The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia

by Thomas S. Hischak author of The Oxford Comp

Overview

Thornton Wilder is one of America’s greatest writers, and the only author to win Pulitzer Prizes in both fiction and drama. Equally well known for his plays and novels, his unique and diverse body of work also includes essays, journals, lectures, and film and television scripts.

In The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia, Thomas S. Hischak exhaustively covers Wilder’s life and extensive career. Entries not only contain every one of his novels, plays, and scripts, but also his letters, journals, and all other existing works by Wilder, published or unpublished. In addition, this valuable reference features entries on the individuals who worked with Wilder and friends and family members who were a great influence on him.

With a biography of Wilder to introduce the work and a chronology and selected bibliography to augment the entries, The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive reference available on one of America’s greatest playwrights and finest novelists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538152393
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/15/2022
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	7.24(w) x 9.95(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

Thomas S. Hischak is an internationally recognized writer and teacher in the performing arts. He is the author of twenty-six non-fiction books about theatre, film, and popular music, including the Rowman & Littlefield titles Theatre as Human Action: An Introduction to Theatre Arts, The Disney Song Encyclopedia (with Mark A. Robinson), The Encyclopedia of Film Composers, The 100 Greatest American Plays, 1939: Hollywood’s Greatest Year, and 100 Greatest American and British Animated Films.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Preface List of Entries by Category Brief Biography of Thornton Wilder Encyclopedic Entries Chronology of Thornton Wilder’s Works and Notable Productions Selected Bibliography Index About the Author

Editorial Reviews

The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia is an extensive and insightful overview of the life, works, and influence of Thornton Wilder, a man whose erudition, brilliance, and familiarity with multiple centuries, languages, and cultures merited the title of “Vast Encyclopedia” for one book-length scholarly study of his theatrical creations.

Thornton Wilder Journal

A prolific author of works on the performing arts, Hischak here turns his attention to iconic American writer Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)…. This style should appeal to students looking for an abbreviated approach versus a traditional biography.Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers.

Choice Reviews

Thomas S. Hischak provides an invaluable service to Thornton Wilder scholars, enthusiasts, and fans with this encyclopedia of the author's life and multi-faceted career (playwright, novelist, essayist, lecturer). It is an essential, one-stop shopping reference book for all things Wilder. His detailed and fact-filled performance histories of Wilder's drama are especially useful for this most-produced American playwright.

Park Bucker

Thomas S. Hischak’s The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia is a must-have for the director and dramaturg of any production of a Wilder play, for a scholar beginning a project on Wilder’s fiction or drama, and for fans who want to know more about Wilder’s life and works without having to slog through the long biographies and critical studies. Hischak’s summaries of Wilder’s works (both famous and less widely known) offer a consensus of critical reception and analysis. The appendices provide useful lists of casts of major productions of the well-known plays and characters in the novels. His entries on a variety of topics (Wilder’s sexuality, letter and journal writing, lecturing, major themes in the fiction and drama, his female characters) are insightful yet concise. Every university or college library should purchase a copy for their reference room as it will help students write papers on a Wilder performance or reading assignment.

Lincoln Konkle