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"IT IS A RATHER CURIOUS THING..."
"It is a rather curious thing..." so begins the first lecture by Gertrude Stein in this book.It has been 75 years since these lectures were first presented by Stein at the University of Chicago, one stop on her 6-month U.S. lecture tour in 1934-35. The book is a reprint of the original from 1935.

Yet the four lectures presented here are as fresh and provocative as if they were part of a university's creative writing curriculum in the 21st century.

Stein's use of language, her humor, her strong opinions, her unwavering beliefs, and yes, even some things that don't make sense are all here in 96 pages. "Can I say it more than often enough, " she intones in one of the lectures. And in another: "That is something that is really not anything and I have found out that it is made up of anything and that anything is that one thing."

Enjoy these lectures. Read them aloud to get their full effect.

The book contains the original Introduction by Thornton Wilder who invited Stein to the university to lecture and would become a very good friend, as well as a new Foreword by scholar Liesel Olson which gives the historic background of how these lectures came about.

And though it may be "a rather curious thing," it is Gertrude Stein at her best - "can I say it more than often enough."

It is too bad, however, that for such a slim volume, the book was not published in hardcover, as was the original. ... Read more

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A timeless statement about human foibles . . . and human endurance, this beautiful new edition features Wilder's unpublished production notes, diary entries, and other illuminating documentary material, all of which is included in a new Afterword by Tappan Wilder.

Time magazine called The Skin of Our Teeth "a sort of Hellzapoppin' with brains," as it broke from established theatrical conventions and walked off with the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Best Drama. Combining farce, burlesque, and satire (among other styles), Thornton Wilder departs from his studied use of nostalgia and sentiment in Our Town to have an Eternal Family narrowly escape one disaster after another, from ancient times to the present. Meet George and Maggie Antrobus (married only 5,000 years); their two children, Gladys and Henry (perfect in every way!); and their maid, Sabina (the ageless vamp) as they overcome ice, flood, and war -- by the skin of their teeth.

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The Skin of Our Teeth
I am highly pleased with this product, it arrived in time and in wonderful condition! Thanks so much!

A Groundbreaking Classic: A Comic Collage Of Catastrophe And Endurance
Ecological disaster?Pervasive human folly?World War?The end of the world itself?According to Thornton Wilder, we've been there and done that so many times that we should have learned a thing or two about it by now.First performed in the darkest days of World War II, THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH is a highly theatrical, bizarrely comic take on the disasters that befall the human race--and a commentary on the durability of the human spirit.

The play presents us with the perfect American family: father, mother, son, daughter, and a housemaid, all living in middleclass comfort in Excelsior, New Jersey.They dress in modern attire, more or less; they speak in modern terms, more or less; and the world in which they live contains such modern details as telegrams and such.But it is also the middle of the prehistoric ice-age and the glaciers are moving in to crush them all.The end of the world is at hand!

Ice age?Yes indeed, and as the play progresses Thornton Wilder drags the Antrobus family through one clamity after another.From ice to infidelity and from infidelity to Noah's flood--it's one damned thing after another, right up to and including global war.There are so many disasters that the actors playing the roles begin to question the whole thing, arguing with each other about the merits of the play, what it means, whether or not it is worth performing--and then suddenly, to their horror, face their own disaster when a large portion of the cast is rushed to the hospital due to food poisoning!Can the cast finish the performance?Can mankind survive?

In its own time THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH broke so much new theatrical ground that it easily walked off with the Pulitzer Prize for Drama: it is highly mannered, extremely theatrical, proto-absurdist, and borrows from such diverse sources as the Bible and James Joyce to create a wildly spinning construct that seems constantly on the verge of flying apart--but never actually does.And it always seems to enjoy a resurgence in popularity whenever the world faces a prolonged period of bad news.Because, as Wilder points out, we've actually done all this before many, many times.And we're still here to tell the tale.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

All too human
This is a strange play. The political satire is timeless. However, I did not read it for enjoyment. I read it to help me to understand it a little more before I saw it adapted in a German theater is Saarbruchen. The little acting company was excellent and I enjoyed the play in its updated version.

