EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

Thornton Wilder Papers
Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Yale Collection of American Literature

The Thornton N. Wilder Papers in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library document Wilder's personal and literary life and include correspondence, manuscripts, personal papers, printed material, photographs, memorabilia, and recordings. The collection extends to approximately 100 linear feet. A finding aid by Beinecke archivist Diane Ducharme containing a full description of the papers and the list of their contents is the most helpful place to begin research. It can be reached at this address: webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.WILDER.nav.html

The research potential in the Thornton Wilder papers knows no bounds. Every work and its attendant materials appear in many forms, whether manuscripts, corrected proof, reviews, playbills, or production photographs. The sources for many works find documentation in drafts of letters, notes, diaries and journals. Reception of novels and plays receives extensive attention through the usual clippings and fan letters but also through the record of translations and foreign productions.

The correspondence of people closest to Wilder's creative journey, his family and good friends, contribute an understanding of the writer's interests, working habits, and reflections on his novels and plays. Both Thornton and his sister Isabel provide the history of his dramatic productions and it is safe to say that most plays' circumstances could be reconstructed from correspondence, photographs, and memorabilia.

A second collection, the Wilder Family Papers, is in process of organization. This collection brings together the correspondence and writings of Isabel Niven Wilder and Amos Parker Wilder and their other children, Amos, Janet, Charlotte, and Isabel. Writers all, the Wilders demonstrate a combined creative force in American life and letters throughout the twentieth century.