From the S&S archives:
Thornton Wilder admits his new play borrows from Kafka

FRANKFURT, Nov. 19 — "Stealing" in literature and the arts is really not a very serious crime, particularly if one steals from the best sources.

Putting his philosophy into practice, Thornton Wilder, American, author, dramatist, and two-time winner of the Pulitzer prize, who arrived in Frankfurt yesterday for a series of lectures at Goethe University here, is writing his new play with themes and materials frankly "lifted" from Franz Kafka, Czech author whom Wilder admires.

Influence of Novelist

He freely admitted that his new play "will be under the sign and influence of Kafka," whom he described as "one of the greatest novelists of the 20th Century." And his well-known play "Skin of Our Teeth" is indebted to the late James Joyce's last novel, "Finnegan's Wake," Wilder admitted, his eyes twinkling behind horn-rimmed glasses.

Wilder is in Frankfurt for the first time, although he made four previous trips to Germany, the last in 1935-36. As an exchange professor from the University of Chicago, he is scheduled to give two public lectures at Goethe University, one Monday night and one the night of Nov. 29; and a series of three seminars restricted to university students Nov. 24-26 and Dec. 1.

In addition, he is scheduled to give one lecture in Heidelberg at the university and a second in Berlin under Military Government theater section auspices, with dates to be announced later.

Wilder is looking forward keenly to his Berlin engagement.

Russians Banned Play

"You know, I was the first American playwright to have a play banned in Berlin by the Russians," he explained. "As soon as the war was over the Deutsches Theater wanted to stage my 'Our Town,' but the Russians not only put a stop to that but also banned all of my works. They gave the excuse that the play might lead to a wave of suicides among the German population, and that it glorifies the family."

For his seminars, Wilder said he will give students sample pages of such American authors as Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, so that the word selections of these authors can be studied. His seminars will be conducted in English and his lectures in German.

Wilder said he is "well acquainted" with The Stars and Stripes by reason of the two years he served in North Africa and Italy during World War II in the U. S. air intelligence. He said he planned to be in Germany about two weeks.