Wilder's Remark Begets Bitter Note

Thornton Wilder held court with a lady representative of "The Boston Post" last week and by yesterday was getting irate letters from local womanhood as a result of the interview.

An effusive speaker, Wilder apparently remarked, in connection with a question from the "Post" reporter about his being single, that wives destroy the creative abilities of their husbands.

"Wives rob men of the shock-and-counter-shock of life by being over eager to protect them," Wilder said according to "The Post" and the men less exposed to life's cruelties become correspondingly less incisive writers.

Shortly after "The Post" carried the story Wilder received angry letters condemning him for his misogyny and pointing out the fruitful influence some wives have had on their writer-husbands in the history of literature.

Wilder claims that "The Post" reporter blew to monstrous proportions an offhand remark he had made and said he'd just as soon decline comment on the whole business.