This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/26/2022
WILDER, Thornton (1897–1975). Autograph letter signed (“Old T.N.W.”) to author James Herlihy written from Martha’s Vineyard, 25 September 1969. 4 pages, 12mo (178 x 152 mm), on letterhead, creased. With original holograph envelope. Wilder reports that he has had an awful summer, using a Gertrude Stein maxim “every one is a compound of gregariousness and solitude”, explaining that too much society has made him sick. He is too “frazzled in mind to write a letter” so he instead jots down various subjects in detail including: the Kennedy’s and Chappaquiddick; deferential “hippie” women; Wilder’s famous line “it’s the duty of the old to lie to the young” and what he really meant by it; Erik Erikson’s psychoanalytic histories “Ghandi’s Truth” and “Young Luther”; the happiness he felt in writing “The Ides of March”; and the elements of humor in fiction.