"Literature has always more resembled a torch race than a furious dispute among heirs."-Thornton Wilder  "Here is a man who knows the classics backwards and forwards. Nothing could have been more natural to him than to draw upon these giants of the past, stand on their shoulders and weave their ideas and techniques into the texture of his own writing in order to forge something new and original."-Ken Ludwig, from his introduction  These six masterful adaptations and translations of plays by other authors-four of them previously unpublished-illuminate a lost chapter in Thornton Wilder's career as a dramatist, and reveal him passing the torch in the continuum of literary greats. Included in this volume are Wilder's impeccable translations of Ibsen's A Doll's House , Sartre's The Victors , and Lucrece by Andre Obey; and his inspired adaptations of The Bride of Torozko by Otto Indig, The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar, and The Matchmaker by Johann Nestroy (itself the source for the popular musical Hello, Dolly! ).  Thornton Wilder was one of the most distinguished and versatile American writers of the twentieth century. Among many honors, he was awarded three Pulitzer Prizes: two for drama and one for fiction. Among his seven novels is The Bridge of San Luis Rey ; his works for the stage include Our Town , The Skin of Our Teeth , and The Matchmaker , which remain among the best-loved and most-produced plays of all time.