Percival Wilde

Percival Wilde
Born	(1887-03-01)March 1, 1887 New York City, US
Died	September 19, 1953(1953-09-19) (aged 66) New York, US
Occupation	Playwright, writer
Genre	Detective fiction, Comedy
Notable works	Inquest (1938)

Percival Wilde (New York City, March 1, 1887 – September 19, 1953) was an American author and playwright who wrote novels and numerous short stories and one-act plays. He also authored a textbook on the theater arts. Native to New York City, Wilde graduated from Columbia University in 1906, and worked for a time as a banker.^[1] He began writing plays in 1912,^[1] and joined The Lambs Club in 1947.^[2]

Wilde's plays were especially popular in the Little Theatre Movement.^[3]

List of works

Production of The Finger of God at Shimer College in 1952.

Novels

• The Devil's Booth (1930)
• Mystery Week-End (1938)
• Inquest (1938)
• Design for Murder (1941)

Collections of short stories

• Rogues in Clover (1929)
• P. Moran, Operative (1947)

Plays

• Dawn and One Act Plays Of Life Today (1915) ISBN 978-0-548-52580-7
  • Dawn
  • The Hour of Truth
  • The Noble Lord
  • The Traitor
  • A House of Cards
  • Playing With Fire
  • The Finger of God
• Confessional, and Other American Plays (1916)
  • Confessional
  • The Beautiful Story ISBN 978-1-4254-7780-6
  • The Villain in the Piece ISBN 978-1-4254-7777-6
  • A Question of Morality ISBN 978-1-4254-7779-0
  • According to Darwin ISBN 978-1-4254-7778-3
• The Unseen Host, and Other War Plays (1917) ISBN 978-0-548-94615-2
• The Reckoning (1922) ^[4]
• Eight Comedies For Little Theaters ISBN 978-0-548-52675-0

Films (Story)

• Moonlight Follies (1921)
• The Guttersnipe (1922)
• The Rise of Duton Lang (1955)

Nonfiction

• The Craftmanship of One-Act Plays (1923)

References

1. Manly, John Matthews; Ricker, Edith (1922). Contemporary American Literature. Harcourt, Brace. p. 162.
2. "The Lambs". the-lambs.org. The Lambs, Inc. (Member Roster). Archived from the original on May 31, 2022. Retrieved November 24, 2021.
3. Fisher, James; Londré, Felicia Hardison (2013). The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism. p. 516. ISBN 9780810870475.
4. Wilde, Percival (1922). The reckoning; a play in one act. Boston: Walter H. Baker Company. Retrieved December 15, 2025. The first Little Theatre production of The Reckoning was made by the Players Detroit Michigan February 18, 1922

External links

• Works by Percival Wilde at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Percival Wilde at Faded Page (Canada)
• Works by or about Percival Wilde at the Internet Archive
• Works by Percival Wilde at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Wilde, Percival (Open Library)
• Percival Wilde at IMDb
• Finding aid to Percival Wilde letters at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.