Injectg Conversatns on Genr, Race, and Gay Rights to Thornton Wilr’s ‘Our Town’

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* THORNTON WILDER GAY

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class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM ByleLk-gEnFiw iUEiRd ggMZaT cXqSTL eErqIx byle__name-lk button" href="/ntributors/robert-gottlieb">Robert Gottlieb</a></span></span></p></div><time data-ttid="ContentHearPublishDate" dateTime="2012-12-30T23:00:00-05:00" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ ContentHearPublishDate-eIBicG iUEiRd kYZrFA kEBrdf">December 30, 2012</time></div></div></div></div></div></hear></div><div data-attribute-verso-pattern="article-body" class="ArticlePageContentBackGround-cNiFNN kbAoLA article-body__ntent"><div class="ActnBarWrapperContent-lasBkU cAHp"><div class="ActnBarWrapperComponent-cjwxLS bEeSLb"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="ActnBarWrapper-dhxmQh kNjTbQ viewport-monor-anchor"><button id="bookmark" aria-label="Save this story" class="ActnBarButton-dyFOZU hQrwCF bookmark large-screen"><span class="ActnBarSendaryButtonPrimaryIn-isbvyN cAwccV bookmark-button-in"><svg class="in in-bookmark" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 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kGxnNB rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO KhjZz AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset rponsive-image rponsive-image--expandable"><noscript><img alt="Wh the succs of “Our Town” Wilr was not merely a famo wrer but a sage." class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w, 1920w, 2240w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></span></div><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE iTuhkZ ptn AssetEmbedCaptn-fNQBPI fmQnYP asset-embed__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo iXWezO ptn__text">Wh the succs of “Our Town,” Wilr was not merely a famo wrer but a sage.</span><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnCred-ejegDm iUEiRd iicloT jbIJNS ptn__cred">Illtratn by André Carrilho</span></div></figure></div><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg">What is left of Thornton Wilr, our only wrer to have won a Pulzer Prize for both drama (twice) and fictn, and at one time a kd of semi-official cultural spokman for Ameri? The Library of Ameri has voted three volum to his work—sometim the kiss of life, sometim the kiss of ath. “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” is still beg assigned to teen-agers school ( sells about seven thoand pi a year), though what they make of is beyond my imagg. And, of urse, “Our Town” go on and on and on and on. Is there a high school Ameri that hasn’t staged ? I myself, my senr year—back 1948, when the play was only ten years old—was attemptg, agast the odds, to be New Englandy as the Stage Manager.</p><p class="paywall">And now Wilr has spired a very long, thorough, and somewhat misguid bgraphy, “Thornton Wilr: A Life” (HarperColls), by Penelope Niven, who has produced parably exhstive tom about Carl Sandburg and Edward Steichen. Niven giv Wilr her all, and ’s both too much and not enough. Too much, that the tail is too undifferentiated. (Do we really need to know, for stance, that his sister Isabel, England her early twenti, “studied Old English embroiry and sign at the Oxford Cy-County Council School, and ded a ‘celebrated urse’ Rtoratn drama at Lln College as well as an English lerature urse at Christ Church”?) Too ltle, that she ignor (or don’t regnize) disturbg plexi Wilr’s nature and slis past episos and relatnships that are ls than attractive.</p><p class="paywall">And yet she gets a good al right, begng wh her unrstandg that fay—<em>his</em> fay—was at the re of Wilr’s existence, and that his father was the overpowerg prence his psyche. “There are tim,” he wrote to his brother when he was twenty-eight, “when I feel his perpetual and repetive monologue is tryg to swamp my personaly, and I get an awful rage.” Much of Wilr’s work echo, however sublimally, his stggle to break away om Amos Wilr’s unrelentg need to domate his life, his ias, even his soul. The touchg scene “Our Town” where Dr. Gibbs gently admonish his adolcent son, Gee, for selfishly failg to chop wood for his mother may remd of the sentimental father-son talks between Lewis Stone and Mickey Rooney the “Andy Hardy” movi (of the same perd), but ’s hard not to thk of as a kd of wish fulfillment—this was certaly not the tone of the enunters, early and late, between Thornton and the father who, although sympathetic, was also overprotective, over-proscriptive, and overcril. It as no surprise that the most vlent moment “The Sk of Our Teeth” is a near-fatal physil blowup between Mr. Antrob and the nasty young Henry, the aggrsn g om the son, or that the central actn of the late novel “The Eighth Day” volv a son murrg his father. When, after a long, bilatg illns, Amos Wilr fally died, Thornton was the only one of his five children who didn’t make to the funeral.</p><p class="paywall">Mr. Wilr was a man of rigid prcipl and strong abili that were ultimately trated—at var tim, he was a newspaper edor, a lumnist, a renowned public speaker, and the Amerin nsul-general both Hong Kong and Shanghai. (Thornton attend a missn school northern Cha; his fellow-stunts clud Henry Luce, wh whom he went on to have a plited lifelong relatnship.)</p><p class="paywall">The first Wilr child was named Amos, after his father, and he was the ial son—handsome, ser, a California tennis champn who beme a theologian and mister. Thornton, born 1897, me next (there was a stillborn tw). The olst girl was Charlotte—sensive, a poet, passnately pennt, and a victim of severe prsn and schizophrenia, and out of stutns for most of her adulthood. The next girl was Isabel (after her mother, Isabella), also a wrer, who was Thornton’s clost nnectn through much of their liv. The last of the Wilrs was Ja, almost an afterthought, who ped the cshg attentn of her father and went on to a uful—you might say, normal—life. She was the one who got away.