Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin on April 17, 1897, to Amos Parker Wilder, a newspaper editor and later US diplomat, and Isabella Thornton Niven. He had four siblings, including a twin who was stillborn. Wilder and his siblings spent part of their childhood in Shanghai and Hong Kong, where their father was stationed as US Consul General.\n \nWilder was an accomplished American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes in his career, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. In addition to these accolades, Wilder also won a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day. His works, which explore the connection between the commonplace and cosmic dimensions of human experience, continue to be read and produced around the world.

In addition to his novels and plays, Wilder also enjoyed success in other forms of writing and performance. He was a skilled teacher, actor, opera librettist, and film writer. His screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's psychological thriller Shadow of a Doubt (1943) remains a classic in the genre. Wilder'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.