Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright
and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey
and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award
for his novel The Eighth Day.
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The relationship between Wilder and his one documented companion, Steward, may have begun as a furtive sexual fling in Zurich in 1937. Steward, a writer, pornographer, tattoo artist, and one-time college professor, was, in pointed contrast to Wilder, open and adventurous. He wrote popular erotic gay works in the 1970s under the pseudonym Phil Andros.
Wilder seems to have backed away from Steward after several awkward encounters. Intimate affection eventually became fond intellectual acquaintance. Typical of some gay men of the era, Wilder preferred to play the role of the perennial Respectable Bachelor. Although he never publicly discussed his homosexuality, later in his life he is believed to have had discreet affairs with younger men.
Despite his reticence concerning his sexuality, Wilder was a notably convivial man who enjoyed friendships with writers and actors and academics.
Wilder's plays and novels contain no explicit gay themes. Nor is there substantial gay subtext to decode. His sexuality was so well-closeted that it is scarcely hinted at even "between-the-lines."
It could be speculated that the character of Simon Stimson in Our Town is Wilder's poignant portrayal of a man whose sensitivities and sexuality have been stifled by the enforced conformity of a small town. Stimson is the town drunk and organist for the Congregational Church. The character commits suicide, suggesting that his is the tragedy of a closeted gay man.
The title character in Wilder's last novel Theophilus North (1973) is an older bachelor artist in Newport, Rhode Island. His genteel position as a tutor from the outside world makes him privy to the personal problems of many of the town's elite. Like Wilder's first novel, The Cabala, Theophilus North is an anthology of various characters' stories. North finds himself acting as a pivotal player and advisor to their lives and may reflect Wilder's own experience as a tutor in Newport when he was a young man.
The relationship between Wilder and his one documented companion, Steward, may have begun as a furtive sexual fling in Zurich in 1937. Steward, a writer, pornographer, tattoo artist, and one-time college professor, was, in pointed contrast to Wilder, open and adventurous. He wrote popular erotic gay works in the 1970s under the pseudonym Phil Andros.
Wilder seems to have backed away from Steward after several awkward encounters. Intimate affection eventually became fond intellectual acquaintance. Typical of some gay men of the era, Wilder preferred to play the role of the perennial Respectable Bachelor. Although he never publicly discussed his homosexuality, later in his life he is believed to have had discreet affairs with younger men.
Despite his reticence concerning his sexuality, Wilder was a notably convivial man who enjoyed friendships with writers and actors and academics.
Wilder's plays and novels contain no explicit gay themes. Nor is there substantial gay subtext to decode. His sexuality was so well-closeted that it is scarcely hinted at even "between-the-lines."
It could be speculated that the character of Simon Stimson in Our Town is Wilder's poignant portrayal of a man whose sensitivities and sexuality have been stifled by the enforced conformity of a small town. Stimson is the town drunk and organist for the Congregational Church. The character commits suicide, suggesting that his is the tragedy of a closeted gay man.
The title character in Wilder's last novel Theophilus North (1973) is an older bachelor artist in Newport, Rhode Island. His genteel position as a tutor from the outside world makes him privy to the personal problems of many of the town's elite. Like Wilder's first novel, The Cabala, Theophilus North is an anthology of various characters' stories. North finds himself acting as a pivotal player and advisor to their lives and may reflect Wilder's own experience as a tutor in Newport when he was a young man.
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