“One of the most American books ever written. . . . Thornton Wilder’s best, and most unexpected, book.” –Wilfrid Sheed
Meet George Marvin Brush, one of Thornton Wilder's most memorable characters. Brush, a traveling textbook salesman, is a fervent religious convert who is determined to lead a good life. With sad and sometimes hilarious consequences, his travels take him through smoking cars, bawdy houses, banks, and campgrounds from Texas to Illinois—and into the soul of America itself.
This edition of Heaven’s My Destination includes an illuminating afterword by Wilder’s nephew, Tappan Wilder, that draws on such unique sources as Thornton Wilder’s unpublished letters, business records, and obscure family recollections, adding a special dimension to this hilarious tale about goodness in a fallen world.

Heaven's My Destination: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

WILDER, Thornton

Dramas & Plays

Harper-perennial

“Mr. Wilder has brought to his character the warmth which was totally lacking in the Caesar of schoolbooks and Shakespeare, and in his hero’s destruction there is the true catharsis.” —Edward Weeks, Atlantic
First published in 1948, The Ides of March is a brilliant epistolary novel of the Rome of Julius Caesar. Through imaginary letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of its magnetic personalities. 
 In this inventive narrative, the Caesar of history becomes Caesar the human being as he appeared to his family, his legions, his Rome, and his empire in the months just before his death. In Wilder’s inventive narrative, all Rome comes crowding through his pages. Romans of the slums, of the villas, of the palaces, brawling youths and noble ladies and prostitutes, and the spies and assassins stalking Caesar in his Rome.

The Ides of March: A Novel

United States

Thornton Wilder’s renowned 1967 National Book Award–winning novel features a foreword by John Updike and an afterword by Tappan Wilder, who draws on such unique sources as Wilder’s unpublished letters, handwritten annotations in the margins of the book, and other illuminating documentary material.
In 1962 and 1963, Thornton Wilder spent twenty months in hibernation, away from family and friends, in the town of Douglas, Arizona. While there, he launched The Eighth Day, a tale set in a mining town in southern Illinois about two families blasted apart by the apparent murder of one father by the other. The miraculous escape of the accused killer, John Ashley, on the eve of his execution and his flight to freedom triggers a powerful story tracing the fate of his and the victim’s wife and children.
At once a murder mystery and a philosophical story, The Eighth Day is a “suspenseful and deeply moving” (New York Times) work of classic stature that has been hailed as a great American epic.

The Eighth Day: A Novel (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Harper Perennial Modern Classics

Marking the thirtieth anniversary of Theophilus North, this beautiful edition features Thornton Wilder's unpublished notes for the novel and other illuminating documentary material, all of which is included in a new Afterword by Tappan Wilder.
The last of Wilder's works published during his lifetime, this novel is part autobiographical and part the imagined adventure of his twin brother who died at birth. Setting out to see the world in the summer of 1926, Theophilus North gets as far as Newport, Rhode Island, before his car breaks down. To support himself, Theophilus takes jobs in the elegant mansions along Ocean Drive, just as Wilder himself did in the same decade. Soon the young man finds himself playing the roles of tutor, spy, confidant, lover, friend, and enemy as he becomes entangled in the intrigues of both upstairs and downstairs in a glittering society dominated by leisure.
Narrated by the elderly North from a distance of fifty years, Theophilus North is a fascinating commentary on youth and education from the vantage point of age, and deftly displays Wilder's trademark wit juxtaposed with his lively and timeless ruminations on what really matters about life, love, and work at the end of the day—even after a visit to Newport.

Theophilus North: A Novel

A timeless statement about human foibles...and human endurance, The Skin of Our Teeth is Thornton Wilder’s brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning play, with an afterword by Wilder’s nephew, Tappan Wilder.
Time magazine called The Skin of Our Teeth "a sort of Hellzapoppin' with brains," as it broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama. 
Combining farce, burlesque, and satire (among other styles), Thornton Wilder departs from his studied use of nostalgia and sentiment in Our Town to have an Eternal Family narrowly escape one disaster after another, from ancient times to the present. Meet George and Maggie Antrobus (married only 5,000 years); their two children, Gladys and Henry (perfect in every way!); and their maid, Sabina (the ageless vamp) as they overcome ice, flood, and war—by the skin of their teeth.
Witty, clever, and provocative, The Skin of Our Teeth showcases Wilder’s storytelling genius and his extraordinary talents at delving deep into the human psyche.

The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play (Perennial Classics)

Humor & Entertainment

This new edition of Thornton Wilder's renowned 1967 National Book Award–winning novel features a new foreword by John Updike and an afterword by Tappan Wilder, who draws on such unique sources as Wilder's unpublished letters, handwritten annotations in the margins of the book, and other illuminating documentary material.In 1962 and 1963, Thornton Wilder spent twenty months in hibernation, away from family and friends, in the Rio Grande border town of Douglas, Arizona. While there, he launched The Eighth Day, a tale set in a mining town in southern Illinois about two families blasted apart by the apparent murder of one father by the other. The miraculous escape of the accused killer, John Ashley, on the eve of his execution and his flight to freedom triggers a powerful story tracing the fate of his and the victim's wife and children. At once a murder mystery and a philosophical story, The Eighth Day is a "suspenseful and deeply moving" (New York Times) work of classic stature that has been hailed as a great American epic.

Eighth Day

Classics

HarperCollins, Publishers

This beautiful new edition features unpublished notes for the novel and other illuminating documentary material, all of which is included in a new Afterword by Tappan Wilder. On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below. With this celebrated sentence Thornton Wilder begins The Bridge of San Luis Rey, one of the towering achievements in American fiction and a novel read throughout the world. By chance, a monk witnesses the tragedy. Brother Juniper then embarks on a quest to prove that it was divine intervention rather than chance that led to the deaths of those who perished in the tragedy. His search leads to his own death -- and to the author's timeless investigation into the nature of love and the meaning of the human condition. This new edition of Wilder's 1928 Pulitzer Prize winning novel contains a new foreword by Russell Banks.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Literary

Harpercollins

A twenty-nine-year-old teacher attempts to achieve his nine life ambitions while passing the summer in Newport, Rhode Island

Theophilus North

Harper&Row

A twenty-nine-year-old teacher attempts to achieve his nine life ambitions while passing the summer in Newport, Rhode Island

Theophilus North (A Cass Canfield book)

Contemporary

In The Alcestaid Thornton Wilder retells for us the ancient legend of Alcestis, Queen of Thessaly, who gave her life for her husband Admetus, beloved of the Sun Apollo, and was brought back from Hell by Hercules. Wilder's Alcestis is a seeker after understanding, to whom "there is only misery, and that is ignorance." Her life as wife, mother, Queen -- like Emily;s in Our Town -- is apparently tragic: idyllic happiness is destroyed by death. But neither death or happiness is what it seems to be, and the tragedy id Apollo's "song in motion...an unfolding -- a part of something larger than we can see." It is followed, according to Greek tradition, by a comic 'satyr' play: a one-act "diversion" in which Apollo, disguised as a kitchen-boy, confounds The Drunken Sisters -- the Fates -- to save the life of Admetus.

The Alcestiad: Or, A Life In the Sun

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by WILDER, Thornton. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by WILDER, Thornton

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by WILDER, Thornton. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Heaven's My Destination: A Novel

The Ides of March: A Novel

The Eighth Day: A Novel (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)

Theophilus North: A Novel

The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play (Perennial Classics)

Eighth Day

The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Theophilus North

Theophilus North (A Cass Canfield book)

The Alcestiad: Or, A Life In the Sun