Penelope Niven

by Thornton Wilder

15. Ibid.

  16. Ibid.

  17. APW to his mother, May 27, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  18. APW to his mother, June 10, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  19. APW to his mother, May 27, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  20. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” unpublished semiautobiographical manuscript, n.d. 1, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  21. Ibid., 3.

  22. Ibid., 1.

  23. APW to his mother, July 24, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  24. Ibid.

  25. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 5.

  26. US Department of State Inspection Report of the American Consulate General, Hongkong, March 8, 1907, General Records of the Department of State 1906–1939, NARA (RG59/250/48/13/2), 28.

  27. Ibid., 28–29.

  28. Ibid., 1.

  29. Ibid., 28–29.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Isabel Wilder, “A Handfull [sic] of Facts,” TNW Collection, YCAL.

  32. APW to his mother, June 10, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  33. Ibid.; Apollinaris is a still or sparkling water first bottled in Germany in 1892.

  34. APW to his mother, July 24, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  35. APW to his mother, August 28, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  36. APW recorded this fact on an application to the Thacher School that he filled out for Thornton in 1910. Thacher School Records.

  37. APW to his mother, July 24, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  38. APW to Mother Niven, July 1, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Tappan Wilder Interview with PEN, July 16, 2008.

  41. Isabella Niven Wilder to ANW, August 23, 1917, ANW, Wilder Family Record, Private Collection.

  42. APW to his mother, July 24, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  43. The former Madison friends were Professor O’Connor, who, when the Wilders moved to Berkeley, was a member of the Latin Department at the University of California, and his sisters. APW to his mother, November 4, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  44. Ibid.

  45. APW to his mother, [November 1906?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  46. APW to his mother, December 4, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  47. ANW, Thornton Wilder and His Public, 62.

  48. Isabel Wilder to ANW, March 1, 1970, ANW, Wilder Family Record, Private Collection.

  49. ANW, Thornton Wilder and His Public, 62.

  50. Isabel Wilder, foreword to Gallup, The Journals of Thornton Wilder, ix.

  51. Isabel Wilder, foreword to The Alcestiad or A Life in the Sun, 8.

  52. TNW to Papa, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  53. TNW to Mother, June 8, 1912, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  54. ANW, Thornton Wilder and His Public, 63.

  55. Quoted by Isabel Wilder, foreword to Gallup, American Characteristics, ix.

  56. APW, “Hong Kong Diary,” November 3, 1906, 1, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged manuscripts.

  57. APW to his mother, December 4, 1906, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  58. ANW, Thornton Wilder and His Public, 53.

  59. APW, “A Consul’s Busy Day,” Hearst’s International: The World Today (New York: International Magazine Company, 1908), 938–46.

  60. W. R. Schery, American Brewing Company, to APW, January 2, 1908, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  61. APW to the Assistant Secretary of State, February 26, 1908, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  62. APW to the Assistant Secretary of State, June 2, 1908, with enclosed letter of resignation addressed to President Theodore Roosevelt, June 2, 1908, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  63. Alvey A. Adee to APW, August 19, 1908, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  64. APW to F. S. Stratton, February 22, 1909, Bancroft Library, University of California.

  65. APW to F. S. Stratton, May 5, 1909, Bancroft Library, University of California.

  66. “May Be New President,” La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, May 1, 1909.

  3: “BEING LEFT” (1909–1911)

  1. APW to “Dearest Children,” March 11, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  2. Ibid.

  3. APW to “My dear Quartette,” [from Shanghai], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  4. Ibid.

  5. APW to “My dear Children,” June 12, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters. APW refers to Amos’s musical training in APW to “My dear Children,” July 3, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  6. APW to “My dear Children,” June 6, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  7. APW to “Dear Children,” April 16, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  8. APW to “My dear Children,” June 12, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  9. APW to “My dear Quartette,” [from Shanghai], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  10. APW to “My dear Children,” June 12, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  11. APW to “My dear Children,” July 24, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  12. APW to “My dear Children,” August 1, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  13. APW to “My dear Children,” July 24, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  14. APW to “My dear Children,” August 1, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  15. APW to “My dear Children,” June 12, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  16. APW to “Dear Children,” April 16, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  17. Ibid.

  18. APW to “My dear Children,” June 6, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  19. APW to “My dear Children,” July 3, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  20. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 5.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Ibid.

  23. APW, Thacher School application, November 20, 1910, Thacher School Records.

  24. Sherman Thacher to APW, August 20, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  25. Catharine Kerlin Wilder, Milestones in My Life (Family Publication, 2000), 21.

  26. APW to ANW, January 28, 1911, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  27. APW to ANW, February 2, 1911, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  28. APW to ANW, [March 11, 1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  29. P. C. Knox, Department of State, to APW, April 10, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  30. William Howard Taft to APW, April 14, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  31. TNW to Alexander Woollcott, September 17, 1936, copy, TNW Collection, YCAL. “Bones” refers to Yale’s Skull and Bones.