</p><div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--article-mid-ntent" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--article-mid-ntent nsumer-marketg-un__slot---ntent"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><p class="paywall">As for Mrs. Wilr, she was attractive, clever, nurturg, and trapped for most of her life a marriage that she obvly regretted. Niven says that Isabella “often told her hband that their weddg day was ‘the worst day that ever befell eher of .’ ” The Wilrs disagreed about most thgs, cludg the children. (Their father, Isabel later remarked, “regnized Thornton’s talents, but to him they had to be protected; to our mother, they had to be fed.”) Her life was spent acmodatg and challengg her difficult hband, and pg wh an eternal and exhstg lack of money.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-1 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">To his father, Thornton, though clearly brilliant, was also a weaklg, a dilettante. Every summer, well to his twenti, his father sent him off to do physil labor on farms, thereby “riddg him of his peculiar ga and certa effemate ways.” He sisted that, rather than go to his own alma mater, Yale, Thornton should go to Oberl; s manners and morals were more appropriate. He arranged for Thornton, returng om a post-llege stay abroad, to teach French at the Lawrenceville School, near Prceton—a job that lasted four years. He cricized Thornton’s wrg: as late as 1935, when Thornton was almost thirty-eight years old and a world-famo wrer, Amos wrote to Charlotte about the novel “Heaven’s My Dtatn”: “I spect Hawthorne and Geo. Elt would handle certa aspects differently and shall tell Thornton so though I have not read full.”</p><p class="paywall">An Amerin, Wilr wrote his journal, “is a man who has outgrown his father,” and Thornton slowly distanced himself om his, prevailg on the central issue of how to spend his life—he would be a wrer, no matter what his father might have preferred. Even more basic, perhaps: “My father was a man of relig nvictn. [My relign] was gone before I missed , like a at left some railway statn. Even my Oberl days I had formulated for myself the phrase: <em>relign is the emanatn om an extct star</em>.” But though he might have abandoned God, he never fully revered om the bedrock Puranism that was his father’s fg qualy.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Long before high school, Wilr was dashg off playlets and sks, and when, after two years at Oberl, he was fally allowed to go to Yale he was workg on full-length plays as well as wrg stori and says. He got on the end of the First World War, enlistg the Coast Artillery Corps, then gog back to Yale to fish up. In 1920, after graduatg, he took up an eight-month rincy as a prospective archeologist at the Amerin Amy Rome, followed by a brief sojourn Paris before returng home to take up his duti at Lawrenceville.</p><p class="paywall">The time he spent Rome wined his tellectual visn and sharpened his social skills. When he wasn’t wrg plays and sendg them off (only to be rejected) to producers like the Theatre Guild, he was pallg around wh other young graduate stunts and artists. But he also got ught up a world of elrly society women, whose gossipy stori he listened to avidly while they fed him tea and dner (his funds were sperately low). He was danger, he acknowledged, of beg “a nfirmed ltle brother of the rich,” rmg his mother that he “never paid a more than languid attentn” to the young girls. At the same time, his activi as an archeologist—particularly an enunter wh a trove of fay patgs disvered an ancient tomb—were suggtg to him the ntuy of human existence and the universaly of human experience.</p><div class="Contaer-bkChBi byNLHx"></div><p class="paywall">Around this time, he suffered a severe emotnal crisis—a love affair that went vastatgly wrong when the person he fell love wh rebuffed him. “I loved wh all the exaggeratn one n image,” he wrote to a close iend, “but I was not only not loved so return. I was lghed at.” Wilr never named the person he was love wh, but ’s clear that was a man. (His tert women was unshakably nonsexual.) His homosexualy—his sexualy—was kept a dark secret. Young men appear and disappear his life: a handsome young actor who, as Niven puts , “told Thornton he had loved beg wh him ‘that night,’ more than he uld know”; a boy om an “imposg New York fay” he enuntered Napl 1920—thkg he was a soldier, he reports to his fay, “I ran back and spoke to him, vg him to have an ice cream wh me.” They then spent several days together, explorg Pompeii and climbg Vuvi.</p><p class="paywall">The only unambiguo acunt we have of Thornton Wilr’s sexual life om a young man named Samuel Steward, whom Gert Ste had beiend and sent to vis him Zurich, 1937. Steward wrote his tobgraphy that after the two men went to bed together there they met for the same purpose on var ocsns Paris and Chigo. In an terview Steward gave 1993, when he was eighty-five, he nclud that Wilr was “aaid of sex,” elaboratg, “Thornton always went about havg sex as though were somethg gog on behd his back and he didn’t know anythg about .” Niven ti herself knots her discsn of Wilr’s nfg sexualy, lookg for the bright si and eventually fdg :</p><blockquote class="BlockquoteEmbedWrapper-sc-SdiGL jPeLne paywall blockquote-embed"><div class="BlockquoteEmbedContent-RbGs gmbtPx blockquote-embed__ntent"><p>Heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual—whatever his clatns and volvements may have been—he was a product of his era and his fay, supremely nscient and thoughtful by nature and by upbrgg.</p></div></blockquote></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><asi class="PersistentAsiWrapper-VGrR daRVRt persistent-asi" style="posn:absolute;top:to;height:to" data-ttid="PersistentAsiWrapper"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="1no95"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></asi></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="7xeyl9"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Asked once why he had never married, Wilr answered, “Well—y’know—I’m not one very much for passn.