original reviews of "the ides of march" by thornton wilder

The Ides of March by Thornton Wilder will be our next read, on March 26. (Please note the deviation from our regular monthly schedule.)

Wilder called the novel  "… a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic... Historical reconstruction is not among the primary aims of this work."

I found a couple of book reviews from the New York Times and Time, and JSTOR – food for thought for our upcoming book chat.

• Books of the Times:  Download books-of-the-times.pdf  (February 18, 1948)
• Mr. Wilder's Roman Fantasia:  Download mr-wilders-roman-fantsia.pdf  (February 22, 1948) 
• Dossier on Julius Caesar  (February 23, 1948)
• Review by classicist Paul MacKendrick in the  The Classical Journal, Vol.44.No.1  (Oct., 1948), pp. 65-67  Stable URL  (restricted  access)

Image courtesy The Wisconsin Historical Society, "Thornton N. Wilder, head and shoulders studio portrait of Thornton Wilder, c.1949."  (Roughly the time period in which he wrote "The Ides of March.")