Thornton Wilder LLC Names Jeremy McCarter as New Literary Executor

For the first time in nearly 30 years, the Wilder Family LLC – guardians of Thornton Wilder’s unparalleled collection of plays, fiction, music, nonfiction works, and archival holdings – will have a Literary Executor who is not himself a Wilder family member when Jeremy McCarter, the well-known writer and producer, assumes the role this month, it has been announced by Tappan Wilder. 

According to Mr. Wilder, the Managing Member of the Wilder Family LLC and Thornton Wilder’s nephew, the move will enable “Jeremy to make decisions regarding Thornton Wilder’s intellectual properties and the estate’s ongoing relationships with its institutional partners. We have also asked Jeremy to devote special time and energy to the adaptation possibilities in Wilder’s full range of works.”

“From the scholar to the reader to the audience down the street, the intriguing story of my uncle’s life and work remains a very much unfolding tale,” said Tappan Wilder. “My family and I are thrilled that Jeremy McCarter, a person with such wide-ranging accomplishments and interests, has agreed to help tell it.”

The Wilder library encompasses a breathtaking bibliography of extraordinary works with impact that has spanned the world for decades: plays including the enduring OUR TOWN to THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH, THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER and THE MATCHMAKER; seven novels, including THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY, THE IDES OF MARCH, THE EIGHTH DAY and THEOPHILUS NORTH; opera libretti and various works of nonfiction, including Wilder’s letters, essays and conversations.    

During Tappan Wilder’s 28-year tenure as Literary Executor, he arranged the return of all of Thornton Wilder’s works to print, including a major reissue of his uncle’s seven novels and major plays, published by HarperCollins. He also oversaw the publication of a definitive Wilder biography and a three-volume edition from the Library of America, as well as encouraged four major adaptations of Wilder works, including the Ned Rorem-composed opera of Our Town.

Between bookshelves and stages, Thornton Wilder’s inestimable contribution to world culture is as relevant as ever: OUR TOWN was central to Ann Patchett’s recent bestseller TOM LAKE and there will be a fall 2024 production on Broadway of OUR TOWN directed by Kenny Leon. As well, a West End production of HELLO, DOLLY! – based on THE MATCHMAKER – will open this summer starring Imelda Staunton. THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH had its first-ever Broadway revival in 2022 at Lincoln Center Theater. This spring, Houston’s Alley Theater will present a world-premiere of Wilder’s unfinished play, THE EMPORIUM, completed by Kirk Lynn. 

It is with this wind at his sails that Mr. McCarter begins his leadership, having been an adviser to Tappan Wilder, and with a knowledge and deep affection for Thornton Wilder’s canon. It was

at the request of the Wilder estate, for instance, that McCarter wrote the introduction for the re-release in 2020 of the novel, “The Ides of March.”  And during his five-year tenure on the staff of The Public Theater, he established a tradition of staging an annual high-profile holiday reading and discussion of THE LONG CHRISTMAS DINNER.

McCarter co-authored, with Lin-Manuel Miranda, the New York Times bestsellers HAMILTON: THE REVOLUTION and IN THE HEIGHTS: FINDING HOME (also with Quiara Alegría Hudes). He is well-known across the country for his cultural writing in New York Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal. Most recently, Mr. McCarter founded and is the executive producer of Make-Believe Association, an acclaimed audio storytelling company, and he is a co-creator of LAKE SONG, the company’s celebrated audio-drama series (an official selection of the Tribeca Festival and winner of three Signal Awards). He wrote the nonfiction book YOUNG RADICALS and edited the collection BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU: ESSAYS AND COLLECTIONS BY HENRY FAIRLIE. He also wrote the liner notes for the 2006 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s COMPANY. He is represented by CAA.

“Thornton Wilder is my favorite writer: a restless innovator, an enviable stylist, a genius with an uncanny ability to see the cosmos and our tiny-but-enormous place in it,” said McCarter. “I’m honored and deeply grateful to the Wilder Family for a chance to be a steward of his work—to help more readers and viewers and listeners to discover it, and find ways for artists to go on being inspired by it, as it has always inspired me.”

Tappan Wilder will continue in his capacity as Managing Member of the Thornton Wilder LLC. He will remain the liaison with the Thornton Wilder Society and handle select assignments. Rosey Strub continues in her role as the LLC’s Managing Director, and Amanda Woods is in charge of special projects.  

 

www.thorntonwilder.com

 

Thornton Wilder

(1897–1975) was a pivotal figure in the literary history of the twentieth-century. He is the only writer to win Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and drama. He received the Pulitzer for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) and the plays Our Town (1938) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1942). His other best-selling novels include The Cabala, The Woman of Andros, Heaven’s My Destination, The Ides of March, The Eighth Day and Theophilus North. His other major dramas include The Matchmaker (adapted as the musical Hello, Dolly!) and The Alcestiad. The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, PULLMAN CAR HIAWATHA and The Long Christmas Dinner are among his well-known shorter plays.  Wilder’s many honors include the Gold Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Book Committee’s Medal for Literature and the Goethe-Plakette Award (Germany).  Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 17, 1897. He spent part of his boyhood in China and was educated principally in California, graduating from Berkeley High School in 1915. After attending Oberlin College for two years, he transferred to Yale, where he received his BA in 1920. His post-graduate studies included a year spent studying archaeology and Italian at the American Academy in Rome (1920-21) and graduate work in French at Princeton (Master’s degree, 1926).In addition to his talents as a playwright and novelist, Wilder was an accomplished essayist, translator, research scholar, teacher, lecturer, librettist and screenwriter. In 1942, he teamed up with Alfred Hitchcock on the classic psycho-thriller Shadow of a Doubt. Versed in foreign languages, he translated and adapted plays by Ibsen, Sartre and Obey. He read and spoke German, French and Spanish, and his scholarship included significant research on James Joyce and Lope De Vega.Wilder enjoyed acting and played major roles in several of his plays in summer theater productions. He also possessed a life-long love of music and wrote librettos for two operas, one based on The Long Christmas Dinner (composer Paul Hindemith) and the other based on The Alcestiad (composer Louis Talma).One of Wilder’s deepest passions was teaching. He began this career in 1921 as an instructor in French at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. During the 1930’s he taught courses in Classics in Translation and Composition at the University of Chicago. In 1950–51, he served as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard.During WWII, Wilder served in the Army Air Force Intelligence. He was awarded the Legion of Merit Bronze Star, the Legion d’honneur and the Order of the British Empire.In 1930, with the royalties received from The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder built a home for himself and his family in Hamden, Connecticut. Although often away from home, restlessly seeking quiet places in which to write, he always returned to “The House The Bridge Built.” He died here on December 7, 1975.  More information on Thornton Wilder and his family is available in Penelope Niven’s definitive biography, Thornton Wilder: A Life (2013). 

Photo credit: Maria Ponce 

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