Thornton Wilder

Thornton Niven Wilder (1897–1975) was an American playwright and novelist born in Madison, Wisconsin. He studied at Yale and Princeton and became known for writing that explored mortality, community, memory, and the passage of time with remarkable simplicity and warmth.

Wilder won three Pulitzer Prizes: for The Bridge of San Luis Rey in 1928, Our Town in 1938, and The Skin of Our Teeth in 1943. Our Town, his best-known play, remains a landmark of American theater.

Beyond fiction and drama, Wilder worked as a translator, teacher, lecturer, screenwriter, and essayist. He collaborated with Alfred Hitchcock on the 1943 film Shadow of a Doubt and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963.