Isabel Wilder
{{Short description|American novelist, biographer and patron of the arts}}
Isabel Wilder (January 13, 1900 in Madison, Wisconsin – February 27, 1995 in Hamden, Connecticut)"[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/06/obituaries/isabel-wilder-95-novelist-is-dead.html Isabel Wilder, 95, Novelist, Is Dead]," New York Times, 6 March 1995Moses Hale Wilder, Book of the Wilders, J.E. Wilder, 1998 was an American novelist, biographer and patron of the arts.Kurian, "Amos Niven Wilder" She was the sister of playwright Thornton Wilder,{{cite news|title=Another Brother–Sister Literary Act |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/46716386/isabel-wilder-1900-1995/ |newspaper=The Knoxville News-Sentinel |date=February 5, 1933 |page=21 |via = Newspapers.com |accessdate=March 15, 2020}} {{Open access}} for whom she was literary agent, spokesperson and biographer.The Thornton Wilder Family, "Isabel Wilder (1900–1995), Sister"
Biography
File:Thornton Wilder as a child at family vacation cabin Wisconsin 1900.jpg (1900)]]
Isabel Wilder was the daughter of Isabella and Amos Parker Wilder, publisher of the Wisconsin State Journal.Shuman, p. 1628 ss Her father's support for Theodore Roosevelt's presidential campaign earned him a diplomatic appointment and led the family to Hong Kong in 1906, then to Shanghai in 1909. Her father served as US Consul General in both cities. Her siblings included the poet and theologian Amos (1895–1993), the playwright and novelist Thornton (1897–1975), the poet Charlotte (1898–1980) and the zoologist Janet Wilder Dakin.Dominique Auzias, Chicago, Grands lacs, Paris, Nouvelles éd. de l'Université, DL 2011, pp. 75–76.
Isabel Wilder's childhood and studies were quite upset by the family's successive moves, leaving for China in 1906, returning to the United States in 1912 to Berkeley, California, then in 1915 moving to Hamden, Connecticut.Lehman, "Our Town," Chapter II In 1924, however, she began studying dramatic arts at Yale University, from which she graduated in 1928. She was part of the first class of the Yale School of Drama, which was then called the "Department of Drama".
During and after her studies, she attended a thriving Thornton, who in 1928 had received his first Pulitzer Prize for the novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey". She was responsible, for example, for the edition of "Long Christmas dinner, and other plays" in 1931.{{cite book |last1=Wilder |first1=Thornton |title=The long Christmas dinner and other plays |date=1931 |publisher=Longman, Greens, and co. |location=London |oclc=492233299}} At the same time, she published her own novels, "Mother and Four" (1933),{{OCLC|5083968}} "Heart Be Still" (1934){{OCLC|5083976}} and "Let Winter Go" (1937).{{OCLC|2747182}} Nevertheless, she continued her work with her brother Thornton, contributing in various ways to his works. After the death of the latter, in 1977, she took care of the publication of his unpublished works, like the opera "The Alcestiad" (1977){{OCLC|14149984}} and "American Characteristics and Other Essays" (1979),{{cite book |last1=Wilder |first1=Thornton |title=American characteristics and other essays |date=1979 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=9780060146399 |edition=1st |oclc=185443590 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americancharacte0000wild }} and in 1985 she wrote the preface to "The Journals of Thornton Wilder 1939–1961".{{cite book |last1=Wilder |first1=Thornton |editor1-last=Gallup |editor1-first=Donald |editor2-last=Wilder |editor2-first=Isabel |title=The journals of Thornton Wilder, 1939-1961 |date=1985 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=9780300033755 |oclc=11867174 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/journalsofthornt00wild }} In 1978, in memory of her brother, Isabel Wilder founded the "Thornton Niven Wilder Prize", a prize for translation of foreign literary works awarded annually by Columbia University. Isabel Wilder died on February 27, 1995, at the family home in Hamden. The last survivor of the Wilder family, she rests with them at Hamden's Mount Carmel Cemetery.{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7086604/isabel-wilder|title=Isabel Wilder (1900-1995)|website=Find A Grave Memorial|accessdate=2019-09-14}}
Publications (selection)
- Mother and Four, New York, Coward, McCann, 1933.
- Heart, Be Still, New York, Coward, McCann, Inc., 1934.
- Let Winter Go, New York, Coward-McCann, Inc., 1937.
References
{{Reflist}}
= Bibliography =
- John Dominic Crossan, "A fragile craft: the work of Amos Niven Wilder", Chico, Scholars Press, 1981.
- George Thomas Kurian, "The encyclopedia of Christian literature", Lanham, Scarecrow Press, 2010.
- Eric D. Lehman, "Hamden: Tales from the Sleeping Giant," Charleston, History Press, 2010.
- R. Baird Shuman, 'Great American writers: twentieth century', New York, Marshall Cavendish, 2002.
= External links =
- "[https://web.archive.org/web/20130529094459/http://www.thorntonwilder.com/about/the-wilder-family.html The Wilder Family]", "The Thornton Wilder Family," The Wilder Family LLC, 2013
{{Authority control}}
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