and sad and finally magnificent things I saw there." Some sunning to covers. About Very Good, lacking the dustwrapper. The letter has a crease from folding, otherwise Fine, with envelope
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
Wilder, Thornton. Our Town: A Play in Three Acts. Coward McCann, New York, 1938.
Price: US$6000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, first printing. Signed by Thornton Wilder and inscribed to a former owner in the year of publication. Bound in publisher's brown cloth with blue title labels on upper board and spine. Near Fine with sunning and light wear to covers, in a Very Good unclipped dust jacket with toning, edge wear with small chips, a small puncture to the front spine joint and a tiny chip to the interior of the rear panel. One of the author's most enduring works and winner of the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, this beloved play has become a staple for high school drama productions. Additionally, it served as the basis for a 1940 film with an original music score composed by Aaron Copland.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
WILDER, Thornton. OUR TOWN. Coward-McCann, Inc. (1938), New York, 1938.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Description: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a touchstone of American theater. After reading this play, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to Wilder comparing OUR TOWN to Homer's ODYSSEY and Shakespeare's HAMLET, stating: "That an American of the present day can create with such delicacy and detachment touches the soul like a miracle." This copy is INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author upon publication on the title page: "For Jack from Thornton/with all his best/Jay Six/April 1938." Jay Six was a ranch in southeast Arizona that Wilder frequented. Two years prior, in 1936, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his older brother Joe had their first paying jobs at the ranch. Alas, THAT Jack was not there in 1938. Tight, crisp copy with the typical mild sunning along the cloth edges; bookplate of someone named Comstock on the front pastedown hidden by the inside dustwrapper flap. The dustwrapper is complete but for a small chip at the heel of the spine affecting the last two letters of "Coward" and "McCann." Other than that there are just a few scrapes to the rear panel and light edgewear. Near Fine in a Very Good dustwrapper
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
WILDER, Thornton. OUR TOWN. Coward-McCann, Inc. (1938), New York, 1938.
Price: US$7500.00 + shipping
Description: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a touchstone of American theater. After reading this play, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to Wilder comparing OUR TOWN to Homer's ODYSSEY and Shakespeare's HAMLET, stating: "That an American of the present day can create with such delicacy and detachment touches the soul like a miracle." This copy is SIGNED by the author shortly after publication on the half-title page: "Thornton Wilder/New York City/May 1938." Uncommon to find simply signed rather than inscribed. Typical mild sunning along the cloth edges and on the spine which has mild wear to the heel. The dustwrapper is complete with minor chipping to the head of the spine and light edgewear. Near Fine in a Very Good dustwrapper
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.
WILDER, Thornton. OUR TOWN Inscribed to Billy Wilder. Coward-McCann, Inc. (1938), New York, 1938.
Price: US$8125.00 + shipping
Description: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a touchstone of American theater. After reading this play, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to Wilder comparing OUR TOWN to Homer's ODYSSEY and Shakespeare's HAMLET, stating: "That an American of the present day can create with such delicacy and detachment touches the soul like a miracle." This is a wonderful Association Copy between two giants of American culture who happened to share the same last name. INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author in the year of publication on the title page to Hollywood director Billy Wilder: "For Billy/from Thornton/relative by/choice/Hollywood/Aug. 1938." Though it appears Billy Wilder (born Samuel Wilder) and Thornton Wilder never worked together, there is an interesting anecdote from very early in Billy's career. After leaving Berlin and arriving in Hollywood in 1934 with little money, he sent to his family in Europe clippings about Thornton Wilder's THE BRIDGE OVER SAN LUIS REY telling them that he had changed his first name to "Thornton." His mother learned the truth when she bought the book and saw the author's picture. According to a much later interview with Billy Wilder, she took it well and responded that she never liked that other fellow Wilder's stuff very much. Billy and Thornton would first meet shortly before inscribing this book on 7 July 1938 when they would have lunch together leaving Billy impressed by the "Aryan quality of Thornton's humor" (SLIDE, Anthony: "IT'S THE PICTURES THAT GOT SMALL": CHARLES BRACKETT ON BILLY WILDER AND HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE, page 120). Later that year in December they would dine again, this time in Boston with Alexander Woolcott, where Billy would see Thornton's THE MERCHANT OF YONKERS. His feelings about Thornton's humor changed: "a distressing play to me, all fake naivete, too, too great a desire to be funny" (ibid, page 128). Billy Wilder was an Austrian-born American film director and screenwriter whose career spanned more than five decades. He had his first hit when he co-wrote the screenplay for the romantic comedy NINOTCHKA, starring Greta Garbo. He won two Academy Awards for THE LOST WEEKEND (for Director and Screenplay), one for SUNSET BOULEVARD (Screenplay), and an unprecedented three for THE APARTMENT (Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay). He also received nominations for DOUBLE INDEMNITY, STALAG 17, WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, SOME LIKE IT HOT, THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH, and others. Small Hollywood bookstore label pasted to rear pastedown; some sunning to edges of cloth. About Fine in a Near Fine dustwrapper with light chipping to the spine tips
Seller: Charles Agvent, est. 1987, ABAA, ILAB, Fleetwood, PA, U.S.A.