Background
Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin.
Wilder was born in Madison, Wisconsin.
He studied for two years at Oberlin College (1913–1915), but volunteered in the Ambulance Field Service. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In 1920, Wilder graduated from Yale University.
He completed his studies for ordained ministry at Yale in 1924.
In November 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Field Artillery as a corporal. He served as secretary to Albert Schweitzer lecturing at Oxford University, where he was studying at Mansfield College (1921–1923). Wilder was ordained in 1926 and served in a Congregationalist church in North Conway, New Hampshire.
He received his doctorate from Yale in 1933. He taught for 11 years at the Chicago Theological Seminary and the University of Chicago, and served as president of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research in 1949- Wilder joined Harvard University in 1954 as Hollis Professor of Divinity. In 1962 he was part of the first board of directors for the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture.
In 1963, he was named emeritus faculty. His papers are held at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library of Harvard Divinity School. Wilder's father was a journalist with a doctorate from Yale, worked at the U.S. consulate in China.
Wilder married Catharine Kerlin in 1935.
Golden Rose Award
1923 Yale Series of Younger Poets, Battle Retrospect.
