Ocean State Libraries

Two early novels first published in 1926 and in 1930 respectively, marking the debut of a new American stylist according to contemporary reviews. In Wilder's first novel, The Cabala (1926), Samuele, an American student, spends a year in the fabulously decadent world of post-World War I Rome. He experiences first-hand the waning days of a secret community--a "cabala" composed of decaying European royalty, eccentric expatriate Americans, even a great...

Presents an anthology of novels, short stories, and essays.

A certain old merchant of Yonkers is so rich in 1800 that he decides to take a wife. He employs a matchmaker a woman who subsequently becomes involved with two of his menial clerks, assorted young and lovely ladies, and the headwaiter at an expensive restaurant where this swift farce runs headlong into a hilarious complications. After everyone gets straightened out romantically and has his heart's desire, the merchant finds himself affianced to the...

Presents the text of the 1943 Pulitzer Prize-winning play in which the Eternal Family, George and Maggie Antrobus, their children Gladys and Henry, and their maid Sabina, endure thousands of years of near disasters.

Oedipus has unknowingly killed his father, married his mother and had four children by her. The play centers around how the persons react as they become aware of the facts.

This collection takes the measure of Wilder's extraordinary career as a dramatist by presenting the complete span of his achievement, beginning with his early expressionist experiments and daring one-act plays, ranging through the full flowering of maturity, and encompassing the intriguing dramatic projects of his later years, such as his adaptation of the ancient story of Alcestis (The Alcestiad) and plays written for dramatic cycles based on the...

In his Foreword to The Angel That Troubled the Waters and Other Plays, published in 1928, Wilder explained that almost all the playlets in the book are religious, "but religious in that dilute fashion that is a believer's concession to a contemporary standard of good manners." He wanted to explore religious themes and questions without being preachy, or didactic ... In fact, it was often his intention in such playlets as this one to stand the biblical...

This important new omnibus edition features an illuminating foreword by playwright John Guare and an extensive afterword for each play drawing on unpublished letters and other unique documentary material prepared by Tappan Wilder. Our Town: Wilder's timeless 1938 Pulitzer Prize-winning look at love, death, and destiny is celebrated around the world and performed at least once each day in the United States. The Skin of our Teeth: Wilder's 1942 romp...