Professional Documents
Culture Documents
– Born April 17th, 1897 in Madison,WI to Isabella Wilder and Amos Parker Wilder, a U.S.
diplomat
• Spent part of his childhood in China due to his father's occupation
– Wilder began writing plays while attending The Thatcher School
• Was made fun of for being too intellectual
– In China, attended the China Inland Mission Chefoo School
• Returned to California with his mother because of growing political tensions in China
– Graduate from Berkeley High School in 1915
– Attended Purdue for two years studying law
• Eventually dropped out
– Served in the Coast Guard during WW.
– Attended Oberlin briefly after the war
– Eventually earned his Bachelor of Arts from Yale in 1920
• Was a member of Alpha Delti Phi, a literary society
– Earned a Masters of Art in French from Princeton in 1926
– Taught French at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ
– First novel, Cabala was published in 1926
– Second novel, The Bridges of San Luis Rey, was published in 1927
• About interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Incan suspension bridge in Peru
• Won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Literature
• Gained commercial success
– Taught at the University of Chicago from 1930 to 1937
– Play Our Town opened in 1938
• Won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
– Play The Skin of Our Teeth opened in 1942
– Won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
– Served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force intelligence unit during WWII
– Subsequently taught at the University of Hawaii and Harvard
– Received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 1957
– Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1963
– Novel The Eighth Day won the National Book Award in 1967
– Wilder died in Hamden, CT, December 7, 1975 at the age 78
• Sabina enters the Antrobuses home and announces that the war is over and that George
will be returning home.
• The actor playing George tells the audience an accident occured backstage. Seven actors
have food poisoning and are in the hospital having their stomachs pumped. They can't
finish the play. They'll proceed with volunteers but must have a rehearsal first.
• The stage manager drafts a janitor, a dresser, and other non-actors to fill their parts,
which involve quoting philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle to mark the passing of
time within the play.
• The stage manager announces the opening of Act III.
• Again, Sabina enters the Antrobuses home and announces that the war is over and that
George will be returning home.
• Mrs. Antrobus emerges from a cellar followed by Gladys and her baby.
• Sabina appears and tells them the war is over and that George and Henry are alive and
returning home. They talk about how peacetime will be.
• Henry arrives looking worn. Sabina says George doesn't want Henry in the house
because Henry became a general in the enemy's army. Henry is angry with his father and
his views.
• Gladys and Mrs. Antrobus greet Henry and feed him. Henry doesn't want to stay but
Mrs. Antrobus tells him he belongs at home.
• Henry falls asleep. Mrs. Antrobus and Sabina arrange the room as it was at the top of Act
I. Sabina complains about always starting over and beginning again not knowing if it'll
be better the second time around.
• Mrs. Antrobus reprimands her and tells of striving and hoping to be better.
• George enters and pulls a gun on Henry. Henry begs to be killed. They argue over
familial control. Henry tries to attack George but Sabina steps between them.
• Sabina stops the scene. The actor playing Henry apologizes for playing the scene to
harshly, citing an abusive father in his past as the reason for his aggression. Sabina
refutes this. The actor playing George takes blame saying that something in him reminds
Henry of his past demons. Sabina takes the actor playing Henry away to cool off.
• George tells Mrs. Antobus he's lost the desire to begin again. Mrs. Antobus implores that
he get it back.
• Sabina comes in and curses the world as an awful place. Dog-eat-dog. She leaves to go
to the movies.
• George rekindles his passion through his family and his books.
• The fill-in actors quote the philosophers again.
• Sabina repeats the beginning lines of the play and then tells the audience the play is
never ending and sends them home.