"The end of this play isn't written yet."
Ignoring the conventions of time, this playful "message play" follows one family from the days of the glaciers and dinosaurs to a post-apocalyptic, modern world. George Antrobus, the inventor of the wheel, and Maggie, his wife, the inventor of the apron, have two children, Gladys and Henry (whose previous name was Cain). The bossy father, domestic and subservient mother, aggressive and dangerous son, and innocent daughter interact, often humorously, onstage and are also seen through the viewpoint of Sabina, the flirtatious maid. As the play progresses through the eras, Wilder raises questions about civilization and values. George, by Act II, is convinced that the world is made for pleasure and power, but by the final act, after a world cataclysm, the family confronts what is truly important in their lives.

A pet dinosaur and a wooly mammoth, the Boardwalk of New Jersey and the Miss America contest, the fraternal Order of Mammals (of which George is President), and the attempted seduction of George and his fellow Mammals by predatory women all add to the visual appeal of this production. Though the play pretends to be traditional in its dramatic structure, it takes liberties with the audience as the various actors step out of character to address the audience, as does the director. At one point Sabina refuses to play a scene, summarizing it for the audience as the director and George plead with her.

First produced in 1942, the play reflects Wilder's fear that the war then engulfing the world might truly be a war for the future of civilization. His conclusion, which highlights the values of western philosophers, such as Spinoza, Aristotle, and Plato, also reflects his religious beliefs and his belief in the enduring values of (western) literature. "We've come a long way--we're learning," he says, hopefully, but he also reminds us that "the end of this play isn't written yet." Creative and original in its day, the play represents a major moment in American theater. Less innovative now, more than sixty years later, it still offers food for thought in its reminder of enduring values and its questions about what we value and would save from our own lives in a similar cataclysm. Mary Whipple

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fascinating reflections on other authors, writing, and his memoirs
Topics include:On the motion Picture The Grapes of Wrath, on religion and psychoanalysis, toward a definition of the novel, difficulties with my play, Faulkner, Henry James, Kierkegaard, Norton Lectures, Stendhal, quite a lot of thought about Poe, Melville, Dr. Schweitzer, Woollcott, Genet, science fiction, Whitman and the breakdown of love, zen, the Alcestiad, the dream-process in literature.354 pages, thoroughly indexed. ... Read more

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Drawing on such unique sources as the author's unpublished letters,business records, and obscure family recollections, Tappan Wilder'sAfterword adds a special dimension to the reissue of this hilarious tale about goodness in a fallen world.

Meet George Marvin Brush -- Don Quixote come to Main Street in the Great Depression, and one of Thornton Wilder's most memorable characters. George Brush, a traveling textbook salesman, is a fervent religious convert who is determined to lead a good life. With sad and sometimes hilarious consequences, his travels take him through smoking cars, bawdy houses, banks, and campgrounds from Texas to Illinois -- and into the soul of America itself.

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George Brush, American
George Brush, a traveling book salesman, is the American version of the Protestant saint: opinionated, narrowminded, selfless, literal-minded, priggish, and brave, Brush is the truly good man whom no one can stomach or ignore. Wilder's writing is strong, and his portrayal of Brush is very comical. The scene of his religious conversion in college, which is instantaneous after listening to a woman evangelist, who also happens to be a drug addict, is marvelous. Likewise his "marriage of convenience" (for him).

It's a fun book, though there are serious undertones throughout. George gets depressed and thinks the whole world is crazy except for him and wonders why God is "so slow in changing the world." Finally, Brush is not very smart, not very passionate, but he IS good, and perhaps, Wilder suggests, that's enough. One of Wilder's best novels.

Misunderstood in the Mid West
Say there, young man: Are you feeling Unfit for Society? Battling with Depression?Socially persecuted because of your ideals?Well, take heart because you are not alone!George Brush has walked down that lonely path in life himself.

Both as playwright and novelist, Thornton Wilder captures the essence of human nature--revealing its hesitant yearnings and poignant humiliations in the daily struggle for recognition in an indifferent world.Despite the almost humorous cover illustration (Bard Pbx) and occasional outbursts of wit, this story is more pathetic than comic.George Brush is a young man sure of salvation in the next world, but woefully ill-equipped to cope in this one. Fiercely determined to live a righteous life of voluntary poverty during the Depression, he manages to antagonize or frustrate most of his non-business contacts.Haunted by an unfortunate romantic incident in his recent past, he feels obligated to make reparations, yet pursues various female acquaintances with overzealous devotion.

