Born Thornton Niven Wilder in Madison, Wisconsin, he was the author of Our Town, a popular play (and later film) set in a small New England town; it won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize. His play The Matchmaker, which was based on Austrian playwright Johann Nestroy's Einen Jux will er sich machen (1842), was turned into the musical Hello, Dolly.
His novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize. In 2001, the book was voted on the list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century as selected by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.
Wilder was interred in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hamden, Connecticut.