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">It was om his Roman stay that Wilr fashned his first novel, “The Cabala,” but this was not the mg of personal experience typil of most first novels. There is ed a first-person narrator, a young Amerin visg Rome, but he’s barely characterized and has no real life of his own. Through his archeologist iend Blair, he fds himself a posn of semi-timacy wh a “circle so powerful and exclive that all the Romans refer to them wh bated breath as the Cabala”—om a highly fluential Cardal to the adolcent son of a rich woman who kills himself a paroxysm of ct and guilt. But the heart of the book is the disastro relatnship between Blair and the dazzlg Prcs Alix, who falls madly love wh him and is rejected as wantonly and celly as Wilr himself had been rejected. Her suffergs rg te; the rt is clever embroiry. (Includg the bizarre implitn at the end that the members of the bala are some way rernatns of the ancient gods.)</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“O.K. Im off to do some nng and offkey sgg.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“O.K., I’m off to do some nng and off–key sgg.”</span></div><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTA-eiqqMB iDCQRs"><div class="RponsiveCartoonCTAWrapper-CYIqa iTbFtf"><div class="RponsiveCartoonLkButtonWrapper-hqDAJK eSEhbj"><button aria-label="Copy lk to rtoon" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Copy lk to rtoon</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-pylk" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Copy lk to rtoon</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178637)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M16.3488 10.5017C16.2107 10.7357 16.2926 11.035 16.5318 11.17C16.7709 11.3052 17.0767 11.225 17.2148 10.991L18.4648 8.87225C19.5694 7.00002 18.9139 4.60601 17.0007 3.52508C15.0875 2.44415 12.6412 3.08562 11.5366 4.95785L9.53657 8.34782C8.432 10.22 9.08751 12.6141 11.0007 13.6949C11.1888 13.8012 11.382 13.8908 11.5785 13.9642C11.7819 14.0403 12.0058 13.9485 12.1147 13.764C12.2794 13.4849 12.1103 13.1276 11.8083 12.9992C11.7041 12.9549 11.6014 12.9044 11.5007 12.8475C10.0658 12.0368 9.57417 10.2413 10.4026 8.83712L12.4026 5.44715C13.2311 4.04298 15.0658 3.56187 16.5007 4.37257C17.9356 5.18327 18.4272 6.97878 17.5988 8.38295L16.3488 10.5017ZM7.6526 13.4983C7.79067 13.2643 7.70873 12.965 7.46959 12.8299C7.23044 12.6948 6.92464 12.775 6.78657 13.009L5.53657 15.1278C4.432 17 5.0875 19.394 7.00068 20.475C8.91385 21.5558 11.3602 20.9144 12.4648 19.0422L14.4648 15.6521C15.5694 13.78 14.9139 11.3859 13.0007 10.305C12.8127 10.1988 12.6195 10.1091 12.4229 10.0357C12.2195 9.95975 11.9956 10.0515 11.8867 10.236C11.7221 10.5151 11.8911 10.8724 12.1932 11.0008C12.2973 11.0451 12.4 11.0956 12.5007 11.1525C13.9356 11.9632 14.4272 13.7587 13.5988 15.1628L11.5988 18.5529C10.7704 19.957 8.93555 20.4382 7.50068 19.6274C6.0658 18.8167 5.57417 17.0212 6.4026 15.6171L7.6526 13.4983Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178637"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button><div class="AlertWrapper-gvFATk MdjE RponsiveCartoonLkAlertPopup-BPAXn kdMXRM shoppg-alert" role="dialog"><div aria-hidn="te" role="prentatn" class="AlertArrow-daOgye AlLda alert-arrow"></div><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ AlertMsage-jgAjgo bVCFRm ifgabc iOlxjf alert-msage"><p aria-hidn="te">Lk pied</p></div></div></div><button aria-label="Shop" class="BaseButton-bLlsy ButtonWrapper-xCepQ bqVKKv YsOBB button button--primary-pair RponsiveCartoonInButton-hBCBMq lpsjql" data-event-click="{"element":"Button"}" data-ttid="Button" type="button"><span class="ButtonLabel-cjAuJN bBWXSg button__label">Shop</span><div class="ButtonInWrapper-gFdzAL bPDyTT button__in-ntaer"><svg class="in in-rt" width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" xmlns="><tle>Shop</tle><g clip-path="url(#clip0_3732_178638)"><path fill-le="evenodd" clip-le="evenodd" d="M4 3H2V4H4.23828L6.99617 15.2631C7.11483 15.6982 7.50998 16 7.96094 16H18.0365C18.4875 16 18.8826 15.6982 19.0013 15.2631L20.9648 7.26312C21.1383 6.62698 20.6594 6 20 6H10V7H20L18.0365 15H7.96094L5.03652 3H4.58055H4ZM10.0365 19C10.0365 19.5523 9.58881 20 9.03652 20C8.48424 20 8.03652 19.5523 8.03652 19C8.03652 18.4477 8.48424 18 9.03652 18C9.58881 18 10.0365 18.4477 10.0365 19ZM11.0365 19C11.0365 20.1046 10.1411 21 9.03652 21C7.93195 21 7.03652 20.1046 7.03652 19C7.03652 17.8954 7.93195 17 9.03652 17C10.1411 17 11.0365 17.8954 11.0365 19ZM18.0365 19C18.0365 19.5523 17.5888 20 17.0365 20C16.4842 20 16.0365 19.5523 16.0365 19C16.0365 18.4477 16.4842 18 17.0365 18C17.5888 18 18.0365 18.4477 18.0365 19ZM19.0365 19C19.0365 20.1046 18.1411 21 17.0365 21C15.932 21 15.0365 20.1046 15.0365 19C15.0365 17.8954 15.932 17 17.0365 17C18.1411 17 19.0365 17.8954 19.0365 19Z" fill="black"></path></g><fs><clipPath id="clip0_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath><clipPath id="clip1_3732_178638"><rect width="24" height="24" fill="whe"></rect></clipPath></fs></svg></div></button></div></div></div></span></div></figure><p class="paywall">“The Cabala,” published 1926, received a good al of attentn, most of posive, and sold a rpectable five thoand pi. Nothg about s receptn, however, hted at what would happen when, almost two years later, Wilr published “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” which won the Pulzer and was the top-sellg novel of the year—well over two hundred thoand pi. No one really unrstood s immense succs. Perhaps the book’s trigug ncept was enough. The first sentence reads, “On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the ft bridge all Pe broke and precipated five travelers to the gulf below.” At once, a Francisn named Brother Juniper term to disver why this happened to the five people: “If there were any plan the universe at all, if there were any pattern a human life, surely uld be disvered mysterly latent those liv so sudnly cut off. Eher we live by accint and die by accint, or we live by plan and die by plan.”