Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia - by Thomas S Hischak (Hardcover)

About the Book

This encyclopedia exhaustively covers Thornton Wilder, one of America's greatest writers. It features a biography of Wilder's life and career, followed by entries that cover the people who worked with him, friends and family members who were of great influence, and every novel...

Book Synopsis

This encyclopedia exhaustively covers Thornton Wilder, one of America's greatest writers. It features a biography of Wilder's life and career, followed by entries that cover the people who worked with him, friends and family members who were of great influence, and every novel, play, film script, and other literary work by Wilder.

Review Quotes

A prolific author of works on the performing arts, Hischak here turns his attention to iconic American writer Thornton Wilder (1897-1975).... This style should appeal to students looking for an abbreviated approach versus a traditional biography.Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; general readers.

The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia is an extensive and insightful overview of the life, works, and influence of Thornton Wilder, a man whose erudition, brilliance, and familiarity with multiple centuries, languages, and cultures merited the title of "Vast Encyclopedia" for one book-length scholarly study of his theatrical creations.

Thomas S. Hischak provides an invaluable service to Thornton Wilder scholars, enthusiasts, and fans with this encyclopedia of the author's life and multi-faceted career (playwright, novelist, essayist, lecturer). It is an essential, one-stop shopping reference book for all things Wilder. His detailed and fact-filled performance histories of Wilder's drama are especially useful for this most-produced American playwright.

Thomas S. Hischak's The Thornton Wilder Encyclopedia is a must-have for the director and dramaturg of any production of a Wilder play, for a scholar beginning a project on Wilder's fiction or drama, and for fans who want to know more about Wilder's life and works without having to slog through the long biographies and critical studies. Hischak's summaries of Wilder's works (both famous and less widely known) offer a consensus of critical reception and analysis. The appendices provide useful lists of casts of major productions of the well-known plays and characters in the novels. His entries on a variety of topics (Wilder's sexuality, letter and journal writing, lecturing, major themes in the fiction and drama, his female characters) are insightful yet concise. Every university or college library should purchase a copy for their reference room as it will help students write papers on a Wilder performance or reading assignment.

About the Author

Thomas S. Hischak is an internationally recognized writer and teacher in the performing arts. He is the author of twenty-six non-fiction books about theatre, film, and popular music, including the Rowman & Littlefield titles Theatre as Human Action: An Introduction to Theatre Arts, The Disney Song Encyclopedia (with Mark A. Robinson), The Encyclopedia of Film Composers, The 100 Greatest American Plays, 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year, and 100 Greatest American and British Animated Films.