WILDER THORNTON Autograph Letter Signed to My dear Mr Clough

Sale 2595 - Lot 125

Price Realized: $ 500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

EXPLAINS ENDING OF "THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY" BY QUOTING CHEKHOV WILDER, THORNTON. Autograph Letter Signed, to "My dear Mr. Clough," explaining that his duties as teacher prevent him from answering in detail, describing The Bridge as "unresolved," and justifying this by [loosely] quoting Anton Chekhov. 1 page, square 8vo, with integral blank, personal stationery; faint marginal discoloration from prior matting, horizontal fold. Lawrenceville, 15 May 1928

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"Your words on the Bridge seem admirable. Were I not a busy teacher myself with both class and dormitory duties I should go into details over it . . . . Let me say only that many people (and myself) find it a harder book than you suggest; some even call it 'an anatomy of despair' and regard the 'comfort' at the close as insufficient to quiet the mind after the anguish or desolation in the previous Books. Also, I regard the book as 'unresolved'; both solutions still hang suspended in mid-air at the close. Tchekov said: 'The business of literature is to ask questions plainly, not to answer them.'"