</p><p class="paywall">As “The Cabala,” the dividual stori of the ma characters, told separate sectns, are the meat of the novel. We have the Marqua Montemayor, a sad old woman whose dghter, for whom she has a great passn, dislik her and has chosen to live Spa. (This relatnship was based on the passn of the great letter wrer Madame Sévigné for her dghter.) Wh the Marqua di her lonely servant maid, Pepa. A poor scribe, Esteban, is also on the bridge; he’s crazed wh mourng for his tw brother, who has recently died, nursg a hopels fatuatn for the celebrated actrs known as “the Perichole.” Her ltle boy and her “Uncle P,” who nurtured her, traed her, and served her, are the other victims of the accint.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-2 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Is there a pattern? The old Abbs of the Convent of Santa María Rosa las Rosas, who some ways pris over the novel, has the fal words: “There is a land of the livg and a land of the ad and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meang.” Well, if you say so, Abbs. Prumably this satisfied the quasi-mysticism of many rears of the time.</p><p class="paywall">The follow-up to “Bridge” was “The Woman of Andros,” a short, mannered novel that went even farther back time—to ancient Greece, and a wise and misunrstood oime woman of pleasure who has e to live on a remote island, where she di, sayg, “I praise the world and all livg. All that is, is well.” The book ends on an arbrary (and irratg) Christian note: “And the East the stars shone tranquilly down upon the land that was soon to be lled Holy and that even then was preparg s prec burn.”</p><p class="paywall">The three early novels, all refully crafted and meticuloly wrten, ma Thornton Wilr a big name and, cintally, ma him a pile of money. (He quickly built a hoe for his fay Connecticut, referred to as “the Hoe ‘The Bridge’ built.”) But they also brought down on him the most vic attack his work ever received, a long snarl of disda <em>The New Republic</em> om Michael Gold, the thor of the flammatory “Jews Whout Money,” who lled him the “Ey Post of culture.” Accg him of ignorg the ndns of Amerin society and of wrg as the “poet of the genteel bourgeoisie,” Gold challenged him to wre a book about ntemporary Ameri. Wilr’s next novel, “Heaven’s My Dtatn,” was part an answer to that challenge.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Wilr’s life the middle to late neteen-twenti was highly Eurocentric. In 1926, he found himself aga Paris, where he fell to the lerary world, makg a good iend of the about-to-be-famo Hemgway; they even nsired sharg digs. (To his fay: “I’d love to go to the stud wh Ernt, but there are no meals wh . He eats around wh the enormo and flamboyant Roton crowd. And his wife is about to divorce him and his new wife is about to arrive om Ameri, so I thk I’d better not try. But he’s wonrful. Its the first time I’ve met someone of my own generatn whom I rpected <em>as an artist</em>.”)</p><p class="paywall">He also rpected Glenway Wtt, whose lovely novel “The Grandmothers” ma a big stir the summer of 1927. “I’m jealo,” he wrote to a iend. “My only satisfactn is that the 3 mketeers aged 30 = Ernt Hemgway, Glenway Wtt and I may puncture the flated rep’s of the prev fashns: the Sherwood Anrsons, Cabells, Cathers, what not. You’ll sld me for that, but by dt of beg most most of the time I allow myself a ltle party of nce every now and then.” It would seem that his habual mosty and genialy, however genue, masked a large ambn and a strong belief his powers. As early as 1921, he had wrten to his father, “I am gog to be at a ightful disadvantage for some years, sheepish and put-upon, but when I am disvered thgs will be vulgarly rplennt; I vend a ke Amerins will hug.”</p><p class="paywall">Returng om Paris, he rooted himself firmly Ameri. Robert Hutchs, an old iend om Yale, duced him to e to Chigo to teach at the universy he led, and for some time Wilr centered his life there—far, we may note, om his fay the East. He had already begun makg solary exploratns, by r, of the south and wt of the untry. By 1930, he uld wre to a iend, “I know Ameri down to every absurd Keep Sg Club, every gas statn, every hot-dog stand.”</p><p class="paywall">This immediate and fond ntact wh the reali of his time and place, as opposed to the bookishns of his first three works of fictn, giv “Heaven’s My Dtatn” an extraordary valy and ease. Here is a book that provis total pleasure—a pirque ntemporary “Candi” or “Don Quixote,” wrten wh both affectn and a gimlet eye, about a young, earnt textbook salman (terrory: Oklahoma and Texas), Gee Bsh, who don’t drk, don’t smoke, and don’t believe unmarried sex, and who blunrs to one ludicro suatn after another through his honty and naïveté. He’s thrown to jail for refg, on prciple, to accept tert on the money a bank is holdg for him. He mistak the girls a small-town whorehoe for nice workg girls (and sists on takg them all to the movi). He tri to nvce people of the soundns of his views. (“I don’t see how a fe girl like you n believe that the Bible tells li and that we e om monkeys, and that ’s all right for girls to smoke cigarett. What be of the world if we let all those ias to ?”) He’s beaten up and betrayed, and he grows moralized and ill as the reali of life slowly break on his shg, ridiculo rectu. But he revers, and ntu on his slow journey toward . . . Heaven.</p><p class="paywall">Some rears took “Heaven’s My Dtatn” as a satire on Christiany and the Midwt, but today reads like a lovg edy. Isabel told Glenway Wtt that Gee Bsh was a mixture of their father, Thornton himself, his iend the boxg champn Gene Tunney, and Candi. Wilr said that he meant Bsh “to be seen as learng episo after episo better how to renr his stctive goodns and unworldls effective. It’s an Edutn Novel.” Not a surprise: Wilr was always an tor at heart. His years at Lawrenceville and the Universy of Chigo were only the profsnal maniftatns of his need to stct. Kenh Tynan put this way, a profile he wrote for the London <em>Observer</em> 1955: “Wilr is perpetually aflame wh ias, and his te votn is that of cultural evangelist. Faced wh the variety of human knowledge, he licks his lips, eats omnivoroly and transms his light letters and lectur to fellow-wrers all over the world. Few men learn more hungrily or teach more generoly.”