George
is considered a success only by his employers, since he proves a competent traveling salesman for his textbooks company. So what is it about this unusal young man which turns normal folks off at first encounter?Is it his relentless religious discussions, his strict rules of self conduct, or his odd manner of viewing his own role in society?Somehow he just does not fit in with mainstram America of the 30's.His road travels are a series of bizarre circumstances and gross misunderstandings which result in brushes with the police and judges--even though he is honest to a fault.People can't figure out his motives, for it is difficult to put into practice the theories of Ghandhi in the "modern" mercenary world. The country was simply not ready to welcome this sincere but persistent young man as a regular member, even though he longed for his own hearth.Can a brutally honest fellow find happiness with the girl of his dreams in rugged, disillusioned America?

I found the style disjointd, with many loose threads instead of a clearly woven plot; this made the book hard for me to wade through. But the courtroom scene was a delightful section, cleverly plottedwith witty remarks--Wilder in top comic form.How can poor George find justice in our plebian nation and personal happiness at home?

Solid, quietly funny
I was finished with this book before I really knew that I'd started it.It has a light, easy flow and a gentle sense of humor.It features George Brush, who is profoundly religious and tries his best to live up to the standards he sets for himself.What makes the story worth reading is that you always want to see what he is going to say next; despite his odd way of looking at the world, at heart George truly wants to help people and live a life of love and goodness.He speaks out against injustice and wrongdoing and is quick to defend his own traditionalist views.The fact that so many people are so quick to judge and misunderstand him, and that the people who do understand him benefit from knowing him, seems to be what the book is trying to get across.No matter how crazy or misguided he seems, he is a better person than the average Joe who never takes the time to think about his impact on the world.

There is a very subtle ironic humor pervading this book; it is impossible to miss, but Wilder never makes a clown out of his protagonist.Instead one is left with the feeling that George really does make the world a better place, though he has an eccentric way of accomplishing this goal.What I had thought was going to be a stinging kind of satire about an evangelical young man ended up being a wistful satire more about the people who judge such a man than about the man himself.

Coming of age
This is a story of one man finding himself amidst what he percieves as a world of coruption.It centers on a man that is compleatly absorbed by his religion but it is not nessasarly just a book about religion, though I believe many christians would enjoy this book for its christian flavor.As I am not what many would call a formal "Christian" I still believe that it has both power and meaning for those not of that faith. Heaven's My Destination is a story which one man's faith is tested.His beliefs are questioned and I believe that that story, no matter what it is he believes in, is something that all of us share at one time or another. ... Read more

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Featuring an illuminating new foreword by Penelope Niven and a revealing afterword by Tappan Wilder, this reissue of two early books by Thornton Wilder reintroduces the reader to the author's first novel, The Cabala, and to The Woman of Andros, one of the inspirations for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town.

