His Town: Thornton Wilder on the Vineyard

When my wife and I opened the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore on Martha’s Vineyard, Thornton Wilder was one of our first customers. He came early in the season, in a rumpled suit with a raincoat over one arm and a crush hat on his head. I knew that he stayed with his sister in Edgartown. When I remarked on his early arrival he said, “I come with the bluefish and I leave with the bluefish.”