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Our Town
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Our Town (1937) (edit title/settings)

by Thornton Wilder (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

This beautiful new edition features an eye-opening Afterword written by Tappan Wilder that includes Thornton Wilder's unpublished notes and other illuminating photographs and documentary material.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

Summary edit see section history

The narrator introduces the audience to several people in Grover's Corner, a small town set in the Appalachain Mountains. We see the town farmer, two young people in love, two middle-aged couples, a depressed alcoholic pianist, and the town constable. The audience is shown birth, marriage,... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The narrator introduces the audience to several people in Grover's Corner, a small town set in the Appalachain Mountains. We see the town farmer, two young people in love, two middle-aged couples, a depressed alcoholic pianist, and the town constable. The audience is shown birth, marriage, and death of several of these people.

"That's what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feeling of those...of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another. Now you know--that's the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindess."

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “As for me, I'd rather have my children healthy than bright.”
    Mrs. Webb
  • “Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't speak english and don't even want to.”
    Mrs. Gibbs
  • “You've got to love life to have life, and you've got to have life in order to live life...It's what they call a vicious cycle.”
    Stage Manager
  • “All that can happen in a thousand days.”
  • “Yes...people are meant to go through life two by two. 'Tain't natural to be lonesome.”
    Mrs. Gibbs
  • “Oh, I've got to say it: you know, there's something downright cruel about sending our girls out into marriage this way.”
    Mrs. Webb
  • “We know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even the stars...everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being.”
    Stage Manager
  • “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?--every, every minute?”
    Emily

First Sentence edit see section history

No curtain.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in National Endowment for the Arts The Big Read Books. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Thornton Wilder (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1937
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 181

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

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