</p><p class="paywall">It was Chigo, 1934, that he first enuntered the woman who was to be his most stimulatg lerary spiratn. “At prent,” he wrote to a iend, “I am the secretary, errand boy-pann of Gert Ste who is teachg here for two weeks—a great, sensible, gallant gal and a great treat.” They remaed close until she died, and he enthiastilly shepherd and promoted her work Ameri. On her ath, he wrote to Alice Toklas, “<em class="small">WASN’T IT WONDERFUL TO HAVE KNOWN AND LOVED HER</em>? What glory! What fun! What goodns! What loveablens. . . . Long after you and I are ad she will be beg clearer and clearer as the great thker and the great soul of our time.”</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-3 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">That same year, he was also makg forays to Hollywood, workg for Samuel Goldwyn on a script based on Tolstoy’s “Rurrectn”; on an aborted “Joan of Arc” for Kathare Hepburn; on a proposed versn of “Twelfth Night” for Marn Davi. A telegram to his mother: “Was offered and turned down solo job on next Garbo picture stop Roller skated wh Walt Disney.” Hollywood, he wrote to a iend, is “a mixture of very hard work and the dtr ntrivance of untths.” (His one signifint film venture was wrg, years later—for and wh Hchck—the script of “Shadow of a Doubt.”)</p><p class="paywall">Through the mid-thirti, he was aga makg trips to Europe, the high pot of one them a seri of meetgs wh Frd, who, he tells Ste, said to him, “My dghter Anna will be so sorry to have missed you. You n e aga? She is olr than you—you do not have to be aaid. She is a sensible reasonable girl. You are not aaid of women? She is a sensible—no nonsense about her. Are you married, may I ask?” To which he appends three exclamatn pots and the remark “Really a betiful old man.”</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">In 1936, Wilr rigned om the Universy of Chigo, termed to give up wrg fictn orr to foc on beg a succsful dramatist. He began a number of plays, cludg “Our Town,” which he worked on at the MacDowell Colony and, eventually, an isolated hotel outsi Zurich—for a while, he was the only gut. As he once wrote to his man of bs, “I hate beg alone. And I hate wrg. But I n only wre when I’m alone. So the workg spells be both my antipathi.” (In the sixti, on one of his long swgs around the untry, his r gave out as he was drivg to the small town of Douglas, Arizona, and he stayed there by himself for a year and a half, workg on “The Eighth Day.”)</p><p class="paywall">It took more than two years for “Our Town” to reach Broadway, but was a triumph when fally did, s immediate impact stemmg om s unual stage techniqu: the figure of the Stage Manager speakg directly to the dience, explag, philosophizg; the stripped-down, practilly bare stage. (In fact, Wilr had ed the techniqu earlier, his still popular one-act plays “The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camn” and “Pullman Car Hiawatha.”) From start to fish, the play suggted—and the dience grasped—that, spe the sweetns and sadns of the particulars, what was takg place was tend to be Universal.</p><p class="paywall">When “Our Town” was filmed (wh Martha Stt, repeatg her stage role of Ey and nomated for an Osr, and William Holn as Gee, one of his earlit rol), the movie that emerged proved to be an unfortunate hybrid—film is too specific, too ncrete, to adjt for “Our Town” ’s folksy abstractns. Equally unfortunate was a 1955 TV mil starrg Frank Satra (“Love and Marriage”), wh Eva Marie Sat and Pl Newman as Ey and Gee. (Almost fifty years later, Newman played the Stage Manager both on Broadway and on televisn.)</p><figure class="AssetEmbedWrapper-eVDQiB byBkf asset-embed"><div class="AssetEmbedAssetContaer-eJxoAx dBHGoQ asset-embed__asset-ntaer"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kKwZhx rponsive-asset AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset"><div data-attr-viewport-monor="" class="RponsiveCartoonWrapper-iTMMjI eXTYsS rponsive-rtoon AssetEmbedRponsiveAsset-cXBNxi eCxVQK asset-embed__rponsive-asset viewport-monor-anchor"><a class="external-lk rponsive-rtoon__image-lk" data-event-click="{"element":"ExternalLk","outgogURL":"" href=" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa RponsiveCartoonImage-hzNqyc ikeCcH rponsive-rtoon__image rponsive-image"><noscript><img alt="“Wa I fot to add bread cmbs.”" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src=" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w, 960w, 1280w, 1600w" siz="100vw"/></noscript></picture></a><div class="CaptnWrapper-jSZdqE gdZTpI ptn RponsiveCartoonCaptn-dokfdF hJgaLQ rponsive-rtoon__ptn"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ CaptnText-bHjzlu iUEiRd hWyo bsWloa ptn__text">“Wa! 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He was now not merely a succsful wrer but a sage, a spokman—a role that he seems to have relished, or at least tolerated. As a wrer, he psed: Glenway Wtt lled such laps his creative life “myster lulls.” He travelled; he worked on aborted plays; he appeared as the Stage Manager at least a dozen productns of “Our Town”; he beme an official reprentative of the State Department, of <em class="small">PEN</em>. And his crowd beme more and more a celebry crowd—Alexanr Woolltt, the acerbic actrs Ruth Gordon. On the subject of his iends, an earlier, disenchanted bgrapher, Richard Goldstone (who had nducted a <em>Paris Review</em> terview wh Wilr 1956), put this way: “A staed iendship for him was all but an impossibily lyg beyond his emotnal means. All he uld afford were Ruth Gordons, Alice Toklas, and miscellaneo other olr ladi sttered over Ameri and Europe who st him nothg—and gave him nothg.” There are many probg, even discreet, moments Goldstone’s 1975 book, subtled “An Intimate Portra.” A typil passage: “Clearly there exist beneath the surface of high spirs, tratns and anxieti, sorrows and spicns, psychic wounds, creative blocks, and rentments: the entire apparat of spirual wo that afflicts man general and wrers particular.” No wonr that the ultra-private Wilr was uncharacteristilly angry at this “timate portra.”