Amos Niven Wilder (September 18, 1895 – May 4, 1993) was an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

, minister, and

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

professor.

Life

Wilder was born in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th ...

. He studied for two years at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of highe ...

(1913–1915), but volunteered in the Ambulance Field Service; he was awarded the ''Croix de Guerre.'' In November 1917, he enlisted in the U.S. Field Artillery as a corporal. He wrote ''Battle Retrospect'', about his experiences in World War I. In 1920, Wilder graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

. In college he was an inter-collegiate doubles champion tennis player, and he played at Wimbledon in 1922, with his partner Lee Wiley. He served as secretary to

Albert Schweitzer Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was an Alsatian-German/French polymath. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. A Lutheran minister, Schweit ...

lecturing at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he was studying at Mansfield College (1921–1923). He completed his studies for ordained ministry at Yale in 1924.

Ministry

Wilder was ordained in 1926 and served in a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

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 The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, and served as president of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research in 1949–1950. Wilder joined

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

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 The Society for the Arts, Religion, and Contemporary Culture, or ARC, was founded in October 1961 by three people: Alfred Barr, the art critic and founder of the Museum of Modern Art, the theologian Paul Tillich, and Marvin Halverson, an American Pr ...

. In 1963, he was named ''emeritus'' faculty. His papers are held at the Harvard Divinity School Library of Harvard Divinity School.

Family

Wilder's father,

Amos Parker Wilder Amos Parker Wilder (February 15, 1862 – July 2, 1936) was an American journalist and diplomat who served as United States Consul General to Hong Kong and Shanghai in the early 20th century. Early life and education Wilder was born on September ...

, was a journalist with a doctorate from Yale, who served as United States Consul General in Hong Kong and Shanghai between 1906 and 1914. His mother was the daughter of a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their n ...

minister. His brother was

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes — for the novel '' The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and '' The Skin of Our Teeth'' — ...

, and sisters were Charlotte Wilder, Isabel Wilder and Janet Wilder Dakin. Wilder married Catharine Kerlin in 1935. They had a daughter, Catharine Wilder Guiles, and a son, Amos Tappan Wilder.

Awards

Golden Rose Award The Golden Rose Award, one of America’s oldest literary prizes, was inaugurated in 1919. The rose was modeled after the Gold Rose which is now in the Cluny Museum in Paris. ThNew England Poetry Clubawards the Rose annually for American poetry. ...

* 1923

Yale Series of Younger Poets The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the Un ...

, ''Battle Retrospect''

Works

Poetry

* * reprint 1971 by AMS Press.

Memoir

Theology

* * * * * * * * *

Non-fiction

Criticism

* *

References

External links

Papers of Wilder are in the Harvard Divinity School Library
at

Harvard Divinity School Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilder, Amos 1895 births 1993 deaths Alumni of Mansfield College, Oxford American expatriates in the United Kingdom American male tennis players United States Army personnel of World War I American theologians American World War I poets 20th-century American male writers American male poets Harvard Divinity School faculty Oberlin College alumni Sportspeople from Madison, Wisconsin People from North Conway, New Hampshire Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Tennis people from Wisconsin University of Chicago faculty Writers from Wisconsin Yale Bulldogs men's tennis players Yale Younger Poets winners United States Army soldiers American Congregationalists