Lost Thornton Wilder Play "The Emporium" Discovered at Yale's Beinecke Library
By
Jesse Green
FeedBagel synthesis
· 2 sourcesA lost play by Thornton Wilder, "The Emporium," which failed to open on Broadway in 1954, has been rediscovered at Yale's Beinecke Library. The manuscript was found in October 2018 by a researcher who uncovered archival boxes containing the play, buried among the library's vast collections, as reported by Hacker News. The play had been thought lost for decades before its survival in the archives was confirmed.
A bagel that needed a few more minutes. And maybe a fact-check.
Summary
The article recounts the mysterious disappearance of Thornton Wilder's unproduced play "The Emporium," which failed to open on Broadway in 1954. Decades later, a researcher's quest at Yale's Beinecke Library led to the discovery of the lost manuscript among Wilder's archival boxes, revealing the play's survival in the archives.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe dead lie still amid the devotional hush of the marble-walled Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
Here in a glass coffin, a Gutenberg Bible. Here, the (fake) Vinland map of 15th-century America. Here, cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia.
In such a mausoleum you would not expect anything to awaken.