  32. Ibid.

  33. TNW quoted in ANW, Thornton Wilder and His Public, 65.

  34. Ibid.

  35. US Department of State Inspection Report of the American Consulate General, Hongkong 1909, made by Fleming D. Cheshire, American Consul General at Large, General Records of the Department of State 1906–1939, NARA (RG59/250/48/13/2), 9.

  36. APW to ANW, March 11, [1911], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  37. Stanley Houghton, Edith B. Harman, and Margaret Pyle, Chefoo (London: China Inland Mission/Religious Tract Society, 1931), 8.

  38. APW to ANW, March 28, [1911], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  39. For background on Chefoo, see Stanley Houghton, Edith B. Harman, and Margaret Pyle above; Gordon Martin below; and Frances Osborne’s engaging memoir, Lilla’s Feast (London: Black Swan, 2004).

  40. “Hundreds a Day Dying of Plague . . . ,” Associated Press story reprinted in W
aterloo Tribune Times, February 18, 1911, and many other newspapers.

  41. Ibid.

  42. TNW, “Chinese Story,” undated, unpublished manuscript, 5, 7, TNW Collection, YCAL. There are several fragments in this draft, with many pages unnumbered and some sequences of five to eight pages.

  43. Ibid.

  44. Gordon Martin, Chefoo School 1881–1951: A History and Memoir (Braunton, Devon, UK: Merlin Books Ltd., 1990), 38–39. The late Dr. Morris Martin, brother of Gordon Martin, acquainted me with this book, and shared his impressions of the school and his brother’s role in its administration.

  45. APW to Sherman D. Thacher, June 10, 1911, [from Shanghai, China], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  46. Houghton, Harman, and Pyle, Chefoo, 10–11.

  47. Ibid., 6–7.

  48. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 7.

  49. Ibid., 3.

  50. Ibid.

  51. TNW to Family, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  52. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 15.

  53. Ibid., 15–16.

  54. Ibid, 16.

  55. Ibid.

  56. Ibid.

  57. TNW, “The Old Days,” Saturday Evening Post: Number of the Thacher School Semicentennial Publications, September 1919–June 1929, n.p.

  58. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 6.

  59. APW to “My dear Quartette,” [from Shanghai], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  60. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 8.

  61. TNW to APW, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  62. TNW to Family, [April–May 1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  63. TNW to APW, [Summer 1915?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  64. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 6.

  65. APW to Sherman Thacher, June 10, 1911, Thacher School Records.

  66. APW to ANW, July 24, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  67. APW to ANW, July 11, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  68. Ibid.

  69. TNW to APW, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  70. TNW to APW , n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  71. TNW to Papa, June 24, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  72. TNW to Mother, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  73. Charlotte Wilder to ANW, August 28, 1911, ANW, Wilder Family Record, Private Collection.

  74. Martin, Chefoo School, 86–87.

  75. Charlotte Wilder to ANW, July 21, 1911, ANW, Wilder Family Record, Private Collection.

  76. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 5.

  77. Catharine Kerlin Wilder, Milestones in My Life, 21, indicates that the nurse accompanied Isabella and the girls to Florence, Italy.

  78. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 4–5.

  4: FOREIGN DEVILS (1911–1912)

  1. “Safe-guarding the Americans in China,” Waterloo (Iowa) Times-Tribune, November 23, 1911.

  2. APW to Isabella Niven Wilder, October 1, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  3. Ibid.

  4. APW to Isabella Niven Wilder, October 11, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  5. Ibid.

  6. APW to Isabella Niven Wilder, October 16, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  7. APW to Isabella Niven Wilder, October 11, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  8. APW to Isabella Niven Wilder, October 16, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Background on the Revolution of 1911 is drawn from Jonathan D. Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990), 244–68.

  11. APW to ANW, November 11, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  12. APW to Isabella Niven Wilder, October 1, [1911], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  13. TNW to APW, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  14. TNW, unpublished holograph draft of remarks to “Mr. Coleman, Miss MacDowell, Miss Carroll, Mr. President, Dean Matthews, Friends of the [Chicago] University Settlement,” n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  15. Martin, Chefoo School, 51.

  16. TNW to APW, June 24, 1911, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  17. Quoted in Martin, Chefoo School, 52.

  18. TNW to APW, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  19. TNW, “The Old Days.”

  20. TNW, “Chefoo, China,” 6.

  21. Ibid., 7–8.

  22. Ibid., 4.

  23. Ibid.

  24. APW to ANW, January 8, [1912?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  25. APW, Temperance Pledge, holograph manuscript, January 7, 1912, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged manuscripts.

  26. APW to Isabella Niven Wilder, December 7, [1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  27. Ibid.

  28. Ibid.

  29. APW to Sherman Thacher, October 24, 1911, Thacher School Records.

  30. APW to Sherman Thacher, January 17, [1912?], Thacher School Records. In his haste Amos misdated this letter 1911.

  31. Ibid.

  32. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, February 10, 1912, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  33. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  34. APW, 1912–13 “Notes,” brown leather journal, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged collection.