</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan full-bleed-ad row-mid-ntent-ad"><div class="StickyMidContentAdWrapper-fSBzwl drzyIa ad-stickymidntent"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--mid-ntent should-hold-space"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--mid-ntent" data-no-id="xqsx9"></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ArticlePageChunksGrid-hfxa bjczjj grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="BodyWrapper-kufPGa EOneK body body__ntaer article__body" data-journey-hook="client-ntent" data-ttid="BodyWrapper"><div class="body__ner-ntaer"><p class="paywall">Niven virtually ignor Goldstone’s work, although much of is startlg and revelatory. His book acts as a rrective to her near-haggraphy.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">When the Send World War broke out, Wilr began thkg about the play that beme “The Sk of Our Teeth”; s subject was, sentially, the history of mankd—talk about Universal! (He was obssed at this time wh Joyce’s all-enpassg “Fnegans Wake,” recently published—there was a mi-sndal when several scholars acced him of pilferg om for his play.) However, by 1942, when “The Sk of Our Teeth” was beg mounted, he was far om Broadway, havg joed, at the age of forty-five, the Army Air Force. For the most part, he left to sister Isabel to monor the rehearsal progrs, a toxic nightmare of rivalri and treacheri volvg the director, Elia Kazan, and the stars—Fredric March and his wife, Florence Eldridge, as Mr. and Mrs. Antrob, and Tallulah Bankhead as the irreprsible Saba, who, the urse of the ten thoand or so years vered by the actn, appears as a hoemaid, a bety queen, and a mp follower. (The young Monty Clift played the Antrob son.) The mefield, predictably, was Tallulah. (Kazan: “I’ve hated only two people my life. One was Tallulah Bankhead.”) But, spe the blood, sweat, and tears of gettg the play on, was a cril and popular triumph, wng Wilr his third Pulzer.</p><p class="paywall">His Air Force reer was another succs. He spent most of overseas, first North Ai, then Italy. “As a staff officer the Air Plans divisn,” Niven wr, “Wilr terrogated prisoners of war, gathered and prepared telligence, briefed and briefed Allied pilots, and worked on plans for air attacks.” He rose om pta to litenant lonel, wng the Bronze Star. But his health was badly damaged by his experienc the field, so that when he was discharged, 1945, he was unable to accept the State Department’s offer to bee cultural attaché Paris.</p><p class="paywall">Instead, he me back home and began work on his first novel a dozen years: “The Is of March,” a medatn on Juli Caar and Caar’s Rome, genly told epistolary form. Wilr’s Caar is a realist—ught up ighteng rponsibili, seeg life more clearly than those around him do, supremely isolated. To some rears, seemed a masked self-portra; to others, an existential visn of mankd—Wilr knew and admired Sartre. (Clodia to Caar: “When I said that life was horrible, you said no, that life was neher horrible nor betiful. That livg had no character at all and had no meang. You said that <em>the universe did not know that men were livg </em>.”) “The Is of March” is bt read as an absorbg historil renstctn, enlivened by such fascators as Cicero, Catull, and, of urse, Cleopatra. (“The Queen of Egypt is approachg. Missy Crodile is beg fanned across the stras.”) Although had nsirable mercial succs, to Wilr’s nsternatn failed to engage the attentn of a sgle major lerary cric; by now, the tablishment was thkg of him as fortably middlebrow, part of the world of <em>The Saturday Review of Lerature</em> and the Book-of-the-Month Club.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-4 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">Around this time, he began focsg even more pulsively on “Fnegans Wake” and on an attempt to sort out the chronology of the hundreds and hundreds of plays of the great classic Spanish playwright Lope Vega. The scholarly activi voured huge amounts of his time, until eventually he realized that they were stctive addictns, sappg his tert his own work, and he gave them up: “I thk that this passn [for Lope] was a eful therapy: pure rearch has nothg to do wh human begs.”</p><p class="paywall">In the fifti, he rurrected his play “The Merchant of Yonkers,” based on a neteenth-century farce, which had been a failure some years earlier, directed by the famo Max Rehardt. Revented as “The Matchmaker,” a vehicle for Ruth Gordon, was a substantial h, first at the Edburgh Ftival, then London, and, fally, New York, where ran for more than a year, though that was nothg pared to the overwhelmg succs of the mil based on —“Hello, Dolly!” There were no more fancial prsur after that.</p><p class="paywall">His most amb novel, “The Eighth Day,” published 1967, was a bt-seller and wner of the Natnal Book Award. It’s a sprawlg novel about fay—Wilr referred to as “Ltle Women” as if were beg “mulled over by Dostoyevsky”—and there are echo of his own fay, particularly a dghter who, like poor Charlotte Wilr, liv out her life a mental stutn. It’s about fathers and sons, about Midwtern boardg-hoe life and life South Amerin mg mps; about hard work, stoic pri, domable energy. And ’s highly readable until, about two-thirds of the way through, s central character di (offstage) and the book wanrs away var directns, none of them really satisfyg. But until then ’s a triumph of narrative and characterizatn.</p><p class="paywall">Which is more than you n say for his fal novel, “Theophil North,” which a young man, workg over the summer as a tennis stctor Newport, Rho Island—scene of Wilr’s First World War service—handily solv the problems, practil and emotnal, of an assortment of men and women he enunters there. We’re back to “The Cabala,” wh a nterish hero standg apart om, and risg above, the rich surround. Niven se this fal work as beg imbued “wh lighthearted visn and ep-hearted wisdom,” but to me reads like an old man’s self-dulgent and smug fantasy of omniscience and omnipotence—and of youth.