Brooks Atkinson
"Taking as his material three periods in the history of a placid New Hampshire twon, Mr. Wilder has transformed the simple events of human life into universal reverie. He has given familiar facts a deeply moving, philosophical perspective...Our Town is one of the finest achievements of the current stage."

Book Description

This beautiful new edition features an eye-opening Afterword written by Tappan Wilder that includes Thornton Wilder's unpublished notes and other illuminating photographs and documentary material.

Our Town was first produced and published in 1938 to wide acclaim. This Pulitzer Prize–winning drama of life in the small village of Grover's Corners, an allegorical representation of all life, has become a classic. It is Thornton Wilder's most renowned and most frequently performed play.

The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature
Pulitzer Prize-winning drama in three acts by Thornton Wilder, produced and published in 1938, considered a classic portrayal of small-town American life. Set in Grover's Corners, N.H., the play features a narrator, the Stage Manager, who sits at the side of the unadorned stage and explains the action. Through flashbacks, dialogue, and direct monologues the other characters reveal themselves to the audience. The main characters are George Gibbs, a doctor's son, and Emily Webb, daughter of a newspaper editor. The play concerns their courtship and marriage and Emily's death in childbirth, after which she and other inhabitants of the graveyard describe their peace. Considered enormously innovative for its lack of props and scenery and revered for its sentimental but at bottom realistic depictions of middle-class America, Our Town soon became a staple of American theater.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Our Town was first produced and published in 1938 to wide acclaim. This Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of life in the town of Grover's Corners, an allegorical representation of all life, has become a classic. It is Thornton Wilder's most renowned and most frequently performed play.

It is now reissued in this hardcover edition, featuring a new Foreword by Donald Margulies. In addition, Tappan Wilder has written a new Afterword, which includes Thornton Wilder's unpublished notes and other illuminating photographs and documentary material.

FROM THE CRITICS

Brooks Atkinson

Taking as his material three periods in the history of a placid New Hampshire twon, Mr. Wilder has transformed the simple events of human life into universal reverie. He has given familiar facts a deeply moving, philosophical perspective...Our Town is one of the finest achievements of the current stage.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"Taking as his material three periods in the history of a placid New Hampshire twon, Mr. Wilder has transformed the simple events of human life into universal reverie. He has given familiar facts a deeply moving, philosophical perspective...Our Town is one of the finest achievements of the current stage."  — Harper Collins - New Media