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fiction as fine art
This slim volume of one short novel and one novella was my first encounter with the writings of Thornton Wilder. I'm glad I started here because if I had first read one of his more well-known titles I might have not gotten back to these; and that would have been a shame because I thoroughly enjoyed them both. A surprising thing about these two works is that although they deal with many of the same topics and were published within about four years of each other, they have a vastly different feel. The Cabala, which was his first published novel, is narrated by a cultured young American who is in Rome to draw inspiration from its historical and artistic heritage. His interest is whetted by rumors of a small and exclusive social circle whose machinations wield enormous powers of manipulation over both private and public affairs in Italy. With a good deal of ironic humor he describes how he gains admittance to the group and begins to closely study the principals, their personalities, and their particular contribution to the group. They are a motley and eccentric group, to be sure, and all very different from one another; but each possesses some outstanding characteristic which , when meshed with the others, results in their extraordinary powers. Even as the young American is closely observing and trying to fathom the innermost secrets of the cabal, it begins to unravel before his eyes. Where this elite group had been satirically compared to the ancient Olympians there now enter the symptoms of mortality such as unrequited love, death, and loss of faith. The ironic humor becomes more bittersweet than mocking. I don't wish to give the impression that this is a story 'about' the disintegration of a powerful social clique. That is true to a certain degree, but it seems to me that the really important feature of the novel is the exploration of the personalities and mental states of the cabalists. Their attitudes about power, propriety, and position touch on universal themes, and their responses to tragedy and adversity show how well those beliefs hold up when tested. My view is that there is really no moral to be drawn from all this drama(though some of the characters may try to)other than humans must get through these situations using their best devices, and some devices are better than others. This story is simply an examination of how a particular throw of the dice plays out. It is told with elegant wit and, to my mind, is an amazingly accomplished first novel. I must say, however, I would have only given four stars if it had been printed solo. Sometimes it seemed the author tried a little too hard to be clever. I also think you would have to be a major in fine arts as well as Roman history to catch all the artsy allusions interspersed into the narrative. At least I know many of them went over my head. The Woman of Andros, though not much later than The Cabala, seems a much maturer work. It is more pure tragedy and more successful, partly because it doesn't try to be clever at all. It is economical without being stark. A Greek isle shortly before the time of Christ is the setting and there is a very authentic feel to both the culture depicted and the effects of landscape and seascape. Again we have characters who must contend with death, thwarted love, and loss of faith. The most memorable personage is a beautiful prostitute, the woman of Andros, who has come to believe that faith is useless in alleviating the sufferings of this world, but she has tried to fill this void by introducing the beauty of poetry and philosophy at banquets for her clients. Her attempt to reach a state of mind through which she can withstand with equanimity the insults and abuses of fate seems to sum up a quintessential problem of humanity. Love turns tragic for her younger sister and a young man who is faced with the choice of bringing dishonor on his family or disclaiming his unborn child. All the players, caught in their own predicaments of fate, are trying to reach a point of mental equilibrium, but for most of them it proves elusive, slipping away as soon as it is grasped. Only the woman of Andros seems able to achieve a state of grace through a selfless love and responsibility for others. There is one character, mysterious and remote, a priest of Aesculapius and Apollo who seems to have achievedthe strength and wisdom they desire. He ministers to the ills of his petitioners with a detached and imperturbable kindliness, but does not interact on a human level. Perhaps he is an advanced counterpart to the narrator of The Cabala. This seemed a very honest story to me, with no emotionally comforting ending. Rather, it is a study of the soul's struggle to find a place of leverage from which it can grapple with the insoluble problems of existence, or failing that, acquiesce with grace and serenity. In The Woman of Andros this study is refined and distilled into a work of art, but one with a very somber beauty. Although I regard these works highly, I couldn't recommend them to anyone who demands that books offer solutions for the sufferings of their characters. While The Cabala can be taken in a lighter vein, The Woman of Andros is pretty much undiluted tragedy, but with a more psychological focus than its ancient Greek forerunners. ... Read more

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A lively, in-depth discussion of OUR TOWN.Students are taken on a journey of discovery through every scene or chapter.Also included are unique text notes, ideas for themes and term papers, notes on the author's life as well as a glossary. ... Read more

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helpful and full of facts
this book gives you a full list of characters, an in depth look at their lives and lifestyle in grovers corners, the facts that are needed to analize this book with attention to great detail and all the informationthat is needed when doing research or just to give you a taste of hiswriting and to get you interested in the book itself. ... Read more

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Chapters discuss the most well known works of this American playwright and novelist. General essays examine Wilder's major themes and move on to specific works, including The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Our Town, and The Skin of Our Teeth. (20020501) ... Read more

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This comprehensive, detailed study of Wilder's entire dramatic oeuvre is the only one to place the works in their broad aesthetic and philosophical context and to integrate literary analysis of the plays with interpretation of their theatrical techniques. Its sources include Gilbert Harrison's "authorized" 1983 biography of the dramatist and the published selections from Wilder's journals for the years 1939-1961, as well as unpublished material--letters, diaries, and notes--in the Yale Collection of American Literature Wilder papers. Lifton discusses the symbolist, naturalist, expressionist, Brechtian, futurist, Pirandellian, and existentialist elements in Wilder's plays, as well as parallels between Wilder's theatre and that of such diverse cultures as the classical Greek and Roman, medieval European, Elizabethan, Renaissance Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. ... Read more