</p><p class="paywall">Niven’s almost unmediated admiratn for her subject is the most ser blemish on her -pth and pably anized bgraphy. Hyperbole l. The “openg nocturne” of “The Woman of Andros” was “later to be equently quoted as one of the most betiful passag Amerin fictn.” “ ‘The Eighth Day’ was a mag for attentn, and a lightng rod for crics.” Clichés abound. “Thornton was his glory.” “Shakpeare and Company was abuzz wh excement.” And when Niven strays om her immediate subject she n be astonishgly wrong: Prot “had published his last book, ‘The Guermant Way,’ May 1921. Thornton was most likely unaware that summer of 1921, as he wrote his cheap hotel room, that a cramped fifth-floor apartment near the Arc Trmphe, the great Prot, fallen on hard tim, had put down his pen, never to publish aga.” The are all flaws that would have pecially mortified Wilr, so scpulo a rearcher, so fastid and ol a stylist.</p><p class="has-dropp has-dropp__lead-standard-headg paywall">Thornton Wilr may have had myster lulls the work he produced for the public, but he never stopped wrg. There are as many as ten thoand letters, and Niven tells that “the pag his survivg journals, add to his survivg Joyce and Lope Vega not, yield an timated total of at least 1,250,000 words.” And she’s absolutely right when she says that the journals “nta some of his most important creative work.” It is the journals and letters that we n follow his most tertg thkg as he distills and reports his lerary reactns and tast. Here is the Wilr who rever Molière and Cervant, Gogol and Kafka, Nietzsche and Lady Murasaki. And Jane Aten: “How seldom rears seem to remark on all that ntempt for the whole human scene that li jt unr the surface”; her “only rource and nsolatn is the pleasure of the md observg absurdi.” (Is he talkg about Aten or about himself?)</p><p class="paywall">In his wrgs on drama, he speaks wonrfully about Shakpeare, “one of the few wrers all lerature who uld prent a young woman as both virtuo and tertg. He fashned ne of them and they ntue to affect the spirual weather of the world.” And he’s siarly sympathetic and tellg about Shaw, about the Greeks.</p><p class="paywall">Yet he don’t always live such a rarefied world. He’s funny and malic about both the French and the Irish. And 1937 he wr to Mabel Dodge Luhan about “Swg Time,” “In Atria or France go to see a Gger-Rogers-Fred-Astaire movie. Watch the dience. Spell-bound at somethg terribly unropean—all that technil effortls precisn; all that radiant youth burstg wh sex but not sex-huntg, sex-llectg; and all that alln to money, but money as fun, the Amerin love of nspicuo waste, not money-to-s-on, not money-to-ighten-wh. And fally when the pair really leap to one of those radiant waltz the Europeans know their bon that their day is over.”</p><p class="paywall">He also airs his dislik, ually of narrow-md or highfalut wrers. About Emerson ( a letter to Mallm Cowley): “Isn’t he awful? . . . The very syntax breath 3 meals a day wh hardworkg maids the kchen preparg them while the Seer entertas the msag and promptgs om the Over-Soul.” About Thore: “Only a basilly idle woodsman like Thore uld dulge lyril stat of gratu to all-beneficent Mother Nature; and uld spise his neighbors who wrtled wh her.” About “The Cocktail Party”: “No, sir, life is not rtricted to two choic only—dreary nsequentialy <em>or</em> absolute sathood. No, sir. T. S. Elt do not like people; he is some stung quiverg revulsn agast our human nature.” The religsy, the puranism of Hawthorne, of Mriac, of Gi, of Graham Greene (and of his father) nstantly offend him. First, last, and always, Wilr is a humanist.</p><div data-attr-viewport-monor="le-recirc" class="le-recirc-wrapper le-recirc-observer-target-5 viewport-monor-anchor"></div><p class="paywall">The journals and letters are also where we get our strongt sense of Wilr’s view of himself. The glimps are fleetg. At twenty, he wr to his grandmother, “I am a personaly peculiarly isolated.” In a letter to Stt Fzgerald, whom he had jt met: “It is wonrful to have been liked by you and to have been told so, for the self-nfince I have exhibed toward my work I have never been able to extend to my person”—he’s thirty. From his journal: “I am never ee of a sense of aquacy; I feel that I am forever dry when warmth is lled for, and warm when judic impersonaly is lled for”—he’s forty-three. “Oh, ’s my father’s hand still on me—stg over my social relatns not the pale st of thought, but the pale st of an hibed ference to an unexamed undiscrimatg ‘nicens’ toward everyone”—he’s fifty-seven. In a letter to a iend: “I’m one of the most extreme goers-alone I ever me across”—he’s closg on sixty.</p><p class="paywall">And so he registers self-doubt, self-distaste. Yet he uld also clare, “I’m no moper.” Ined, the rerd monstrat that he was gregar, iendly, and endlsly genero to others. A newsweekly once quoted him as sayg, “On my grave they will wre: Here li a man who tried to be obligg.” There are worse thgs to be. In a letter to another iend of Wilr’s, Alice Toklas says, “I have jt seen <em>The New Yorker</em> wh the review of Thornton’s ‘Is’—how ltle they like him—I was que aghast—when ’s so much easier to like him than not.” ♦</p></div></div></div><div class="GridItem-buujkM fVLMby grid--em grid-layout__asi"><div class="StickyBoxWrapper-jfYB jxBcTH sticky-box"><div class="StickyBoxPrimary-dzWDWL cdhYoN sticky-box__primary"><div class="AdWrapper-dQtivb fZrssQ ad ad--rail"><div class="ad__slot ad__slot--rail" data-no-id="qxzadl"></div></div><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--display-rail" role="prentatn" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--display-rail"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></div><div class="StickyBoxPlaceholr-grPmrg dxAvXx"></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 PaywallInleBarrierWhWrapperGrid-fyrGfS kLQIUk grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__le-barrier article__body"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"><asi class="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper-iBnuqk lfXXa-D" data-ttid="PaywallInleBarrierWrapper"><div class="ConsumerMarketgUnThemedWrapper-iUTMTf jssHut nsumer-marketg-un nsumer-marketg-un--paywall-le-barrier" role="prentatn" aria-live="pole" aria-hidn="te"><div class="nsumer-marketg-un__slot nsumer-marketg-un__slot--paywall-le-barrier"></div><div class="journey-un"></div></div></asi></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 ContentWrapperGrid-fvkmBv brYtrA grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="body body__ntaer"><div class="ntaer ntaer--body"><div class="ntaer--body-ner"></div></div></div></div></div></div></article><div class="ContentFooterWrapper-jVNdRG dTJkpP ArticlePageContentFooterGrid-ccsXYy eMZRHU article-body__footer"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><footer class="ContentFooterMagazeDisclaimer-gzKAqo iZIuUU" data-ttid="MagazeDisclaimerWrapper">Published the prt edn of the <a href="/magaze/2013/01/07" data-reactroot="">January 7, 2013</a>, issue.