  35. APW to Sherman Thacher, March 9, 1912, Thacher School Records.

  36. Asian or tropical sprue, similar to celiac disease but without the gluten intolerance, appears in the Caribbean, India, and Asia, infecting native populations and newcomers alike. Tropical sprue is caused by bacterial or viral infection, or by parasites, vitamin deficiencies, or food toxins.

  37. TNW to APW, March 3, 1912, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  38. Ibid.

  39. TNW’s academic report, China Inland Mission Boys’ School, Summer Term, July 1912, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged papers.

  40. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, July 14, 1912, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  41. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, June 16, 1912, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  42. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, [1912?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  43. TNW to APW, May 10, 1911, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  44. TNW to APW, [1911?] TNW Collection, YCAL.

  45. TNW to APW, May 13, 1911, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  46. TNW to APW, September 16, 1911, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  47. Headnote on letter from TNW to Father, [pre-September 30, 1911?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  48. TNW to APW, September 30, 1911, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  49. APW to ANW, January 8, [1912?], and October 2, [1911?], respectively, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  50. TNW to APW, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  51. US Department of State Inspection Report, Shanghai, China, June 1911 [covers 1910 and 1911], General Records of the Department of State 1906–1939, NARA (RG59/250/48/13/2). Inspection Report of the American Consulate General, Shanghai, made by Fleming D. Cheshire.

  52. US Department of State Inspection Report, Shanghai, China, June 1913 [covers 1912 and 1913], General Records of the Department of State 1906–1939, NARA (RG59/250/48/13/2), “Explanatory Memorandum” to page 2. Inspection Report of the American Consulate General, Shanghai, made by George M. Murphy. This endnote applies to the entire passage.

  53. TNW, “Chinese Story: Doremus Tries Again,” II. 1, unpublished manuscript, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  54. Ibid.

  5: “PARENTAL EXPECTATION” (1912–1913)

  1. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, [late summer 1912?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  2. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, n.d., TNW Collection, YCAL.

  3. Ibid.

  4. ANW, Thornton Wilder and His Public, 52.

  5. ANW to APW, May 11, [1913?], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  6. Sherman Thacher to L. B. Husted, June 12, 1912, Thacher School Records.

  7. Spence, The Search for Modern China, 283.

  8. APW to Sherman Thacher, January 3, 1911, Thacher School Records.


  9. Ibid.

  10. APW, Thacher School Application Questionnaire, June 12, 1912, Thacher School Records.

  11. APW to “Dear Children,” June 3, 1910, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  12. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, “Sept. Something,” [1912?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Background on Thacher and Thacher School is drawn from LeRoy McKim Makepeace, Sherman Thacher and His School (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1941; reprint, Ojai, CA: Ojai Printing and Publishing Company, 1989), 70–136; 188–98.

  15. Sherman Thacher to APW, March 6, 1911, Thacher School Records.

  16. Sherman Thacher to APW, October 11, 1911, Thacher School Records.

  17. TNW to APW, Dec. 13 [apparently misdated by TNW; more likely January 13, 1913, or late December 1912?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  18. Makepeace, Sherman Thacher and His School, 128–29.

  19. Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis, “Thornton Wilder,” Typescript, 1947, TNW Collection, YCAL. Wilmarth “Lefty” Lewis knew Amos and Thornton Wilder at Thacher and later at Yale. Lewis wrote his remembrance of TNW in response to an invitation from Clifton Fadiman on November 14, 1947, to contribute a piece on Wilder to ’47: The Magazine of the Year, in conjunction with the publication of his novel The Ides of March in 1948. Lewis wrote and submitted the piece, but it was not published in Fadiman’s magazine.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Isabella Niven Wilder to ANW, March 10, 1941, ANW, Wilder Family Record, Private Collection.

  23. TNW to APW, “Thatcher [sic]. Sick room. Broken Heart. Sunday P.M.,” [1912?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  24. Isabel Wilder, “About Charlotte Wilder,” [1941 or 1942?], ANW, Wilder Family Record, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged papers.

  25. Charlotte Wilder to APW, [June 24?], 1913 [with a headnote in Charlotte’s handwriting: “This is a letter that was written & mislaid so I send it on now.”], TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  26. Ibid.

  27. TNW to APW, March [1913?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  28. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, June 11, 1913, TNW Collection, YCAL.

  29. TNW to APW, [1912 or 1913?], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  30. TNW to Isabella Niven Wilder, “Jan. Sometime ad 20” [most likely January 1913], TNW Collection, YCAL.

  31. Ibid.

  32. Sherman Thacher to APW, May 15, 1913, TNW Collection, YCAL, uncataloged letters.

  33. APW to Sherman Thacher, September 27, [1922?], TNW Collection, YCAL.