Our Town
(Thornton Wilder)

Thornton Wilder was born in Wisconsin in 1897. He received his higher education from Oberlin College in Ohio and subsequently Yale University, after which he spent one year in Rome. Upon returning from Rome, Wilder began teaching French at a prep school in New Jersey. He was first published in 1926 with the novel “The Cabala” but did not achieve literary fame until the following year when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for “The Bridge of San Luis Rey”. He soon quit his teaching job and put all of his efforts into his writing, quickly becoming one of the most well-known writers of his generation.During the 1930’s, he was panned by critics for publishing frivolous work that did not address the grim realities of the Depression. He soon turned to writing plays, where his light-hearted work could be appreciated.

In 1938 Wilder’s most famous play, “Our Town”, debuted on Broadway and earned him another Pulitzer Prize. “Our Town” is set in the fictional Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, a town that experiences the same hypocrisy and social injustice as real-life cities but with a brotherly camaraderie that most real-life places do not possess, especially in the face of the Depression; “Our Town” served as a bit of a slap in the face to the critics who had panned his literary style. Rather than concentrate on politics, as many writers of the time had been doing, “Our Town” is a celebration of humanity and everyday experiences; it encourages people to find joy in the details of life in a time when the world seemed to be crumbling.