</footer></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div class="ContributorsWrapper-eNpWFu GWFsc ntributors" data-ttid="Contributors"></div></div></div></div><div class="RowWrapper-UmqTg HEhan"><div class="GridWrapper-cAzTTK kHBDeH grid grid-margs grid-ems-2 grid-layout--adrail narrow wi-adrail"><div class="GridItem-buujkM stRKV grid--em grid-layout__ntent"><div data-ttid="TagCloudWrapper" class="TagCloudWrapper-gGgndx ctyZyK ContentFooterTagCloud-krQmRG ZLGh"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudSectnHear-cOforY iUEiRd bPyAoD kQQRmu">More:</span><a href="/tag/elia-kazan" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Elia Kazan</span></a><a href="/tag/ernt-hemgway" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Ernt Hemgway</span></a><a href="/tag/f-stt-fzgerald" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">F. Stt Fzgerald</span></a><a href="/tag/gert-ste" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Gert Ste</span></a><a href="/tag/henry-david-thore" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">“Henry David Thore”</span></a><a href="/tag/aly" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Italy</span></a><a href="/tag/jane-sten" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Jane Aten</span></a><a href="/tag/kenh-tynan" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Kenh Tynan</span></a><a href="/tag/letters" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Letters</span></a><a href="/tag/library-of-ameri" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Library of Ameri</span></a><a href="/tag/marcel-prot" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Marcel Prot</span></a><a href="/tag/pl-newman" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Pl Newman</span></a><a href="/tag/plays" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Plays</span></a><a href="/tag/playwrights" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Playwrights</span></a><a href="/tag/pulzer-priz" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Pulzer Priz</span></a><a href="/tag/ralph-waldo-emerson" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Ralph Waldo Emerson</span></a><a href="/tag/rome" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Rome</span></a><a href="/tag/sigmund-d" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">Sigmund Frd</span></a><a href="/tag/t-s-elt" class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BaseLk-eNWuiM TagCloudLk-kvjZFu iUEiRd ggMZaT gFob hIhJOI"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ TagCloudName-eAUnLd iUEiRd gwIVBQ bUkXwu">T. 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Your lipstick says that may taste bter, but the tth often do.</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div data-ttid="BylWrapper" class="BylWrapper-KIudk irTIfE byl"><p class="ByleWrapper-jWHrLH dSEWiO byle byl__byle" data-ttid="ByleWrapper" emProp="thor" emType="><span emProp="name" class="ByleNamWrapper-jbHncj fuDQVo"><span data-ttid="ByleName" class="ByleName-kwmrLn cYaBaU byle__name"><span class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ BylePreamble-iJolpQ iUEiRd jslZfG gnILss byle__preamble">By </span>Audrey Burg</span></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SummaryItemWrapper-iwvBff hNpSyX summary-em summary-em--ARTICLE summary-em--no-in summary-em--text-align-left summary-em--layout-placement-text-below summary-em--layout-posn-image-left summary-em--layout-proportns-50-50 summary-em--si-by-si-align-center summary-em--si-by-si-image-right-mobile-false summary-em--standard SummaryCollectnGridSummaryItem-WColm hKqhyj" role="button" tabx="0"><div class="SummaryItemAssetContaer-gwhFFH VOyg summary-em__asset-ntaer"><a class="SummaryItemImageLk-dshqxb cPpCwE summary-em__image-lk summary-em-trackg__image-lk" href=" aria-hidn="te" tabx="-1" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-image-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" target="_self"><span class="SpanWrapper-umhxW kGxnNB rponsive-asset SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image"><div data-tt="aspect-rat-ntaer" class="AspectRatContaer-bJHpJz ktcjQn"><div class="aspect-rat--overlay-ntaer"><picture class="RponsiveImagePicture-cWuUZO dUOtEa SummaryItemRponsiveAsset-hjGIGg bDvSkO summary-em__image rponsive-image"><noscript><source media="(max-width: 767px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w, 640w" siz="100vw"/><source media="(m-width: 768px)" srcSet=" 120w, 240w, 320w" siz="100vw"/><img alt="The Kchen God" class="RponsiveImageContaer-eybHBd fptoWY rponsive-image__image" src="></noscript></picture></div></div></span></a></div><div class="SummaryItemContent-eiDYMl XMZX summary-em__ntent"><div class="RubricWrapper-dKmCNX kImuKS bric bric--disvery SummaryItemRubric-dguGKN lapGFj summary-em__bric"><span class="RubricName-fVtemz cLxcNi">Fictn</span></div><a class="SummaryItemHedLk-civM dVrbhU summary-em-trackg__hed-lk summary-em__hed-lk" data-ponent-type="recirc-river" data-recirc-id="em-hed-2" data-recirc-pattern="summary-em" href=" target="_self"><div class="SummaryItemHedBase-hiFYpQ fzzTdh summary-em__hed" data-ttid="SummaryItemHed">The Kchen God</div></a><div class="BaseWrap-sc-gjQpdd BaseText-ewhhUZ SummaryItemDek-CRfsi iUEiRd kxnNhB jDyfzW summary-em__k">“Stuc tast great, but don’t fill me up.”</div><div class="SummaryItemByleWrapper-boCfbi cuRXdL summary-em__byle-date-in"><div class="SummaryItemBaseByle-fFbXkY cgDBtc summary-em__byle"><div class="summary-em__byle__ntent"><div 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